Raikkonen's WRC switch deal "done"

[EvilSteve]

Raikkonen's WRC switch deal done

By Jonathan Noble and Gerhard Kuntschik   Thursday, December 3rd 2009, 13:32 GMT

Kimi Raikkonen's switch to the World Rally Championship is expected to be confirmed in the next few hours, AUTOSPORT has learned.

The Finn has been considering his options in the wake of a failure to complete a deal with McLaren, which was his only realistic chance to remain in F1 next year after he agreed to end his Ferrari contract early.

He had been widely expected to make the move to the WRC, and sources have revealed that he has now completed a deal to compete with the Red Bull-backed Citroen junior team alongside Sebastien Ogier.

It is understood that Raikkonen will contest the entire WRC season apart from the New Zealand Rally, which his team is not competing in. He will also participate in the Arctic Rally.

Raikkonen has made no secret of the fact that he is looking at a return to F1 in 2011 - with speculation already suggesting he is high on Red Bull Racing's list to partner Sebastian Vettel.

The fact that Red Bull is backing Raikkonen's rally efforts will do little to quell those rumours, although sources at the energy drinks company are adamant that the current ties mean nothing for his future F1 ambitions.

"This has no prejudice at all for Kimi's further F1 career if he intends one," a source close to Red Bull told AUTOSPORT. "It does not mean at all that he will replace a current Red Bull F1 driver in our team from 2011."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80423

[Cider]

For a guy who barely follows F1 anymore and only watches WRC re-runs on HDTheater--how/why did he get pushed out of F1?

[EvilSteve]

Hi didn't really get pushed, he's been pretty lackluster most of this year. He seems to be one of those people who has to be in with a chance to win before he's really willing to try. With Ferrari's car being such a steaming pile of dung this year Raikkonen's motivation has been in the toilet (matching the dung car). I think after winning the championship, he's been looking for a new challenge & with a car that doesn't perform he's not finding that in F1. Based on his lack of motivation & personality (which I think is hilarious but lots of people don't like) I think Ferrari had decided that it wasn't going to work too so they agreed to mutually end the contract early.

He was looking at McLaren for a while but I guess he'd have been #2 & that wasn't going to fly for him either so he decided to try to get a reasonable drive in WRC. The Citroen junior team has actually been pretty competitive this year (I watch those re-runs too ) he probably feels that the car matches his skills right now if not his potential. He's run a few rallies and has actually been performing pretty well. Plus, he's a Finn after all so he's bound to be pretty good at it anyway.

I think it's great for the WRC, it'll hopefully raise its profile and get some more investment and stop all this talk of lame neutered cars.

[EvilSteve]

Raikkonen joins WRC with Citroen

By Matt Beer   Friday, December 4th 2009, 06:19 GMT

Citroen has announced that Kimi Raikkonen will join its World Rally Championship line-up in a Red Bull-backed Citroen Junior Team car, as predicted by AUTOSPORT.

The 2007 Formula 1 world champion will be joined in the Red Bull Citroen squad by former Junior WRC champion Sebastien Ogier, who completed an impressive WRC rookie season with the squad last year.

Raikkonen made his top flight rallying debut in an S2000 Abarth at his home round of the WRC in Finland earlier this year, earning the respect of the series regulars for the speed with which he adapted to driving on the stages. He has hinted for many years that he was keen to pursue a career in rallying after F1, and when he announced last month that he would take a sabbatical following the breakdown of his talks with McLaren, the WRC was seen as his most likely destination.

"I always wanted to compete in rally, especially in the World Rally Championship at some point in my career," said Raikkonen.

"Thanks to Red Bull, I have the opportunity to drive the best car of the series with the Citroen C4. This is a new but very exciting challenge."

Speculation has suggested that Raikkonen could return to F1 with Red Bull after his first WRC season. He confirmed that his Citroen deal only covered 2010 at present.

"For the moment we have a one-year contract and we will see how it goes for the future," Raikkonen said. "I am really looking forward to testing the car and taking the start of the first rally."

Citroen team boss Olivier Quesnel said he was delighted by Red Bull's increased involvement, and that the squad had such a strong Junior line-up in Raikkonen and Ogier alongside factory drivers Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo.

"Red Bull's commitment and energy are a perfect fit for Citroen's ongoing thirst for victory," Quesnel said. "We will continue to count on Sébastien and Dani to defend our world titles in 2010, and we will also be prolonging our association with Sebastien Ogier who showed outstanding potential this year.

"Last but not least, it is with immense joy that we welcome Kimi Raikkonen to our ranks. We are very proud that he has chosen Citroen.

"In addition to the confirmation of these four crews, we will hopefully be able to announce other programmes over the coming weeks."

Raikkonen and Ogier will contest 12 of next year's 13 WRC rounds, but will skip the New Zealand event.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80431

[derby]

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/155195/1/ferrari_alonso_better_than_raikkonen_similar_to_schumi.html

[EvilSteve]

Interesting article, true too. I think Alonso will toast Massa given half a chance. He'll also probably make that half a chance himself.