And by car to his liking you mean team orders and a car that is much faster than the rest. Kimi's speed is a myth. I wouldn't like him back at McLaren after everything they did and he just deserted the team, went to Ferrari and started spewing out nasty things about McLaren.

i dont see what Kimi did so wrong in leaving McLaren for Ferrari.....the cars they were giving him at that stage were unreliable and it did not look like he could win a WDC with them, Ferrari were also offering a lot of cash.

what nasty things has he said about McLaren?

I remember how some Mercedes-Benz boss said Kimi would need a tank. Obviously referring to the unreliability of his cars/engines while at McLaren. It was a clear attempt from M-B to blame Kimi for the high number of engine failures.

I remember Kimi's reaction to that in the Finnish media. He said something like "yeah... and I wouldn't be surprised if they said even more" and he did not say anything bad about McLaren or M-B in that interview.

I remember that the man who said it was not Norbert Haug, but some other high-profile M-B boss.

I thought it was extremely poorly done by that M-B boss.

Sport Bild reported that BS. They said that Mario Ilien said so. But Ilien said later that he has never done an interview with Sport Bild as this time and never said such things.

It was not Mario Illien.

No, this is another story, as I recall. I am sure it was not Mario Illien.

If I recall correctly, it's the M-B boss with eyeglasses. I can't remember his name now, but he isn't Illien.

Anyways, an important point is, that presented with that kind of a story, Kimi did not respond to it angrily, he just said he wouldn't be surprised if they would say even more. He was very calm when he said that.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2007-0...tent_787737.htm

SportBild is still Bild.

The budget cap concept doesn't exist anymore.

There's a legal document signed by teams as part of new Concorde deal to reduce costs to 1990's levels by 2011. No one seems to actually know exactly what this means yet. We do know, however, that there is absolutely nothing about budget caps in the regs anymore.

Going by the Wikipedia article on 2010, these are said to be some of the proposals:
- Homologation of front and rear wings.
- A limit on the number of aerodynamic upgrades permitted over the course of a season.
- A continuation of the ban on in-season testing introduced for 2009.
- Restrictions on the number of team personnel who can attend a Grand Prix weekend.
- Complete closures of team factories over the mid-season summer break.
This is the source.

It was Mario and no, he didn't say it, Bild made it up. It's nice to see your selective memory at work though - you remember the silly rumor but not the denial

I am absolutely sure that the story I heard did not include Mario Illien.

Moot point. Merc are allowed to - and have said they want to - supply 4 teams next year. McLaren, Brawn, Force India, and looking likely to be RBR. No need to make a choice unless there's a 5th team in the equation (Prodrive?).

And I am absolutely sure it did not include anyone else. Of course, you can always prove me wrong by pointing out the link to the imaginary story.

It's OK to disagree.

It was a German boss at M-B, not Mario Illien.

It's ok to disagree, it's not ok to make stuff up. Back it up and show it was someone other than Ilien who made that "tank" statement.

i can't imagine they didn't come to a decision about that until now. i mean the 2010 cars are in development for quite some time and front+rear wings are anything but details...

I'm not making stuff up. If someone made stuff up, it's not me, but the one who published the story, or someone else.

I remember there were two German Mercedes-Benz bosses hanging around in the F1 paddock with McLaren: one was Norbert Haug, and the other one was the man who allegedly made such a comment about Kimi. I might search for the news article later.

This is stuff that was reported back in Hungary, around the forging of the New Concorde.

It looks like you replied to the wrong post.

According to Jean-Louis Moncet (TF1/Sport Auto), Williams will switch to Renault next year. Nico Rosberg is going to McLaren, and Kovalainen takes his place at Williams.

Portuguese Autosport is reporting that Alvaro Parente is "close to signing a deal with one of the new teams".

Not a rumour as such, but just a thought that occured to me, yesterday:

What if Prodrive buy the Force India F1 Team from Vijay Mallya, as rumoured, and re-brand it 'Aston Martin Racing', wouldn't it be a major coup if they got the likely then-World Drivers' Champion Jenson A.L. Button, and get #1 on their car for their debut season? With Force India's current form, they wouldn't be likely to shame themselves.

And the team is Virgin (meaning Manor, surely?).

http://autosport.aeiou.pt/gen.pl?p=stories...s.stories/75861
http://autosport.aeiou.pt/gen.pl?p=stories...s.stories/75824

I don't think anyone is going to be able to tempt Button away from Brackley and Brawn.

And if Prodrive purchase Force India, they'll be known as Prodrive, at least to begin with. Although they own the Aston Martin name, they're not actually allowed to use it as a team name for a year or two.

That's something that was indeed said when the 2010 Prodrive entry was written about on, amongst others, Autosport.

MaxFan1 does not care what or who he replies, as long he can bash Kimi

Kimi Raikkonen has offered to take a £10million pay cut to be Jenson Button's team-mate at Brawn next season:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/motorsport/f...15875-21634334/


http://www.tomorrownewsf1.com/f1-raikkonen...gp-en-2010-5968

Kimi at brawn would be a dream come true.

It sounds like Ferrari will have to pay him out his full £20 million salary not to drive for them.

So lets say he cuts his wage demand in half for Brawn, he'll still be on £10 there.

Throw in the other £20 million from Ferrari and he's earning £30 million, which would make him the best driver in the history of Formula One by a country mile.

Nice work if you can get it!

But I don't see why Brawn would part with that kind of cash for Raikkonen.

He has hit a sweet spot of form these past three races but has still had a patchy 18 months with Ferrari.

Barrichello would be much cheaper and deliver results which are just as strong.

Just posted this in the Massa recover thread, but it is more relevant to discussions here...

Ferrari already appear to have a three-into-two situation that they're attempting to solve by paying off Raikkonen to make space for Alonso so they can keep Massa.

But if Massa isn't fit enough (and I hope he is by the way) then Ferrari might have sacked Raikkonen at massive expense, without a decent alternative to partner Alonso.

Is very interesting indeed...

It doesn't matter which way it is, and even if the rumours are not true at all, the management at Ferrari are making themselves look unprofessional.

How are they unprofessional?

They're trying to get the best possible driver combination in their cars.

That involves taking a deep breath and making the judgement call that Alonso and a recovered Massa is a better bet than either of those two drivers and Massa.

Nothing unprofessional about sacking a driver who was underperforming when the 2010 deals were probably done.

The troublesome thing for Ferrari is since those deals were done Massa has been hurt and Raikkonen has hit a sweet spot of form.

Ferrari should try to work something out with Räikkönen along the lines that he doesn't race in F1 for any other team than Ferrari, but is allowed to do a season of rallying. Ferrari pay (a (large) portion) of his agreed salary, and he remains on call in case Massa (or Alonso for that matter) isn't in a position to race.

Riiiight, a callboy ...

Have we any evidence to suggest Raikkonen sees rallying as anything other than a hobby?

I mean, Valentino Rossi loves rallying and has done Rally GB a few times, but he knows where his real earning potentional is.

Same with Raikkonen. Rallying might be fun, but his skill and real cash can be made in F1.

Well, I just stated rallying as something he would be allowed to do. Heck, he could even do NASCAR as long as he doesn't race for any of Ferrari's competitors in F1, and remains available to drive for Ferrari in case Massa or Alonso drops out.

and you make yourself look what? The quote you debate is Bild, and yes, it was said to be Illien, and yes, Bild made it up. So you are completely wrong, basing your opinion on tabloid shit, which makes your opinion just that also.

I think Ferrari should ask for a test for Massa in late October or early November , to make sure that there is a real chance that he will be fit in March.

I'm sure all the teams would agree on it.

Please do and when you find it let me know.

Why would Raikkonen, who has a contract with Ferrari for next year, offer anyone a pay cut deal at this point in the season? The story makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Because he gets a massive pay off from Fezza first?

You miss the point: by telling one team he is willing to slash his wage bill he's telling them all - it makes no sense.

Good point.

But we're presuming this story came from the Raikkonen camp.

It might have been leaked by a figure at Brawn to try and weaken Raikkonen's position.

It's a rumour, he hasn't come out and said it in the papers, I imagine if it's true he's looking at Brawn as a good car with a possible open seat and wants it.

In fact your post makes no sense, there isn't another team that he'd be looking to go to in this sense and Ferrari want rid so will pay whatever gets rid of him.

Brawn's quite possibly the least bad of KR's bad options for 2010 so his management team wouldn't be worth their 15 % (or whatever) if they hadn't at least inquired about a vacancy there. It doesn't hurt to ask.

As for the pay cut... I would've thought it's obvious no one's going to be paying KR anywhere near what he's currently on.

Barrichello is the better bet for Brawn.

Big questions remain over Raikkonen's work ethic and motivation.

A three-race return to form up against a shockingly bad team mate doesn't change that.

If Kimi wants to drive a Brawn, a small salary is plenty.

Why should Brawn spend all their money, when they could pay $3m for Heidfeld or Barrichello who are no more than 2-3 tenths slower than Kimi at worst, and spend the other $47m of their precious limited budget on hundreds of engineers and developements!!!!?????????

That's right HUNDREDS OF ENGINEERS!!!!!! Why hire Kimi if he wants full salary... well they won't.

Yes, and that's why I said it doesn't hurt to ask. They can always say no.

I've already acknowledged that KR doesn't seem to have many options for next year, and even fewer good ones. Maybe Brawn's indeed out of his league but it would be silly if his managers didn't at least ask about it.

If Raikkonen wants to remain in Formula One I'd say it will be in either a Renault or a Williams.

Providing Ferrari decide to get rid of him, which is by no means certain.

Yes, like I said, only bad options all around.

Also, I don't really see why Renault and/or Williams would be any more interested in KR than Brawn who supposedly aren't. I'm starting to think this will really be KR's last season in the sport. He apparently doesn't want to quit but it seems he's not good enough for the good teams and the bad teams aren't good enough for him so I guess it's game over. It's a bit of a shame really as I honestly don't think he's quite as useless as he's been made out to be.