Kimi talks with Williams? - No. Signs with Lotus Renault for 2012

Finnish newspapers are reporting that Raikkonen's salary would be pid by the National Bank of Qatar, who Frank Williams has been courting as a major sponsor for several years now.

 

Finnish newspapers are eager to see Kimi's return to F1 in anything he does. I personally don't like him very much but he is fast and could propably make things more interesting from the finnish perspective (not much to see in the Kovalainen camp).

 

I think Barrichello is feeling a little bit threatened at the moment. He's talking a lot about the possibility of being replaced, and he's being quite insistent about the way he's the "right" driver for Williams.

 

Does anyone think Kimi would be faster then his team mate who ever it will be in 2012 and do you think he will be able to at least get the car in top ten or thereabouts

 

If he's in the Williams, I doubt regular top-ten appearances will be on the cards.

 

Williams are set for a better 2012 than their 2010 and 11 campaigns, it would be sad to see Barrichello robbed of the chance to drive their Renault powered 2012 car.

 

How do you know 2012 will be better for Williams?

 

Well, short of getting drunk half an hour before the race, they can't get much worse than they already are.

 

Sure they can, they can potentially get overtaken by one of the new teams and struggle even further for sponsors and top engineers and designers. They could design an even more unreliable and slower car and once again struggle to understand and develop it properly.

And if you don't believe that can happen just look at Honda in 2007 compared with their previous seasons (apart from the sponsorship part). And then they went worse in 2008.

 

I seem to recall that, for the first 15 years or so of the Indy 500, there was no rule against racing while drunk...

 

And then the 2009 car won the world championship, constructors and drivers.

 

...after spending a humoungous amount on it, running 3 windtunnel programmes and giving up on 2008 pretty much from the start. Plus having the biggest technical regulation change since 1998 and benefitting from a loophole Ross Brawn himself pointed out.
Yeah, thats not going to happen at Williams.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a much better car from the team, and that Barrichello remains as no1 driver.
Not to sure on the second part though...

 

I don't think that's going to happen. Williams have had a mid-season overhaul, and while the effects of a new technical line-up will be felt, they will be working on a car that was already being designed by someone else. It probably won't be until the middle of next year that their influence is fully felt.

 

Sneeky feeling you're going to be 100% right on that one.. No harm in hoping though, would love to see them as one of the "big four" again......

 

Rumours says Kimi has already signed a deal with Williams.
http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7268653/-Raikkonen-has-signed-Williams-deal-

 

Not so fast - Williams will wait until the end of the season to make their decision:

Considering that Claire Williams is Sir Frank's daughter, I'd say this ia fairly definitive.

 

Update: There have been "rumors" during the Indian GP in the paddock that Raikkonen has indeed signed a deal with the Williams team. This has been reported as of oct 27th.

 

And as of October 28th, Williams have said that they will wait until the end of the season to make a decision. If you'd bother to read the post above yours, you would have seen that much.

 

how did i miss that? sorry, probably my adhd on this thread.

 

Why on earth would Kimi want to drive for Williams? What's in it for him? It's not money, he has loads of it. There is nothing for him to prove is there?

 

If he wants to get back in, he doesn't have many choices. He's spent two years on the sidelines, so he has no knowledge of the Pirelli tyres, fuel-heavy cars or the DRS. As much as he (and his fans) might like the idea of stepping straight into a Red Bull or a McLaren, no competitive team would sign him up when he's so far out of date. Williams is probably the furthest team up the grid with a) a vacancy for 2012, and b) a willingness to sign him.

And perhaps the idea of leading Williams bck to the front of the grid holds some appeal.

 

Just a news update on the rumors for people who dont already know this...

FROM SPEEDTV
Williams shareholder Toto Wolff has confirmed that "serious" negotiations with Kimi Raikkonen about a 2012 race seat are taking place.

Until now, the rumors linking the 2007 World Champion and a return to Formula One with the beleaguered British team have been taken with a pinch of salt.

"Yes, it's true!" Wolff, a minority shareholder of the Oxfordshire-based team, told Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung.

"The Kimi Raikkonen file is on the table," he confirmed.

"The story is not for show; we are negotiating seriously, but it is only one of several options. There will be a strategic decision," revealed Wolff.

It has been reported that Adrian Sutil is another candidate to replace Pastor Maldonado's experienced teammate Rubens Barrichello next season.

"But there is another aggressive option with the boy Jules Bianchi, and Valtteri Bottas is worthy of consideration at least for Friday's practice," added Wolff.


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Hopefully we will hear the official deal before Sundays race.

 

Probably, like a lot of ex-F1 drivers, he misses driving the cars and having a team of engineers and mechanics so closely helping him extract the ultimate performance. F1 probably gives him something no other motorsport can.
The same questions can be asked of Schumacher and the same answer applies.

 

I'm still not understanding why this thread deserves its own separate discussion from the 2012 silly season thread.

 

144 replies looks like a good reason for a separate thread. It makes it easier to keep track of the discussion rather than reading about Raikkonen interjected with other driver more minor driver discussions.

 

Actually, I suspect it has more to do with Raikkonen fans once again overstating his importance to the sport. Some of them seem to think that he is the only thing supporting publis interest Formula 1.

 

Actually I think people just want to talk about it because its a forum where people come to talk. Obviously people have mutual interests in this thread. Who cares if theres already a thread on driver disc. its a forum where people make threads to communicate. Its getting annoying how people complain about how resources should be used on this forum. Let it be and move on.

 

...and guess who opened a thread dedicated to Schumacher's return in 2009?

 

That was a big deal. It's Michael Schumacher - a seven-time World Champion and the single most decorated driver in the sport making his return to Formula 1.

Kimi Raikkonen is a one-time World Champion who quit the sport because he was bored (and paid off) and is now exploring a comeback because he hasn't had the success he was expecting in his extra-curricular activities (because let's be honest: would Raikkonen be talking to Williams if he was competitive in the WRC?).