Nice post, Andreas! I was thinking that we did had discussed the matter in full and left no stone unturned, and that the thread will die, but with this... I still find this hard to believe... Rgds
Best driver paring speed wise most definitely. I'm not sure with the politics though. Alonso will not be happy when either he is asked to move over or if Kimi is asked. I don't think either of them will. The James Allison bit is quite interesting since he's left for Ferrari now. If Kimi follows it'll be a force to be reckoned with again. As long as Kimi is in a competitive car I'll be happy!
Thanks. It is a Fin newspaper. Could be heavily biased or could be close to the source. Hard to gauge
Yep: hard to gauge indeed. It's more or less everywhere right now; we have it in the french news online, and also on some internet english sites, example below. The source is always the same said finnish newspaper, so nothing to substantiate it further... Raikkonen to move to Ferrari, says Finnish report | News | F1PULSE.com) Rgds
Kimi returning would be awesome but not as awesome as Byrne returning. Allison coming to ferrari could be a big factor in swaying Kimi.
The reason he left in the first place was that his condition for staying was becoming team principal, position which went to Domenicali and with whom Ferrari became much more amateurish. I'm sure he wouldn't come back for any lesser job now more than ever.
Aircon, I've just remembered the TopGear program where MS was the Stig and drove the Enzo FXX. Remember how he did not do the celebrity lap challenge and instead played silly buggers ... it's not hard to put two and two together and realise that he did not want to directly challenge the other F1 drivers in an identical car on an identical circuit. Like I said, great driver but definitely fragile in this area. When he came back, he came back for fun ... he was a completely different person, so much more relaxed. 1/2 his competitive spirit had simply vanished IMO. Pete
The source Ilta-Sanomat is, if my memory is correct, a serious newspaper. Kimi to Ferrari and Alonso to Red Bull, as they suggest, would indeed be spectacular. Edit: Forget what I said, it's a tabloid
LOL, I myself was guttered that he did not do the TG lap in the reasonably priced car. There can be no other reason other than he was chicken ... I've thought about it for ages. Pete
I think that was part of Ferrari's PR to preserve his image. He managed to ruin all the good work soon afterwards, though. You won't see Alonso on Top Gear being humiliated either.
Well, I don´t know, but maybe there was some contractual obligations (he wasn´t allowed to be seen in public driving a car that could be a competitor of some FIAT products or something like that).
Tks. The Fin version of the Corierre Della Sera? In that case I think Kimi goes to RB and Alonso stays. Still hoping that the Green Hulk gets the 2nd seat. As he should
I don't believe that Kimi will go back to Ferrari, but I wouldn't mind; after all, he said that he will took a decision that will seems strange to some, so... But I think it would be nice if a young guy gets the second seat: Hulk is fine to me, even others, but the young guns need opportunity to show the stuff they are made of. And should they want a nice, experienced, dependable guy to replace Massa, there is Heikki Kovalanein in the starting blocks also...time for him to really get a true second chance. Rgds
Spiegel says that a team Alonso/Raikkönen would be unlikely as Alonso's condition to join the team was that Kimi leaves. I never heard of that before...
I don't recall having read, or heard, anything like that at the time; I'm speaking from memory so I might be wrong on this, but it would mean that when Kimi signed the extension to 2010 for its Ferrari contract (which formed the basis of the indemnity he got later from Ferrari), Fernando's arrival was not yet considered as a possibility? A Fernando / Kimi team may be interesting to watch on track, yes, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to me as they are about the same age, so the question of passing the torch to a younger generation is not adressed. And frankly I don't see Fernando going to Red Bull, do you? Perhaps Ferrari just doesn't want to fight a Red Bull team with Vettel and Kimi next year...so they made a deal with Dietrich and Helmut: Ferrari gets Kimi, and Massa gets the Red Bull... Rgds
Neither do I see Kimi and Alonso at Ferrari (too much drama) nor Massa in the RB... RB has nothing to gain from that, they'd better take one of their young guns.
As for Massa at Red Bull, that was a joke...but I do really wonder where the poor Felipe will go if not retained by Ferrari for one more year; which I still think possible, by the way. Rgds
