If Ross is hesitant to pay Button, the reigning champion, the money he asks why expect him to meet Kimi's figure?
Button had multiple occasions where he chose a racing seat based on the car rather than on the $$$, and took lower pay to have a better car. He is doing the same again for 2010, reportedly. He's put his $$$ where his mouth is more than once. Kimi on the other hand just wants $$. I'm not talking about more a champion in reference to their respective WDC wins, I'm referring to their actions going forward. Button is in it for a fast car to challenge for wins. Kimi wants a fat paycheck. He's shown that his primary motivator is money - the only problem is that his own opinion of his value is significantly higher than any of the teams. Why is a guy who got smoked by Massa - TWICE - worth $30 million? He's not the best driver on the grid anymore, but wants to be paid like he is. Which is why I doubt he will be in F1 next year, and probably shouldn't be.
Kimi is the good looking but aging woman trying to dine out on her looks, but who just doesn't have the face for it anymore - but hasn't yet realized it. He can go rallying all he likes, if he leaves F1, he won't be back ever again, not at a top team anyway. He needs to come to grip with the reality of the situation. He was fired for not performing. He got beaten twice by a mid-pack teammate who earns a fraction of his paycheck. He's just not worth the salary he is asking. He's a top driver, and definitely in demand... but someone is worth what someone else will pay them. If nobody will pay him $30mm to drive, he's simply not worth $30mm. I like Kimi - but his insistence on only driving for a top team and only getting the biggest paycheck in F1 simply does not reflect the reality of the current market or the current pecking order of his talent compared to others. I'd take Vettel, Hamilton or Alonso over Kimi any day.
IMO, Kimi can be blindingly fast only if he is given a competitive car straight out of the box. He is not a technical driver that can help in developing a race car or relationships within a team. Look at how much the team performance had dropped off since Massa was injured. His career path reminds me of Nigel Mansell's career path in so many ways. I simply do not see any high quality teams meeting his demands at this point of his career.
Add Kobyiashi to that list...thats a fun, exciting and hungry driver, happy to be in F1. Kimi is so severely over rated and Massa made that painfully obvious last year and to a certain degree this year. The day of Felipe's accident he was 22 pts vs Kimi's 10. The trend was more for Felipe than Kimi even on that weekend.
Mike IMO Kimi is well aware of his situation and has told the teams that he's available only under his terms which they are free to take or leave. What could be fairer? I do like the image of the Sophie Tucker style farewell tour though
"Kimi with the current market turmoil, what's the easiest way to make a small fortune in F1"? "Start off with a large one." "Anymore of that credit crunch icecream left"..?
My 2 cents: Kimi is a top driving talent, but his excessive salary has rendered him obsolete. The current generation of cars have shown that, regardless of who is driving, they are either good or bad and no amount of talent behind the wheel can overcome the car's lack of performance. When Ferrari signed Kimi, they fell victim to their own culture of Michael Schumacher syndrome that had them believing it was necessary to bring in the best driver with cost being no object. Raikkonen was the benefactor of this decision, of course. While there were other drivers out there who I believe equal Kimi's talent, Ferrari also needed someone who could step into Michael's vacant seat with the coolness between the ears to not be affected by the pressure to fill such large shoes. Not sure who else had that quality. Plus, there was no way Ferrari could enter the Post-Michael era by signing questionable or marginal talent. Overall, I think the best drivers right now are all 9/10. While I like Kimi, I've always viewed him as a bit of an arrive and drive race car driver. I know he's Finnish and cool--I get all that--but Ferrari is a racing religion that thrives on emotion. Even Schumi had his podium leap, fist-pumping, etc. And Kimi also lacks that extra rare ingredient of leadership that Michael has around which the team rallied and improved. It wasn't just him, but he was integral. And that is what teams see now when Raikkonen asks for $10s of millions to drive--good driver, but we can essentially accomplish the same results for a fraction of that. He's basically telling the teams "I don't need this, so if you want me, it will cost you." In return the teams are saying "There are plenty of you out there for a much better bargain." I know this won't be popular among some, but he's dangerously close to JV territory right now.
I think that Mclaren will sign Kimi. Ferrari has Alonso and Massa. To compete with Ferrari, Mclaren needs a driver pairing that can match the Ferrari duo. They can't afford not to sign on Kimi, I think.
You've pretty much nailed it. ...the perception is that in business jargon "he's not cost-effective" in comparison with his prececessor and the talent pool currently available. With the situations of several teams there is an outstanding "free agent" market of drivers that give most if not all of the performance of Kimi but with a retainer of only a few million as oppossed to tens of millions in Kimi's case. The most workable solution at this point is to present Kimi with a performance-laden contract that will earn him the salary he is accustomed to provided he attains a certain level of points and performance in comparison to his team mate. It should be a certain percentage of the team's other driver- who should be a proven quantity. It should not be points based since a dog of a car would unfairly penalize the driver. If Kimi could agree to this and perform, I think it would be a win-win situation for all concerned. This would be the optimal strategy for any team contemplating signing Kimi to a contract IMHO.
All good points Jack n Frank. It is not popular to knock Kimi and his seemingly care free approach, but it is a different climate in F1 right now like it or not the drivers don't call the shots in the money stakes. However if he is really not bothered then he is in good place.
In this kinda situation, thats why i have lots of respect for Rubens. he just wants to drive for passion. Never once i came across any articles of him asking for salary rise, etc. That guy just wanna drive!
John was compared to Kevin Schwantz so early in his career. He probably made the jump to the 500's too soon. He really did ride the wheels of the Suzuki, and he had many bad and injurious crashes. Yes, his partying attitude eventually caught up with him too, and the combo struck him out of the premier class. His fall has been precipitous.
If there are so many other good enough drivers out there, then why is Alonso so much faster then whoever is his team mate? Why is Hamilton so much better then Kovalainen even though Kovalainen has proven to be almost as fast. How can Kobayashi make the Toyota look fast and make Trulli and Glock look like stones. I am not a fan of Massa but he has apparently become quite good. I wouldn't be surprised if he has no problem with Alonso (on the track)(unless it rains). So Mclaren does need someone better then average to compete for WCC against Ferrari and even RedBull. (Webber's not great but somewhat consistent and won't let people pass him so he will get points if the car is good). Note that Kovalainen tied Massa this year in points, doh. I think if Kimi had signed with Toyota, then they would not drop out and he and Kobayashi would have been in the mix, the car was close this year.
I was thinking the same thing but I don't think it would work in Kimi's case because money isn't his motivator. He has more money than god already. (JB wishes he had that kind of deal last year.) So the question is what motivates Kimi? I don't think anything in F1 does. He already won WDC and a huge paycheck. I think a challenging new sport would motivate him. I see him fit best in rally or even something non-auto related like skiing, but he has shown interest in rally so that is where I think he will end up. It will be good for the sport.
You tell me? beating rookies is not that impressive, fisichella is not that impressive, and what about when Hamilton was as fast as him ? Truli was giving him hard time at renault, so Briatore got rid of him...
I'm not sure what your point is. There are people on here suggesting that Kimi is not worth the money. I am no Alonso fan but there are people on the grid who score points regardless of how bad the car is and there are people on the grid who don't score points regardless of how good the car is. Mclaren can not compete for the WCC with Kovalainen, it has been proven 2 years in a row, even though he is fast. Ferrari and RedBull have 2 scoring drivers. I was merely saying that I don't believe Mclaren have many choices if they want to compete for the WCC. An average number 2 driver will not be enough next year (unless their car is head and shoulders better then the rest, let's hope not). They could go for Kobayashi, which would be exciting but risky, they can get Kimi and know what they are getting or they can get some other driver that they know is just average, as all the other top drivers are taken.
Kubica will be available probably tomorrow and then Kimi and his somewhat ridiculous salary demands will be very old news.
