Kimster to retire at end of contract

Friends at a party? Wonder is they were drinking?

 

His contract is for $50MM a year. If you're not really into the intense spotlight I can see why he'd just choose to retire.

 

The way he's driven in the last couple of races it rather looks like he's retired mentally already. Of course it would also fit in the with "Alonso to Ferrari" rumours from Monaco.

Jonathan

 

old news to me, but Kimster always said he's main intention was to be a WDC. never mentioned about breaking records, etc. however, if he does indeed retire, Kubik, Vettel, Rosberg in line to replace him. how old will he be anyways in 2009?

 

29 or 30 depending on what days his birthday is on.

 

+1
I can totally understand his dislike for the spotlight and ridiculous questions and scrutiny, but hey, for 50mm per, I think I could put up with it for a bit. More power to him.

 

True, but I think Kimi was being paid like $20-30M per in his Mclaren years, so money really shouldn't be much of a motivator for him.

 

when you get used to a really extravagant lifestyle 20-30 mill doesn't last all that long. I have no idea how kimi lives but I'd have a hard time turning down 50 M a year to drive a car and be a celebrity, no matter how much money I had.

 

Not surprised at all. Kimi will retire with something close to a 1/4 of a billion dollars, why should he "waste" his time driving an F1 car when he could be partying.

 

And this is one of the many things I don't like about him. I don't care what he likes, he is under Ferrari payrole so he can do less party on his own and join the team not only for 2 hours on sunday race day, he must feel part of the team to earn the respect of all tifosi; he has to get involved in the car's developement and think less about himself. He wanted to be WDC and Ferrari gave him the oportunity to achieve that. Now, Ferrari needs a committed driver but he just parties in Monaco and keeps saying he doesn't care about F1.


ONE LAST THING KIMI G&FY.
FORZA FERRARI
Massa WDC 2008

 

all you Kimi 'haters' AKA Massa 'lovers' need to get over yourselves. Stop, just stop, with the the bs "he should be like this...like that, etc, etc, etc" Kimi never said he doesn't care about F1. He loves driving/racing, but doesn't care for the fiasco that comes with being in F1.

 

Ferrari does have one committed driver. Saved their reputation over and over again the last two years. If they do not help him win the WDC this year, Ferrari deserves to lose. Then Ferrari deserves having a driver that was admittedly using information stolen from Ferrari.

 

why should he 'waste' his time giving a rats @ss what you think, what anyone thinks? who is anyone to say how a person (that they don't even know), should live their life?

 

Fred is the best driver in the field today... Kimi when he has the desire is just as good but Fred is more consistent and more committed... BTW, if it were not for Fred, Ron wouldn't have called Max...

As for Kimi not caring what anyone thinks? What's new? Kimi is a pretty down to earth guy who can live on his earnings forever and will probably go do another motorsport and make just as much...

 

Saved their reputation over and over? Stop Ron, just stop. Please. So now it's about Massa, your loverboy, and not the TEAM success? They deserve to lose if they don't help Massa win? Spoken like a true Tifosi. All along you appeared to be a FERRARI supporter, with your claims 'it doesn't matter who wins, just as long as it's one of the Ferrari drivers'. BS.

 

That Luca only cares about winning, doesn't care what Ron thinks, what I think, what anyone here thinks and if Fred is a winner, Kimi retires, then Luca will get him in a red car.... We all seem to forget that it's Ferrari's team, not our team and that Formula 1 races are just like HP and IBM going head to head...

 

You are right, but as a fan, I have the option to make my judgement based on something other than the black and white of only winning. Sometimes having class is important. Out society has lost too much of that.

Ferrari is becoming a leader at losing class.

So instead of replacing my Ferrari with another Ferrari, I buy an R8 instead. Probably much more reliable anyway.

 

well, the lot here who hate Kimi and FA, think that they just aren't 'good enough' human beings (ie, they're arrogant, they're not 'driven', they're scandalous, they're too ugly, whatever, etc, etc, etc) even though they have very little to go on. Rather self important and presumptuous to say the least. At the end of the day, you're right, Ferrari does not care what we here think. They will do what they have to inorder to ensure continued success.

 

If that were the case he'd be happy as lamb. The issue isn't showing up to drive it's all of the promotional cr@p he's got to do. The photo shoots, hand shaking, stupid kayaking and other promotional stunts that he hates.

I remember when Enzo hired drivers to do simply that. Drive. No Promotional tours or anything else. And we tifosi respected them for their driving, nothing else. I think you've let the Ferrari marketing machine cloud your vision of what makes a great Ferrari driver. Get in, drive, win, you've got my respect. Period.

He's got more miles testing this year under his belt than Massa. How can you make a statement like this when that's the case? Oh, yea you've bought into the whole Massapeal marketing thing.

So did McLaren but, thankfully he did it in a Ferrari.

Once again how do you see he's not committed? He's done the majority of the testing this year and is currently second in the point’s race. While he's had two bad races those two weren't as bad as Massa's two. But, yet you say he's not committed to driving for Ferrari? The problem isn't that he's not committed to driving for Ferrari it's that he's not committed to doing the dog and pony show that goes along with it.

If they just let him get in and drive for a couple hours a week as you suggest he'd be happy as a clam and you wouldn't have anything to post.

And with this we see where your views originate. While I'll admit Kimi's weakness is his distaste for the duties other than driving Massa's weakness is still making silly mistakes on track. I've developed a lot of respect for Massa over the past two races, especially for his pole in Monaco, but just when I begin to think "OK, maybe I was wrong" he goes and does something stupid on track. I’ll take the guy who does something stupid off track rather than on any day of the week. The former won’t cost us anything in the title race while the latter certainly will.

 

of course we all reserve the right to an opinion regarding matters... but don't go on preaching that you're straight down the middle, that you don't have biases. Ferrari is losing 'class'... ok, see you later!

 

You should buy an R8... The Agnelli family has been around for a very long time, and they have more money than they can count. Ferrari will be just fine without you buying another one of their cars and I am quite sure that Luca won't even notice...

As for me, well I will keep buying their products, they are still the best, still numero uno in Formula 1, still making the right decisions for the long haul and they are still profitable... I still haven't found another car that I want to drive as bad as I do a Ferrari or a Maserati... The rest are just robot built scrap without any soul..

As for the lot here hating Kimi, loving Phil and hating Fred.. Well they can continue to do so, and again since they have nothing to do with F1, the direction it goes, the cars, the teams, they can complain all they want and continue to do so after Fred is driving a red car and winning WDC's..... We are all back seat drivers here, well for the most part. There are a few factory boys who troll the place, one Luca and another Stefano who say they troll here and the TheScuderia.net once in a while just to catch up on the gossip..

Heck I won't be surprised if we see Max out on the street here before the end of summer and JT in his place, something that Luca would also like...

 

This coming from a guy who loves Hunt and the other cigarette smoking, booze swilling pilots of the 70s? While living life fully is certainly one of Kimi's traits it Yellowbird would disagree with you. At least his post above is in disagreement with you. I also would say that "class" is very subjective and while I don't like a corporate puppet your view of "class" seems to be at odds with your hero's of the 70's and your current hero Massa.

Ron I don't believe for a minute you'd do that. If there is anyone on this board who's got class it's you.

 

You wouldn't be jealous now would you?

Poor Massa...IMO, Massa tries his best to please everybody in the team and do whatever he thinks the team wants him to do regardless of if he truly wants to or not....he probably even wears his Ferrari shirt every day instead of just on race weekends and wears at least 10 pieces of "flair" more than what his contract states as minimum. Yet he continues to fall short and has yet to even come close to winning a WDC. Then there's Kimi who does what he wants and what he feels is best for him and the team regardless of what anyone else thinks...and probably only wears his Ferrari shirt on race weekends if he feels like it and could give a crap about the "flair". Is a proven Race winner and a threat on any track. Arguably the fastest driver and one of the top 3 drivers on the grid. Oh ya, and is the reigning WDC and will most likely win it again this season too.

I don't know...seems like one of the drivers is very controlled, confident, proven and apears to somewhat relaxed and having a good time. Not so sure about the other one...



Btw, if you haven't seen the movie Office Space, you won't get the "Flair" reference.

 

I agree with you Ron on all points mentioned, including car replacement (perhaps those of us who have/had Ferraris realize that they are money pits and the fun/excitement goes away after a while and common sense comes into play). As far as Ferrari becoming a leader at losing class - the last times I remember Ferrari (as in Factory) showing class was at the test day in April 2005 and at the 60th Anniversary Celebration (both at Fiorano). It seems that in F1, it's more like a Barnum/Bailey circus weekend lately.

Carol