Kimi to Renault in 2011 ?!?
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Rumour has it that Kimi’s management got in touch with Boullier for a potential drive in 2011. Vitaly Petrov hasn’t been confirmed for 2011 as yet, but with the attractive commercial prospects of having a Russian driver, Renault still have to evaluate their options.
The Renault 2011 seat is definitely more attractive to drivers and sponsors than the 2010 seat, and Renault have options ranging from Petrov, Heidfeld, Sutil, and now Kimi Raikkonen.
Autosport covered this article.. take a look
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86688
Who do you think deserves the Renault 2011 seat? And could this be the 2005-06 resurgence than Renault that catapulted them from a mid field team, to being absolutely untouchable?
I want Petrov. Sure, he made a major mistake at Spa. But given his rookie status I think he is doing alright.
I want Petrov. He could be part of F1’s future and I don’t believe Kimi can add much more. He’s much more interesting in rally and has been quite alright there. I don’t care if he is the iceman and I really did want him in Mclaren but I think his time has come and I’d like to see someone else get a chance.
If I was Kimi I’d do the same and go for a competitive drive though.
There’s also no guarantee where Renault will be next year and they may even fall back if Pirelli shake the grid up a little.
Rookies are hindered enough right now so I’d like to see Petrov given a fair crack.
I would much rather see Kimi in a Red Bull or Mclaren. Petrov hasn’t impressed me too much, but you cannot deny that Renault might find him valuable as a Marketing tool/Finance source.
Adrian Sutil or Bruno Senna. Perhaps even DiGrassi who’s been doing quite well in the Virgin, and put on quite a good fight on Alonso at Monaco… Petrov to Lotus.
If Kimi does return then this is the last place he can go as all the top 4 teams have booked their seats for 2011.But I don’t think this will be a front running team in 2011,still lots of time are there. Another thing is that will Renault be able to pay Kimi a high pay check? If it happens then we will have two of the least talkative guys in the paddock in the same team.
I don’t think that Kimi really cares for the money. It seems everybody has this thing in their head that he wants $50 Million per year. We have no real sense of why the discussions broke down with McLaren last year. All we heard from Whitmarsh was that they were very close. Last year or rather for this season Kimi would make more money by not driving in F1. Also the fact that supposedly Kimi directly called Boullier is encouraging, and hinting to that he wants to come back.
It is a bit frustrating as one group are telling that Kimi said directly to the press that he is not coming back to F1 at all in the future & one group telling that the Kimi’s management have approached to Renault not sure who to believe. He is making more headlines then any F1 driver out there.
May be Kimi is just trying to squeeze more money out of somebody else, whether Citröën in WRC or Red Bull in Nascar ? “If you don’t give me what I want, I have the Renault option”. Or it could be Boullier telling Renault, if you give me more money, I can get you Kimi…
I’d absolutely love a Kubica-Raikkonen line-up. Kimi and Kubica would make me drool all over the place. Especially if the R31 proved to be as handsome as the R30 is :).
I think that Kimi would be an amazing option for Renault, not only because he is as we all know a very good driver, but also because he is a much more recognizable figure than Petrov, meaning more money for the team. The question is how much Renault still has a say in what is going on the F1 team, because Petrov opens up the Russian market for them.
I have not been impressed by Petrov this year. As a matter of fact, I think he has underperformed. I felt that he did rather well in the first few races, but except for Hungary he has never delivered. Petrov is losing Renault fourth in the WCC, which is a loss of money, which equals out his bringing money into the team. I understand that he’s a rookie, but other rookies have been much more impressive in my eyes. Kobayashi, for example, absolutely rips Petrov apart in a seriously inferior car. Similarly Hulkenberg has from time to time matched or even topped Rubens’ performance. Petrov is neither consistent nor quick. If you take away his fifth place in Hungary, he has on average scored less than a point per race. That would be fine if we had proof that he is reasonably quick, but his qualifying pace shows that he’s not.
Raikkonen would be the perfect way to make up for Kubica’s biggest weakness – lack of aggression. If you have a rookie as your teammate you have only ever once lost to (partly because you completely cocked up in Q3) you’d rather get your points home than risk the extra push. Of course, whilst often there’s no point in fighting the big three and it’s better to score regularly, a strong teammate surely would not fail to iron out that downside of Kubica’s approach to racing.
I don’t think Raikkonen would want to be back only for the money – he knows Renault cannot offer him ludicrous sums, and if he were interested in that he’d have accepted Toyota’s offer last year. Why he’d prefer F1 to WRC I do not know, but I think that Kimi’s departure was not only driven by Ferrari’s 16 million, but also by political reasons. He was fed up with all the bullshit that was present in F1. The situation has stabilized, and I think Kimi would not mind a shot at F1 in a reasonable car once again. Perhaps he realized that he’d never be able to master a rally car – Ogier has absolutely ripped him apart this year.
If I were Renault and had the choice between a mediocre driver that brings some money into the team but means a drop in performance, and a driver that is known to be a very good driver who requests quite a lot of money but is due to his star-status able to bring a lot of money in as well, I’d pick the latter any day. Especially because he doesn’t have the sort of personality that would result in a clash between Kubica and him.
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