Raikkonen rejects F1 retirement rumors

MONTREAL, Canada (AP) -- Kimi Raikkonen finishes out of the points in one race, and all of a sudden those retirement rumors are popping up again.
The reigning Formula One champion had a bad day two weeks ago at Monaco, crashing out of the race. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton won the race -- and Raikkonen now finds himself going into Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix trailing the British driver by three points in the season standings.

After Raikkonen came from behind last year to edge Hamilton for the championship, there was speculation about the 28-year-old Finn -- who has never much cared for the attention that goes with being an F1 star -- considering retirement sometime soon.

It came up again Thursday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Isle du Notre Dame, where Sunday's race will be run and where Hamilton is the defending winner.

"There have been rumors like that for many years," the Ferrari driver said. "I always say that I still have a contract until the end of next year. I haven't made any decision as to whether I will keep going or not.

"So far, that's the last contract that I have and we will see during this year and next year what happens."

Raikkonen said he would race as long as he enjoys the competition.

"When the day comes, when it's no longer fun, then for sure I stop," he said. "It can be the end of next year. It can be four years time. It's too early to say."

He added: "There are many reasons why you like Formula One or not. For sure, many people only like the driving and the rest can be something that you don't enjoy. When there are more things that you don't like, then it's time to stop."

Asked if he does continue beyond next year whether there is a possibility he would leave Ferrari for another team, Raikkonen said, "Probably not."

He also acknowledged that he is in the early stages of talks with Ferrari about a contract extension.

"Kind of, yes. But, like I said, there is no decision made yet."

Meanwhile, Raikkonen will try to get back on top of the standings at a track where he won in 2005 and has finished no worse than sixth since 2001.

Going into Sunday's race, the championship battle also includes Raikkonen's Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, who is one point behind the Finn, and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, two points behind Massa.

Kubica, who walked away from a very nasty crash here last year, said he expects a good competition the rest of the way this season.

"I think the only way now to stay close to them is to be consistent, to score as many points as possible every single race," the Polish driver said. "That's what I'm trying to do."

He added, "The car has to improve if we want to beat Ferrari and McLaren, if you want to achieve the target of winning races this season, which is the target of the team.

"But there's a long way and the season is still very long, so we are pushing, we are trying to do the best that we can and, maybe one day, we can stay in front of Ferrari and McLaren."

Raikkonen said he felt no additional pressure to perform, despite coming off a bad result.

"We won (the championship) last year and we were in a much worse position a year ago," he said. "One bad race doesn't really make any difference. OK, we lost the lead. We could have easily taken a few more points, but it didn't happen, so we come here and try to do better and try to get back in the lead."

And, for now, thoughts of retirement can wait.

 

come to thnk about it, he's just had one non scoring race, and the talks about retirement comes about. When MS won the WDC in 2000, the press kept bugging him about when he's gonna retire. now he's retired, they're bugging him to come back. that shows the mentality of the press. don't believe most of the stuff u read in the press. they're just making up stories to sell.

 

The ironic thing is Brian, the hounding by the press is probably one of the main factors that will make him pack it in.

 

yea, i agree. damn the media...

 

Kimi strikes me as someone who couldn't give two shizzles about what's said about him in the press.

 

I hope he stays.