It should be easy, Button have said that he wants to stay with the Brawn team.
They just need to raise his salary (from a low level).

So Mercedes wants Button or not? If they want to keep him, why would it be "bowing to Ross Brawn's wishes"?

It's a bit rich coming from a Kimi fan.

Yes he did, several times. If you haven't seen the quotes, maybe he only gave them to the Finnish press. Robertson said the same thing again just a few days ago to Turun Sanomat. Kimi is not going to Brawn/Mercedes or Red Bull, it's McLaren or nothing. If the Guardian is right, it's nothing. McLaren said they want the two best drivers available, though, so if they get Button, Whitmarsh wasn't speaking the truth.

Quote from Kimi himself:
"Kimi Raikkonen insists McLaren are the only team he is prepared to sign for to stay in the sport next season.

Raikkonen has been ousted from Ferrari by the impending arrival of Fernando Alonso but the Finn is still struggling to agree terms with the Woking outfit.

He told Autosport: "There is no point in going to other teams when you cannot win. McLaren are the only team that can offer me a good car."
"

Listen 'GimmieKimi', Kimi doesnt give shit about his fans, you and the rest means nothing to him .. Else he wouldnt bu such a golddigger, so and see you in 2011, when he joins RBR

ps: You gotto be serious Kimi is comming back to join F1 after leaving the sport for a year?

I would be very surprised if Mercedes would let go the No:1 on the nose of the silver arow, so I expect they will sign Jenson, and that will play well for Kimis team, as Heikki Kulta wrote in TS today...

Well, they've sort of talked to Brawn, thus Brawn's comments on his salary demand.

on paper, LH/JB and LH/KR are equal, all WDC.

did the paper forget to mention KR and JB have actually won the WCC?

my point still stands, both pairings are equally strong.

But the KR-JB pairing would be even stronger....why not ditch Lewis then?

he has a contract??

btw, to me, I think the team should take most of the credits for WCC.

Looks like Kimi over played his hand and is now without a seat in F1. Unless Mercedes pick him up.

Like I was saying, Kimi, the next JV in the making.

Kimi can live without F1 and still come back strongthe next year. Button, on the contrary, has nothing other than formula one racaing, so we might see Kimi actually moving to WRC and fighting with Loeb 2010. That itself is an exciting idea. In such case Button move to Mclaren and do the last effort to keep his carrier. Lewis is strong not sure Button can beat him, but he may surprise us.




As of Kimi, I am sure Ross does not think that this sexy Softy Nice photogenic boy Nico will be as strong, tough and determined driver as Kimi. for sure Ferrari spell did not do any good to Kimi's carrier, but he is bloody awesome in terms of speed.

I can very wel limagine that Mercedes wanting to have one German WDC to justify their spending, and I could agree that they opt for Nico rather than Nick. Yet it is a little too stupid for Mercedes to let Kimi go take a hike while almost every single person on this world know that Kimi is bloody stronger than boring Nick.

Well we never know we are talking about Germans with stone head...

looking for anothe way to hate

Lewis winning the WDC without WCC only says he either had a subpar teammate or he drove the car to where it didnt belong... none of which options make him less qualified than the rest


and as you probably know and hate.... at the moment, Lewis is rated higher than those two guys in the paddock

Lighten up, it was a half-arsed response to a half-arsed argument saying that No. of titles is the only thing that counts..

Well who knows? Lewis has his position settled for times to come so we will never see about how much he is considered worth than those two.


In anyways it is about Lewis and this thread is about Kimi...

Well I thought you Kimi fans really like that argument.

Kimi: 1 WDC
Massa: 0 WDC

So let me put it i this way.



Michael Schumacher killed the future at Ferrari for Kimi.

Now Michael is moving out of Ferrari stable and:

1. to FIA to help Todt
2. to Mercedes to partner Brawn

In case 2 then Kimi's future at Mercedes is again diminishing.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80178



Oh well autosport is one of the most reliable sources.

Button asking for more than £8 million from Brawn
17 November 2009

"The [Mercedes] switch comes as Jenson Button’s future at Brawn remains unresolved and amid signs that senior managers at the team are tiring of what they view as inaccurate and misleading briefings about the level of salary that Button has been offered to stay with a team with whom he captured this year’s World Championship.

Button is reported to have demanded £8 million for 2010; The Times understands he has been offered exactly that.

Button’s camp has claimed that he has been offered a salary of £4 million for 2010, a rise of gonly £1 million from his remuneration this year, when he took a voluntary £5 million pay cut to help the team after the buyout.

However, it was suggested yesterday by authoritative sources that Button has been offered the full £8 million and is trying to get more. Brawn managers are irritated that the new world champion seems to believe the advent of Mercedes means money is no object."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/for...icle6919293.ece

That still stands.

In the case where both drivers have 1 WDC, you use a countback (i.e. Kimi was vice-champion on two other occasions, JB was 3rd once). Or other stats like wins, poles, FLs, you name it... JB is worse in most, if not all.

well, aren't you guys the ones who say WDC is the only thing that counts? Massa has more poles and points while he's teammate with Raikkenon.

Button deal now on Autosport too so it's almost as good as done. The reports are from respectable reporters and the tone is very different from the Kimi rumours.

It was clear McLaren wanted Kimi so if Kimi had his heart set on continuing in F1, the deal would've been made. Apparently he just didn't have the drive anymore. I find it sad to see him leave like this. I think most people wanted to see the Kimi-Hamilton battle. Button-Hamilton doesn't stir any kind of excitement in me, it seems Alonso-Massa will be the only interesting duo next season.

I blame KR for not being at McLaren. Why didn't he just take it?

:/ k seems like button-mclaren deal is ... meh` done.

I hope Kimi DOESN'T signs for Brawn/MercedesGP. And no I don't want to see him taking a sabbatical either. Yes I'm down but I'm over it now and would like to move on with Kimi out of F1 for good.

Looking forward to WRC or whatever...

all I can say is

He's too arrogant. Looks like he actually believe he's "the fastest man" in f1.

Lol Kimi fanboys get over it - Kimi is unemployed and F1 career is all but over

His management played high stake poker and lost, they had every chance to get kimi in at mclaren,

Grunge were are you

all of you guys are talking like.. like you know each and every detail about the negotiations that Kimi and his managers had with McLaren. :/

People seem very confident when they say that it was about money and yet provide no solid proof or evidence. WTF?

Well, if Kimi is done with Formula One, it is sad to see him go.

As a McLaren fan, he is probably my favorite personality in the history of the team. Leaving aside the discussion about him as a driver, I'm a fan of his more because I view him as such a unique character. I have just always found him fascinating; the ultimate "Jeckyl and Hyde." Someone who couldn't be beat when he was bothered, yet someone who could be so unmotivated at times. Someone who didn't exactly inspire passion in press conferences, yet is clearly the life of the party in his personal life.

He's always seemed like an honest, no nonsense guy to me; someone who lives life to the fullest. I really wanted the opportunity to see him at McLaren with Lewis, but it appears his heart just isn't in F1 anymore. One could argue it hasn't been in it since he won the World Championship, as even in 2008 there were reports he was close to retirement.

Kimi clearly loves rallying, and I hope this is the next step for him if he's done with F1. I wish him all the best.

Don't mind about the parallel universe people. Who knows what kind of physical/psychic laws rule over there .

Good knowing you Kimi, hope you come back soon.

Still cant believe how things turned around 360 degrees in just a week, it was already a done deal (Mac-Kimi) but just wow..SMH.

Kimi is just playing his hard ball, as hard as he can, even harder than anyone on this thread can imagine.


He is motivated in my opinion anymore than anybody on the field, except Alonso perhaps, and he is playing his hard ball. Being tough has certain risk to take and that is what we see.

nothing is certain, but it seems it was clear Kimi was mclarens no 1 pref. for a longtime.... remember the video of MW blushing

It seems whatever contract Jenson "is about to sign" can be no better than what was offered to Kimi... I think it may even have lesser terms.

for whatever reasons, Kimi chose not to sign. We believe what is good for Jenson should be good for Kimi (in addition to the Ferrari severance money too)

if Jenson signs, Kimi has only himself to blame... he probably doesnt care much though


Its all a shame really...

Nick Fry says in radio five interview that Button and Brawn are still in the middle of negotiations


http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtm.../2009/11/998484

That doesn't mean Button isn't close to signing with McLaren.


Everyone should blame none other than KR for this happening.

Yep, that's just a hurry up to Button. Button will sign to McLaren real quick.

yes.. all they'll remain there.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/11/the-...kimi-raikkonen/

Do you mean that at the end, it would be the same as at the beginning?

He sums up Raikkonen's situation pretty well. Never thought it would happen, but a sabbatical is looking all the more likely with each passing day.

"Brawn do not seem to be interested, partly because of the money, but also, I suspect, because of what Ross Brawn has gleaned about his performances from his old colleagues at Ferrari."

Even Ross Brawn doesn't think Kimi is anything special.

Kimi's future is clearly a big issue. geddit?

I'm amused by the folks who seem to be celebrating this, and I'm awaiting also the folks who will cry in the corner in a fetal position.

Personally I'm a bit annoyed because the prospect of seeing Lewis vs Kimi at Mac was very interesting, certainly more than Lewis vs Jenson. But I'm sure Kimi will either go to rallying or try all kinds of wacky races this season and that's going to be fairly entertaining as well. Looking forward to that.

I think coming to McLaren and being paid well gives a sort of sense that you are going to be equal with Hamilton and you are going to have an own chance at the title. Maybe they have been negotiating about equality and how to manage updates equally and that sort of things. It doesn't sound very tempting to go to McLaren knowing Hamiltons position and getting paid less and not have guarantees about equally getting updates etc. Looking at Kovalainen, McLaren has turned out to be a career wrecking move.

James Allen's sight is narrow and forgetting many potentials.

Mac for three year closes the other possibility to move to other team the year after year, 2011. This should include RBR. I should dearly imagine that Kimi is playing hard to get sign on RBR 2011 deal while just looking up the 2010 possibility.



If he has this RBR 2011, I assume this will be better than signing a team that is heavily influenced by one company, isn't it? The question is, if Kimi can get Didi to agree on racing for him on 2011.

Could you give us your source?