Raikkonen denies Renault F1 rumours

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Kimi Raikkonen has strongly denied rumours he is considering an F1 return with Renault in 2011.

He told Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat:

I am very disappointed with how they have used my name for their own marketing. I have never even seriously considered driving for Renault, and I can assure you that I am 100 per cent sure that I will not drive for Renault next season.
Kimi Raikkonen

Raikkonen’s plans for 2011 have not yet been announced. He is currently driving for the Citroen Junior Team in the World Rally Championship. Team mate Sebastien Ogier will step up from the Junior Team to partner champion Sebastien Loeb next year.

Read more: Should Renault sign Raikkonen? (Poll)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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50 comments on “Raikkonen denies Renault F1 rumours”

  1. I’m afraid this means Petrov…

    1. Yep… the least deserving candidate with the most sponsorship wins again.

      What I found funny was Petrov questioning the possible reasons Renault management have to favour Raikonnen over him.

      If i had to answer that …

      1) He is approximately a second a lap faster than you on any circuit, at any given time.
      2) He makes around 95% lesser errors than you do.
      3) He is a race winner and a WDC.

      For a guy who has been very unimpressive, his sponsorship money has definitely made him very smug.

      1. On the other hand Petrov is a young Rookie… Kimi is not exactly known for his great PR ability, and Kimi, if offered a better car or a better salary, would likely jump ship…

        I see your point, But Petrov does have some things going for him…

  2. I’m afraid too, but perhaps next season will be better for Petrov. We can’t forget about experience which he is collecting this year.

  3. So yeh, all that stuff on your website was a Renault marketing scam. Your agent being the one to make the first move was a Renault marketing scan. You’re so disappointed it’s taken you the best part of the week to respond.

    We’re not idiots, Raikkonen. If we’ve jumped to the conclusion you wanted to come back it’s your own fault. Considering the way you left F1, expect many to believe this was really a scam to get more money from Red Bull, since that lovely $17m from Ferrari runs out next year.

    Before I get flamed by Kimi fans, no I don’t believe that. But Raikkonen has no right to play the victim here.

    On the plus side, this means if Petrov doesn’t improve Glock or Sutil can finally move up.

    1. True, they’re both long overdue to get a shot in a performing car. However they both seem to be dreadfully boring fellows…I hope I’m wrong

      1. Sutil made me laugh at last year’s Italian Grand Prix with the “Do you know her?”, “Not yet” line.

        Glock seems to be hopelessly dull though.

    2. Turning out like someone said here last week.

      Both sides gained from the ‘marketing scam’ this latest statement is to heighten the media interest one last time, probably job done now and a nice new contract for the WRC

      1. How true that is. Is it sad or is it clever?

        So now were back to where we were with the rumours last week (one point of interest, if Renault do not want to get Petrov in the Lotus, this might give Chandhok some kind of a chance there).

    3. Soumya Banerjee
      6th October 2010, 12:12

      Well if for you F1 is more about marketing glitz and glamour rather than racing,cant help it.
      Long live Iceman!!!

      1. That couldn’t have less to do with what he said.

        1. And a perfect example of how NOT to write a good comment for the thread in the forum.

  4. This is bad really… fans are getting mixed signals and different stories from all over the place, so what are we supposed to believe?

    1. The funny thing is that even the official F1 website claims this story?

      1. Where’d you see that? I don’t see it anywhere on their site.

  5. Well our suspicions are confirmed, but it would have been nice to have Kimi back.

  6. If only racing cars were fuelled by your sense of humour, whereby the funnier you were, the faster you would go (bonus points for being unintentionally hilarious). If that were the case, Petrov would be winning races, especially after this gem in his reaction to the Raikkonen rumours:

    “I feel that they are satisfied and pleased with me. A benefit with me, in any case compared to Kimi, is that they don’t have to pay me as much.”

    But maybe I’ve been hanging around the Russians too much. Their sense of humour is starting to rub off on me (“Dune? Sounds dry.”) …

  7. I hope this is Kimi trying to lead the media astray so Renault and Kimi can get down to negotiations…

    1. Sorry, but that’s pretty thin. If Raikkonen wanted to talk, he’d send a message to Renault through his manager asking them to stop dropping his name. It would give Kimi a bit more weight in the negotiations. Publicly deriding them for doing it and saying in no uncertain terms that he won’t drive for them does nothing for his cause. Kimi has always been the kind of person who speaks his mind, so if he says something like this, he generally means it. The suggestion that he is collaborating with Renault to stage a comeback is needlessly complex and achieves nothing because there is no logical outcome to it. This will not be a case of Renault signing Raikkonen in a coup de grace to attract more stable long-term spoonsors, because it is already well-known just how good the R30 chassis is, and it will form the basis of the R31. This isn’t Kimi bluffing. This is Kimi folding.

      1. Yeh I know, but one can still hope!

        1. Hope away – you’re ot the only one who is. I’ll say this about Kimi fans, though: while they can sometimes be mistaken for an angry mob, they have very vivid imaginations. And I pride myself on having an eye for imagination.

          1. So what you’re saying is that Kimi’s coming back for sure? I imagined that’s what you’re saying at least… ;-)

  8. The takings were for weeks why he didn’t denied it a the very moment when it started? I am really dissapointed I thought both Kimi & Kubica would have been a very good team-mates. So the question remains who will seat on the second seat? If Petrov can provide some good result in the last couple of races then it’s him if not then Heidfeld will be a better option.

    1. why he didn’t denied it a the very moment when it started?

      Because he was using the hype to leverage his WRC contract with Red Bull for next year, just like Renault was using the situation to leverage all their prospective drivers.

  9. OMG, Eric shot himself in the foot, didn’t see that coming! Can we start the Raikkonen to Mercedes rumours up now? Or better still Redbull sponsors Kimi, Lotus just announced they are using Redbull technology next year and are yet to confirm a driver line up = Kimi at Lotus? What about Vettel loses the title, leaves Redbull to join Ferrari, Kimi joins Redbull!
    On a serious note, although Rubens has stated that he is working on next years car for Williams , they are yet to sign him or Hulkenburg. Heidfeld will not retain his Sauber drive for next year, so under no circumstances is Petrovs drive guaranteed.

    1. OMG, Eric shot himself in the foot, didn’t see that coming!

      Given Raikkonen’s comments, it is unlikely he ever intended to drive for the team. Renault may have freely bandied his name about because they knew he wouldn’t race.

      Heidfeld will not retain his Sauber drive for next year, so under no circumstances is Petrovs drive guaranteed.

      Heidfeld won’t race for Renault. One of the reasons why he didn’t join Renault this year is because Kubica didn’t want to race against him again. He moved to Renault because he wanted a change of pace. It stands to reason that he didn’t want the single biggest constant in his career hanging around.

      1. from what i understand it wasnt a matter of kubica not wanting to race against nick, it was more a matter of very different driving styles and being hard to develop a car to fit both drivers, it happened before at bmw sauber, another factor was nick asked too much money, eric said kubica was asked for his opinion on nick but the decision was made by the team management

  10. Raikkonen in emotional outburst? Has the world gone mad?

    What next – Michael Schumacher apologising for something? Jenson Button saying that he has enough grip? Martin Brundle standing in line politely?

    1. ….. and Alonso saying that he is hoping to win starting from pole. (He never says he is going to win.

  11. @Prisoner Monkeys I only hope the R31 is a succession to the R30, but are you forgetting the rule changes to next year. No blown diffusers means a much tighten rear end and total change of chassis. It’s a new ball game for everyone… Who will be the new Adrian Newey?

    1. Adrian Newey.

      1. Hah! Nicely done.

    2. I only hope the R31 is a succession to the R30, but are you forgetting the rule changes to next year. No blown diffusers means a much tighten rear end and total change of chassis.

      Most of Renault’s work this year has focused on the front end. That’s where they’re generating such phenomenal downforce figures from. While aerodynamics is treated as a whole (after all, Virgin couldn’t just cut the VR-01 in half, add in a larger fuel tank and lengthen the car; they have to redesign it), the back end of the R31 – specifically the rear bodywork, which has th most influence over the diffuser – hasn’t changed too much. I think Renault will be fairly safe, and while the R31 won’t improve by leaps and bounds the way the R30 has, nor do I think they’ll go into freefall. Car development tends to follow a convex curve; you might pick up a second with your first upgrade, but only get a tenth of a second with your last. As the chassis’ potential is maximised, there is less room for improvement. The changes between 2010 and 2011 aren’t anything major compared to the changes between 2008 and 2009, and while Renault didn’t exactly weather those admirably, the past has no bearing on the future in Formula 1.

  12. I’m with you on that one Keith!

  13. If you believe Ross Brawn, it’s all in the tyres.

    1. Ah, yes the tyres.

      Maybe you’ve hit on something there ;-)

      Maybe Kimi realises after a year out and the changes to tyre and full tank racing he’d only be running around MSC’s pace…. 10th ish!

      lol

  14. UneedAFinn2Win
    6th October 2010, 16:24

    Here’s Kimis PA, Riku Kuvaja, in a Finnish tabloid http://www.iltalehti.fi/ralli/2010100612472760_ri.shtml

    quick translation:
    “Kimi didn’t worry about it much. It just isn’t gentlemanly of them (Renault) to use an outsiders name in their own marketing, says Riku Kuvaja about the month long rumor of Räikkönen going to drive for the team”
    Has Kimi contacted Renault
    “No”
    and then he just basically says the same line “we have many options, which we will publish later”

    I think I’ve mentioned here before, if he goes to F1, good, if he stays in Rally, good.

  15. I think Kimi was angry(!) because his Manager’s approach to Renault was to be kept confidential??

  16. Oh darn. I would have liked him back on track.

  17. massa out. raikkonen in..

    1. Don’t think so.

    2. Luca wants Massa to be there NUMBER 1 driver! So I don’t think that is happening until they wants to do what HRT did swap drivers a each race weekend.

    3. alonso out kimi in
      i plain dont like aloso after the german gp

  18. is it safe to say most of us expected this?…

  19. Yet another flash in the pan.
    Lets face it, if Renault really wanted Kimi, doubt they’d have made so much noise about it. Any decent driver will not put himself in a position where he appears to be begging for a drive.

  20. Who needs the most overrated pilot to ever walk in the grid anyways. He was slower then Heidfeld in his first year, spent his McLaren years breaking his cars and beating DC (massive acheivement), and as a Ferrari driver he was blasted away by tiny Massa. Let him suffer a bit in WDC instead of paying him fortunes for virtually nothing.

  21. KEITH!
    I’d like to share with you that the Polish sports website “www.sport.pl” has referenced your blog (and the poll you’ve made) in their article on the same subject:
    http://www.sport.pl/F1/1,96297,8470975,F1__Wsciekly_Raikkonen__Renault_uzylo_mojego_nazwiska.html

    “A prestigious F1 fans blog – “F1Fanatic” speculates if Kimi is the right driver for making Ranault stronger. As many as 70% of the blog’s readers have stated in an online poll that the Fin should join Renault.”

  22. Haha..I could see that coming….If u observe…..Contract talks are always a bit close and confidential….
    But Reading Eric’s Comments…you could actually see he’s just shooting in the air and showing off….while making Kimi’s management wait……
    It would have been better if He wouldn’t have spoken so much while making his management wait…..
    Kimi has never looked so angry in his comments anytime…
    U lost it Eric u lost it…..

  23. kimi should drive for rbr and f1 should make it so 3 drivers can drive for one team

  24. After those comments i can’t see kimi going to renault at all, would be good to see him back on track next year but i think mercedes might try sign him up if schumacher under performs next year, but we won’t see him back in f1 till the season after next i think. would of been great to see him in webbers red bull this year as he would of been very quick. i see kubica going to ferrari aswell sometime soon mabey year after next though

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