Kimi Raikkonen joins Citroen in WRC
Räikkönen will drive a WRC Citroen in 2010
Kimi Räikkönen will drive for Citroen in the World Rally Championship in 2010.
He will drive a Red Bull-sponsored Citroen C4 – the car in which Sebastien Loeb has won the last three World Rally Champsionship titles.
Earlier this year he contested the Rally della Marca in Italy and the Finnish WRC round, driving a Fiat Abarth Grande Punto in each event and impressing with his speed in the second.
Räikkönen’s co-driver will be Kaj Lindstrom, who was co-driver for multiple WRC champion Tommi Makinen. They will contest 12 of the 13 WRC events, missing the New Zealand round.
The 2007 F1 champion has previously said he would take a sabbatical from F1 in 2010. But if he decides he prefers life in the WRC perhaps he might not return?
However the tie-up with Red Bull is likely to fuel speculation he could return with their F1 team in 2011 after Mark Webber’s current contract ends.
What do you think of Räikkönen’s move to the WRC? Will you be watching his progress in rallying?
Read more: Kimi Raikkonen to take sabbatical in 2010 as McLaren talks end (Updated)
Image (C) Citroen
Prisoner Monkeys said on 4th December 2009, 11:49
Bye, Kimi. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
theo said on 4th December 2009, 12:14
following your dreams is always the way forward, good luck to kimi! cant wait to watch WRC
Woffin said on 4th December 2009, 12:29
My thoughts? Vettel to Mercedes in 2011, replaced by Kimi at Red Bull.
three4three said on 4th December 2009, 12:56
or Kimi to RBR in 2011 replacing Webber and Vettel to Mercedes in 2012. Then who for 2nd RBR seat?
steph said on 4th December 2009, 12:58
Kubica or Massa three4three? Bit too soon to have any clue. I can barely understand what is happening right now!
three4three said on 4th December 2009, 13:06
Yeh Steph, it’s all very confusing now I wish a few more drivers get confirmed soon! And tbh I reckon Webber has another few years good racing in him, if this year’s anything to go by. Kubica maybe but Massa? thought you’d like to see him stay at Ferrari! :)
steph said on 4th December 2009, 13:17
I do want to see Massa stay at Ferrari but Kubica is probably going to go after his seat (obviously I back Massa to stay there just I’m covering the possibilities).
Kubica could end up at Merc or stay with Renault/Prodive/Gravity depending on contract and what actually happens.
I feel the same about Webber but it is just a question of whether he can hang on when some great drivers are on the market.
mp4-19b said on 4th December 2009, 13:10
Bye :(
steph said on 4th December 2009, 13:18
Bye to Kimi but hello again Mp4!
:)Maciek said on 4th December 2009, 16:31
We’ve had our differences mp-4, but it’s good to see you here again.
Dantton said on 4th December 2009, 18:00
Hey, the guy who coments on f1around.
I coment there as “The Stig”, but since this is a british blog, i thought someone already got that name :P
sato113 said on 4th December 2009, 14:00
I’ll be watching rallying too now he’s in it. following kimi’s progress of course.
Stacy said on 4th December 2009, 15:01
Sad to see him go, of course, but it is always better to do something you have an interest in and I respect that.
Will definitely be watching rally to monitor his progress.
Jess said on 4th December 2009, 15:52
Cant say I am sad to see him go. I did not always care for him but I do wish him the best in his new WRC.
Ral said on 4th December 2009, 16:10
Excellent news. Less stress for everyone:
- the drivers left in F1
- F1 fans who don’t like Kimi
- big name sponsors not keen on uninspiring sponsor-events
and most importantly, for Kimi himself. And already everyone in WRC is welcoming him “into the flock”. Hirvonen apparently said if he wants some help getting up to speed with pace notes, he’d be willing to provide it.
Wesley said on 4th December 2009, 17:23
I think this suits him much better…..and I can watch Kimi in a Red Bull(nice).Unfortunately,I doubt we will see him back in Formula 1 :(
Good luck Kimster….lets see what you can do in a rally car.
Dantton said on 4th December 2009, 17:52
I´ll have to admit it, I am a Kimi Raikkonen Fan…
What saddens me is that, as much as I love rallying, I am brazilian. This means that I won´t get chance of watching any decent WRC broadcasting, sice here, in Brazil, the media and the general audience tend to ignore any sport that doesn´t feature a brazilian amongst winners/tittle contenders. In fact they always do that.
Anyway, good luck to Kimi, he might be the only f1/WRC champion or even come back in 2011. Who knows what tomorrow brings?
Mark Hitchcock said on 4th December 2009, 17:52
I’m surprised he’s been signed by such a major team. It’s like Ferrari or Mclaren signing a WRC driver just because they did a few tests and weren’t the slowest on track. Kimi may have been quite impressive in Finland….until he had a stupid crash. But that doesn’t mean he should take the place of a genuinely deserving young rally driver in a top team.
No doubt he deserves a shot at rally because he was driving well until his crash, I just don’t see what he offers (other than the PR value of course) to Citroen that they couldn’t have got from an up-and-coming driver.
jason said on 4th December 2009, 18:34
Thank God this is the best news of the off season so far. let kimi go drive that god awful looking rally car, for the 2009 season it was very obvious that that’s what he wanted to do instead of driving an f1 car but on the other side of the coin he was boring as molasses puring as far as his on track performance. good riddance and i hope he pulls a proper schumi and now that he is gone he NEVER comes back to f1.
Snoopy said on 4th December 2009, 21:32
What I should feel or say? As a finn myself i love rally ofcourse, its in own blood. But i was hoping to see Kimi in F1 because there is plenty a good finnish rally drivers but not so many good finnish F1 drivers.
However I am proud for Kimi. He went for what he think is right for him and not for money. His driving in Neste Rally was amazing and top rally drivers said that as well. They were supprise for how fast he was able to learn to do notes and how fast he was on the track. Driving rallycar and F1 car are 2 complete different things.
In F1 track is allways same but things can change very fast during to rally race( horses, cows, deers, camels, pigs, holes on the track etc.)
I will miss Kimi in F1 but it will be very intresting to see he how he will copy different enviroment of Rally. I am sure he will enjoy it. Rally drivers are more relax than F1 drivers, less PR duties and he has more people around who he can talk finnish with as well.
GOOD luck Kimi.
Rikadyn said on 5th December 2009, 1:14
Hmmm… Good, will watch more WRC next season, and really don’t have a team driver to follow in F1 anymore so…I’d be more upset if it didn’t look like F1 was going to become a pure spec series in the next 5yrs…
Kimi, get a WRC Championship, then a 24hrs of LeMans championship :p
top cat said on 5th December 2009, 2:49
Vic Elford went from rallying to GP. Won the Monte Carlo Rally and finished the GP. Only one to do so.
Jim Clark almost won the RAC Rally. Moss took part in a number of rallies.