Raikonen to join Williams on 2012?

Gaijin · 22 Sep 2011 at 23:08

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/15024539.stm

Not sure how I feel about this. Personally I think the guy is a total dry lunch and certainly looks it in that picture.

However, having him back in F1 could put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Double-however, I doubt the car will be competitive, although I hope it is.

Too many mixed emotions.

What do you lot think?

EDIT: Can a friendly sexy man beast of a mod add a "K" into the title?

Skeeter · 22 Sep 2011 at 23:15

For this to happen, Williams will need to find a large sum of money to be able to pay what Kimi will ask, and also have to somehow find a way to convince Kimi that the 2012 Williams will not be another 'back of the midfield' car.

2 things I believe they will fail to do.

Duke · 23 Sep 2011 at 08:02

No chance.

GravyMonster · 23 Sep 2011 at 09:09

I hope it will happen. But it won't.

And if it does, Kimi won't last the season before getting fed up with a complete dog of a car, and will bugger off somewhere else.

Skeeter · 23 Sep 2011 at 10:28

Spunkey said:
I hope it will happen. But it won't.

And if it does, Kimi won't last the season before getting fed up with a complete dog of a car, and will bugger off somewhere else.

This. You will note I said that Williams will have to convince Kimi they can build a better car. This is totally different to them actually building a better car.

If they do convince him to join and after half the season he is still going out in Q2 and hardly ever scoring points, he will be back on a boat to Finland faster than you can say "fancy an ICe Cream Kimi?"

dannyjo22 · 23 Sep 2011 at 10:48

Gayjin said:
What do you lot think?

I think the removal of TC and various electronic aids in 2008 hurt kimi more than many other drivers. He lost a lot of consistency. He didn't have the best racing profile prior to F1 and I think the ease of the cars to drive in the 2000's really helped him.

I think the removal of aids and a real lack of desire all added up to a driver looking washed up. Quite a few members of ferrari didn't want him and it became clear early on he wasn't a team leader. Clearly Mclaren did everything for him and his knowledge of the car was nothing compared to the levels of feedback MS would give.

He should have taken the red bull drive when it was on the table and start again. I wouldn't touch him now. He was beaten by massa a driver that he should have put to bed and in his place after 3 months. Kimi was so fast at mclaren but it all seemed to get eaten away at ferrari. Kimi was a driver though who if he turned up on a friday and the car was fast he was almost unbeatable. If the car needed a fair bit of fine tuning he got lost.

I imagine following MS at ferrari that made various members of the team think he was far inferior.

Slicks, removal of aids and less aero grip. Williams should get JPM back not Kimi. This sort of racing would suit him more than Kimi.

Mr Men · 23 Sep 2011 at 11:23

erm in 2008 Kimi was very unlucky, had Lewis not taken him out in Canada and his exhaust had not fallen apart in France then Ferrari would have not backed Massa who benefitted from it, saying removing TC hurt him is silly nonsense

He pretty much gave up at the start of 2009 though, still won a race in a terrible car and the 2nd half of the season he drove the wheels of the Ferrari.

Skeeter · 23 Sep 2011 at 11:33

Kimi leaving F1 was down to 2 things:

How much money he wanted, and how much Ferrari wanted Alonso.

Rules, regulations, skill, other drivers, anything else had little or no effect on him leaving F1.

Shimmy · 23 Sep 2011 at 16:44

Looks like it's on!

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/09/raikkonen-poised-to-return-to-f1-with-williams/

Kimi Raikkonen is on the verge of signing a deal to return to F1 with Williams.

The 2007 world champion has been in discussions with the team for several weeks, following a recent visit to the factory in Grove. Sources suggest that discussions are going the right way and they are now close to a deal.

One thing is for sure, Williams are likely to finish 9th in the Constructors’ Championship this year and that will mean a shortfall in prize money and sponsor bonus money.

However most major sponsor contracts have a clause where they pay more if a world champion comes to the team and that may be another factor to encourage the Raikkonen move, particularly if his wage demands are reasonable.

ShakenNstirred · 23 Sep 2011 at 17:55

cant see it happening

PapaLazaru · 23 Sep 2011 at 17:59

Yeah. Da' man might return. :cool:

Kenai · 23 Sep 2011 at 18:04

It may be possible he's looking at it as a path back - it's unlikely a top team would just throw him back in a top seat without seeing if he has the motivation etc. so perhaps he's looking to spend a season at Williams to show he can actually be bothered and also hopefully demonstrate he's very very fast still before someone like Red Bull might pick him for 2012.

He won't be looking at staying with Williams long term, unless they've got an ace up their sleeve with regards their future car that he's very confident in.

Weebull · 23 Sep 2011 at 18:26

NEED MOAR WORLD CHAMPIONS

EDIT: Haha, that would actually mean every champion since 2000 racing next season. Who's next, Hakkinen? Villenueve?

dannyjo22 · 23 Sep 2011 at 18:53

I would be very happy to see a kimi back with the desire and motivation again, somehow I don't expect this to last if it happens. Williams won't tolerate his ways.

barmyllama · 23 Sep 2011 at 19:49

He only needs to drive for Williams for one season.

Then in 2013 he can have Jenson's seat at McLeren when he moves to Ferrari.

I really, really hope Kimi comes back into F1.

smr · 23 Sep 2011 at 20:15

I'd love it come to fruition, he's just a fantastic driver, and personalities aside- at teh end of the day it's all about racing.

smr · 23 Sep 2011 at 20:16

Oh and won't Williams make more money from the Sky deal anyway, to help pay his demands?

Skeeter · 23 Sep 2011 at 22:04

I agree having him back would be good, and Williams need a boost, but if they do manage to sign him its got to be deal of the century! Either Kimi REALY wants back into F1, or Williams have got some seriosuly good internal marketing guys!

However, i still believe that if hes in the mid field, he wont see out the whole season.

Duke · 23 Sep 2011 at 22:06

He must be desperate to race again in F1 to go with Williams in the state they are.

englishpremier · 24 Sep 2011 at 11:07

This is looking good. Especially as he'll be strongly motivated to put in a good performance. Not that he wasn't before, he was just sick of all the nonsense and just wanted to race.

The 2009 Ferrari was a dog, and yet Kimi won at Spa and notched some nearly impossible podiums the second half of the season, when Ferrari had ceased all development. James reported in his Nov. 2009 column (The Top 5 Drivers of 2009) that even the Ferrari engineers were mystified at the speed Kimi was finding.