spoke too soon (F1 driver market, tedious)
Oct. 7th, 2009 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
was_tansu_now_badhedgehogOK, seems I may have spoke too soon about the F1 driver market. Räikkönen to McLaren is not the done deal that I had thought. On Sunday, team boss Martin Whitmarsh gave an interview that backed away from the rumours that he'd almost confirmed the previous week.
"We are not waiting for Kimi. There are a number of options that are available to us, Kimi is clearly available now and Heikki is very much a part of this team. There's a very good possibility that Heikki will be driving for the team again next year."*
and "We don't have to make those decisions right now and I think the right and courteous thing to our current drivers is to support them and see if we do a good job and get some results in these last few races."
So we were back again to the situation as I was understanding it for most of the season - Whitmarsh likes Heikki, and would quite like to keep him in the team, but needs Heikki to give him a reason (by DRIVING FASTER IN A RACE, come ON Heikki, FFS). Also as we know, he likes Kimi and would be very happy to have him back - but more on that in a minute.
Yesterday, this interview was published on the official Formula One site. More elaboration on the same ideas as above, with the added theme of enduring fwuffy wuv between the current driver pairing**. And he was more explicit on the idea of HEIKKI, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE DRIVE A BIT HARDER THEN YOU CAN HAZ JOB AGAIN, IT NOT COMPLICATED IDEA TO GRASP.
There were also stories that negotiations between McLaren and Räikkönen's management had stalled on price. The latest is that Räikkönen's manager Steve Robertson is negotiating with Red Bull Racing. Red Bull had already signed both Vettel and Webber for next year, but Robertson is quoted in Sport Bild as saying that he is negotiating with teams who are believed to have already filled all their places. The same story quotes a McLaren team member as saying that McLaren aren't a cow for the milking - Räikkönen's wage demand is believed (ha, passive voice, by whom?) to be 25 million euro.
So. Maybe Kimi to Red Bull, to partner his bestest friend foreverz Sebi Vettel***. Mark Webber to where the fuck, maybe to Toro Rosso, suggest Sport Bild. I can see (in my pretendy, wishful thinking eye) Toro Rosso as a kind of mix and match team with a rotation system operating, possibly involving Sébastien Loeb depending on how he does at the Abu Dhabi GP (IT'S HAPPENING, GIRLFRIEND). I'd love to see Séb do brilliantly and get into the points, especially if it is as a consolation for not winning a sixth WRC title...
Driver market all totally up in the air. Jarno Trulli, who many had thought to be a cert for Lotus next year, testing for NASCAR. Bruno Senna confident of finally getting an F1 drive this year, no idea for whom though. Bob Kubica has just finally super-predictably been confirmed at Renault for next year, which doesn't really take anything out of play - we already knew he was going there.
Oh, and the only thing better than a Kimi rumour is a Marcus (Grönholm) rumour, and the only thing better than that is a completely unsubstantiated Kimi and Marcus rumour - a Finnish newspaper had it that Kimi and Marcus would make up a Fiat team in the WRC next year, presumably as an entry in the new S2000 Cup. Marcus was quick to scotch the rumour, making it clear that he would not be driving a Fiat, because the Fiat simply isn't a good enough car. Kimi has himself said that there's no point going rallying if he doesn't get a competitive car (for which read "I drove that sodding Fiat S2000 in Jyväskylä and it was a heap of shite, won't be doing that again"). His preferences seem to be 1: Top F1 team, 2: Competitive WRC drive (e.g. Stobart Ford or a second car with Petter Solberg - Kimi would be expected to come up with some cash and sponsors though****), 3: stop at home, do nowt.
*(hilariously, I have also seen this quote as "there's a vaguer possibility that Heikki will be driving for the team again next year)
**Martin likes to give a little tip of the hat to the 'shippers, I feel.
*** Another one for the 'shippers.
**** This is very appealing from the wishful thinking, and-I-would-also-like-a-pony, point of view. There is of course a connection via Tommi Mäkinen and Kaj Lindstrom, Petter's former team mates at Subaru. Petter says he's floated the idea to Kimi and his people. I doubt anything will come of it.
"We are not waiting for Kimi. There are a number of options that are available to us, Kimi is clearly available now and Heikki is very much a part of this team. There's a very good possibility that Heikki will be driving for the team again next year."*
and "We don't have to make those decisions right now and I think the right and courteous thing to our current drivers is to support them and see if we do a good job and get some results in these last few races."
So we were back again to the situation as I was understanding it for most of the season - Whitmarsh likes Heikki, and would quite like to keep him in the team, but needs Heikki to give him a reason (by DRIVING FASTER IN A RACE, come ON Heikki, FFS). Also as we know, he likes Kimi and would be very happy to have him back - but more on that in a minute.
Yesterday, this interview was published on the official Formula One site. More elaboration on the same ideas as above, with the added theme of enduring fwuffy wuv between the current driver pairing**. And he was more explicit on the idea of HEIKKI, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE DRIVE A BIT HARDER THEN YOU CAN HAZ JOB AGAIN, IT NOT COMPLICATED IDEA TO GRASP.
There were also stories that negotiations between McLaren and Räikkönen's management had stalled on price. The latest is that Räikkönen's manager Steve Robertson is negotiating with Red Bull Racing. Red Bull had already signed both Vettel and Webber for next year, but Robertson is quoted in Sport Bild as saying that he is negotiating with teams who are believed to have already filled all their places. The same story quotes a McLaren team member as saying that McLaren aren't a cow for the milking - Räikkönen's wage demand is believed (ha, passive voice, by whom?) to be 25 million euro.
So. Maybe Kimi to Red Bull, to partner his bestest friend foreverz Sebi Vettel***. Mark Webber to where the fuck, maybe to Toro Rosso, suggest Sport Bild. I can see (in my pretendy, wishful thinking eye) Toro Rosso as a kind of mix and match team with a rotation system operating, possibly involving Sébastien Loeb depending on how he does at the Abu Dhabi GP (IT'S HAPPENING, GIRLFRIEND). I'd love to see Séb do brilliantly and get into the points, especially if it is as a consolation for not winning a sixth WRC title...
Driver market all totally up in the air. Jarno Trulli, who many had thought to be a cert for Lotus next year, testing for NASCAR. Bruno Senna confident of finally getting an F1 drive this year, no idea for whom though. Bob Kubica has just finally super-predictably been confirmed at Renault for next year, which doesn't really take anything out of play - we already knew he was going there.
Oh, and the only thing better than a Kimi rumour is a Marcus (Grönholm) rumour, and the only thing better than that is a completely unsubstantiated Kimi and Marcus rumour - a Finnish newspaper had it that Kimi and Marcus would make up a Fiat team in the WRC next year, presumably as an entry in the new S2000 Cup. Marcus was quick to scotch the rumour, making it clear that he would not be driving a Fiat, because the Fiat simply isn't a good enough car. Kimi has himself said that there's no point going rallying if he doesn't get a competitive car (for which read "I drove that sodding Fiat S2000 in Jyväskylä and it was a heap of shite, won't be doing that again"). His preferences seem to be 1: Top F1 team, 2: Competitive WRC drive (e.g. Stobart Ford or a second car with Petter Solberg - Kimi would be expected to come up with some cash and sponsors though****), 3: stop at home, do nowt.
*(hilariously, I have also seen this quote as "there's a vaguer possibility that Heikki will be driving for the team again next year)
**Martin likes to give a little tip of the hat to the 'shippers, I feel.
*** Another one for the 'shippers.
**** This is very appealing from the wishful thinking, and-I-would-also-like-a-pony, point of view. There is of course a connection via Tommi Mäkinen and Kaj Lindstrom, Petter's former team mates at Subaru. Petter says he's floated the idea to Kimi and his people. I doubt anything will come of it.
