Raikkonen not ruling out return to Ferrari or McLaren - Although committing to Lotus for another season, Kimi Raikkonen is not ruling out a return to his former Formula One teams McLaren or Ferrari in the future.

The 2007 World Champion has been praised for his highly competitive return to Formula 1 this season, but until now he has failed to add to his career tally of 18 wins.

He won all of those races for McLaren (2002-2006) and Ferrari (2007-2009), until he headed to world rallying in 2010 after being replaced at the Italian team by Fernando Alonso.

"I think the last year has been, overall, good for the team but of course you want to win races and challenge for championships," Raikkonen told the Telegraph, after Lotus announced that the 33 year old has been signed up for 2013.

"I'm not 100 percent happy," he admitted. "If I'm here I want to win and be successful."

Raikkonen does not, therefore, rule out a return at some point to Ferrari or McLaren, insisting that although his relationships with those teams did not end perfectly, the doors could still be open.

"Ferrari could have ended in a slightly nicer way but the people I worked with who are still there, I had a very good relationship with them and go and talk to them still," he explained.

"You never know," he said. "I don't know how long I will be driving for. Maybe I don't drive for many more years."

Kimi Raikkonen says his chance of winning the 2012 F1 title is now gone

Kimi Raikkonen has admitted that he is now out of the race for the 2012 F1 title despite still having a mathematical chance of lifting the crown.

The Finn sits third in the standings despite the fact he has yet to win a race this season, with six podium finishes and points in every race bar one instead keeping him in contention.

A seventh place finish in India last weekend – the first time Raikkonen has finished outside the top six since the Canadian Grand Prix back in June – means he is now 67 points away from top spot with just 75 remaining, and the 2007 title winner admitted the result had ended his title challenge.

“I had a very good car there, but I just couldn't do anything with it as I was not able to pass on the straight,” the Lotus man said of the Indian race. “It was quite disappointing but that's how it goes. We put ourselves in that position on Saturday with the set-up we chose for qualifying and we paid the price. We had the speed but not in the right place and when you are behind someone there's not much you can do.

“I really thought we had a car that meant we could fight for a podium as our lap times were good, but the mistake we made on Saturday took all the chances out. The drivers' championship battle is pretty much gone for me I think, but hopefully in the next race we can have the speed to be able to take more championship points.”

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Kimi Raikkonen will, as expected, continue racing with Lotus next year. It follows a successful comeback season for the Finn, who lies third in the championship on the back of six podium finishes and point-scoring results in all but one 2012 round.

Raikkonen, world champion with Ferrari in 2007, joined Lotus on a two-year deal last November and with performance criteria on both sides no doubt having been met, the team released a promotional video on Monday indicating that the partnership will indeed continue.

“I think my return to Formula One has gone pretty well and the team has done a very good job all year so far,” said Raikkonen in a subsequent team statement. “To be honest, I didn’t expect to be fighting for the drivers’ championship this season when you look at where the team was in 2011, so it has been great to be on the podium so many times and to score points on a regular basis.

“I feel very comfortable with Lotus F1 Team and we share the same philosophy of racing. Continuing with the team was an obvious choice for me and I’m looking forward to making another step forward together next year.”

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Kimi Raikkonen is not moving anywhere. Lotus is going to be his home for another year and the way he has performed on his return to Formula One, Kimi should be fairly satisfied.

After another points finish in the Indian Grand Prix this Sunday, Kimi is still six points ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber in third place on the Driver's Championship. The 2007 World Champion spoke ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend. Excerpts...


Tell us about your previous experience at Abu Dhabi?
So far I have done only one race in Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. It was my last race with Ferrari and of course my last before I moved to rallying.


You didn't race for two years after that race - is there any relationship between the two?
That was a boring race, I can tell you! I finished the race back in 12th position and there was nothing I could do during the race. I'm looking forward to improving on my record at the track and I'm sure it should be a more interesting race for me this time round!


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Former Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen has said he wants to win the Formula One drivers' championship with Lotus after he signed a new deal with the team, which would keep him with the team in the 2013 season.

The 2007 world champ, who is still in with a remote chance of taking this year's title, reckons he can give it an even better go next season.

"I think it has gone pretty well and the team has done a very good job all year so far," the Sun quoted Raikkonen, as saying.

"To be honest I didn't expect to be fighting for the drivers' championship this season when you look at where the team was in 2011, so it has been great to be on the podium so many times and to score points on a regular basis," he added.

"I feel very comfortable with Lotus and we share the same philosophy of racing. Continuing with the team was an obvious choice for me and I'm looking forward to us making another step forward together next year," he said.

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Kimi Raikkonen has not ruled out a future return to Ferrari or McLaren. It was confirmed on Monday that the 2007 world champion, in his first season back in the sport after two years competing in the World Rally Championship, would stay with Lotus for 2013.

But the 33 year-old told The Daily Telegraph he believes anything is possible in Formula One.

Despite not having won a race this year, Raikkonen currently sits in third place in the drivers’ championship, above Red Bull’s Mark Webber and the McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. The Finn’s pace, always highly rated, has been matched by his impressive consistency.

Raikkonen has scored points in every grand prix bar one – China – beating his younger team mate Romain Grosjean 15 times out of 17 in the process. Grosjean’s seat for next year has not yet been confirmed by Lotus.

Kimi Raikkonen has conceded that his 2012 Formula 1 title hopes are now dead, but still believes he can end the year on a high.

In his F1 comeback season with Lotus after two years away in rallying, 2007 champion Raikkonen emerged as a surprise title contender via a string of podium finishes, despite not winning a race.

The Finn remains third in the standings, and until recently had avidly monitored the points gap between himself and the leaders in the hope of staying in the fight until the end.

But with Sebastian Vettel's run of dominant form coinciding with Lotus fading slightly, Raikkonen is now 67 points adrift with only 75 available in the remaining three races.

He said the final blow was only finishing seventh in India, trapped behind Felipe Massa's slower Ferrari after qualifying badly on a weekend when Lotus was sure it had podium pace at least.

"We had the speed but not in the right place and when you are behind someone there's not much you can do," said Raikkonen, who has extended his Lotus deal into 2013.

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Kimi Raikkonen: We changed the car after this morning's session and we were quite confident heading in to qualifying. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to have any grip this afternoon so it was much more difficult than we thought


Kimi Raikkonen has admitted he was disappointed to only qualify seventh for the Indian Grand Prix.

The Lotus driver had been fifth overall this morning in final practice, however, in Q3 he was unable to match the Red Bulls, McLarens and Ferraris, and ended up 'best of the rest', on a 1 minute 26.236 seconds, 0.379 seconds off P6.

Speaking after the session, the Finn explained that changes to his E20 following FP3 hadn't worked out as planned.

“We changed the car after this morning's session and we were quite confident heading in to qualifying. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to have any grip this afternoon so it was much more difficult than we thought. I'm quite disappointed to be starting from seventh as I thought we had a much better car than that,” he lamented.

Team-mate Romain Grosjean meanwhile was similarly frustrated and he found himself just edged out in Q2. He will start eleventh in the sister car.

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Kimi Räikkönen took seventh while Romain Grosjean finished ninth in a solid but frustrating Indian Grand Prix where both drivers finished right behind the cars ahead. Kimi maintains third position in the Drivers’ Championship on 173 points; 54 away from Fernando Alonso ahead and six in front of Mark Webber behind. The team remains fourth in the Constructors’ Championship on 263 points; 43 behind McLaren and an increased 127 in front of Mercedes.

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Kimi Raikkonen will be a much stronger driver in 2013 than he was during his comeback season for Lotus, reckons his team boss.

Lotus announced on Monday that Raikkonen had signed a fresh deal with the team that will keep him at Enstone until at least the end of next year.

Team boss Eric Boullier acknowledged to AUTOSPORT that Raikkonen had taken some time to get up to full speed this year, but he added that by next season the Finn will be back to his very best.
"I am more than happy that he is staying because that is always a bit of a gamble when someone comes back to F1," said Boullier in an exclusive interview.

"If it looked like it took him a while from the outside we don't believe it took him that long. And we believe next year will be much more rewarding in terms of points, because we have been through this learning stage this season.

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Kimi Raikkonen says his desire to win is as strong as ever, following the news that he has signed on for a second season with Lotus.

The 33-year-old Finn may have failed to win a grand prix so far in his comeback campaign, but he currently lies third in the championshipl, has finished in the points in all but one race and has also completed every racing lap.

Raikkonen last won a grand prix at Spa in 2009 and, having come close to victory on a couple of occasions this season, admits the desire to add a 19th win to his tally still burns strong.

"My hunger for winning is exactly the same as always and I think I've shown that I'm capable of fighting for victories," said Raikkonen. "Obviously there have been none so far this year, but we have come close a few times and for sure we'll keep on trying for as long as it takes to start winning again.

"This season has shown me that I still love racing as much as I ever did," he added. "Obviously, I would have not come back to the sport if I did not feel like this.

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Kimi Raikkonen says he prefers one-year Formula One contracts because it makes his life “less hassle”.
The 2007 world champion’s Lotus team announced this week that the Finn was staying with them next year after a successful comeback season.

With the regulations changing significantly for 2014, continuity is likely to be important for teams and Raikkonen was asked at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Thursday why he had not signed a longer deal.

“I’m happy to do year by year and see what happens,” said the 33-year-old. “It makes life more easy for me, and I don’t see a reason why I should make long-term contracts.

“I try to do well enough that I don’t have to worry about it when it comes to the time to sign, that I will have somewhere to race.

“Plus for me it’s easier like that. If you want to decide to go somewhere and do something else it’s less hassle and less problems.”

Raikkonen has had six podium finishes this season and is third overall in the championship, albeit 67 points behind Red Bull’s leader and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel, with three races remaining. The former Sauber, McLaren and Ferrari driver has seemed happy at Lotus, the former Renault team, even if he still finds media and sponsor activities a tiresome necessity.

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Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen has said that he is hoping to get more out their updates after an encouraging second free Friday practice session of the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix held at Yas Marina Circuit.

Raikkonen didn’t seem comfortable behind the wheel of his car during the first practice session and could only set 10th fastest time. However, he showed a remarkable improvement in his car during FP2 and came 6th in the timesheets.

Even though, he said that he is not completely satisfied with his car, but he is hoping to see improvements in the pace of E20 ahead of the qualifying of this weekend’s race.

“We tried the new exhaust and we spent most of time in practice on that and didn't really change car a lot apart from those new parts,” Raikkonen said. “It didn't feel very nice, the car but the lap times seems to be pretty OK still so I was bit surprised how good time was even when it wasn't very nice to drive. Hopefully we can improve and it should mean we can get a bit more closer even than what we are today.”

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Kimi Raikkonen says he has already seen enough of Lotus's latest updates to feel the team can take a step forward in performance for the rest of the season.

The Enstone-based outfit began the second half of the campaign with high hopes that a development push could take its Finnish driver to the title success.

But a failure to match the development spend of rival teams Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari has left the team to endure a few tough races during the Autumn and dropped its lead driver out of the hunt for the title.
However, a change in exhaust philosophy towards the Coanda-effect concept has helped. A second iteration of that design, aimed at recouping some of the lost horsepower appears to be working well.

Raikkonen reckons his Friday performance in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix practice offered only a glimpse of what is possible for the rest of the weekend once the car is properly set-up.

"We have improved," he said. "But while you gain some downforce, you give away some horsepower, so we'll try to get it back.

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Kimi Raikkonen thinks he will should be able to find four tenths of a second if he can get his car sorted for the rest of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

The Lotus driver struggled with the handling of his car during practice on Friday, but admitted he was surprised by how quick he was given his problems.
Raikkonen, running the new Coanda-style exhausts, finished the second session in sixth position, some seven tenths of a second behind pace-setter Sebastian Vettel.

The Finn is hopeful he will get closer to the front if he can solve the issues that hindered him today.
"We tried the new exhausts and didn't really change the car a lot apart from those parts, and it didn't feel very nice," he said.

"But the laptime seems pretty OK still. I am a bit surprised how good the time was when it wasn't very nice to drive.

"Hopefully we can improve and it should mean that we can get a bit closer even than where we are today.

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Michael Schumacher will join a growing list of failed sporting comebacks when he retires at the end of this season, but that’s not a list Finnish former world champion Kimi Raikkonen ever feared to be part of when he returned to F1 with Lotus this season.

The 33-year-old Finn replaced Schumacher at Ferrari after the German’s first retirement in 2006 to pursue a career in Superbikes. Raikkonen went on to win the F1 world title immediately after in 2007.

But he finished third and sixth in the next two seasons and opted for a break from the sport himself in 2010 to focus on rally driving.

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Kimi Raikkonen believes Lotus can still win a race this season despite Red Bull's recent dominance.

Having been close to victory in Bahrain, Barcelona and Hungary it appeared that Lotus' best chance to win in 2012 had gone after Sebastian Vettel won four races in a row while neither Raikkonen nor Romain Grosjean made the podium.

However, Raikkonen believes he had one of the fastest cars in India but had hurt his ability to display it by making a set-up error for qualifying, and thinks with a bit of luck a victory can still be achieved.

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Romain Grosjean admits he doesn't know why only Kimi Raikkonen has been confirmed as staying with Lotus for 2013.

Raikkonen's contract extension was announced the day after the Indian Grand Prix, but no comment was given on Grosjean's future. When asked if it was because Raikkonen could command enough publicity on his own, Grosjean admitted he was unsure why his own seat has yet to be decided.

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Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen believes that they can still score a race win in the remainder of the 2012 Formula 1 season regardless of Red Bull Racing’s dominance in the last few races.

The Enstone based team has been deemed as one of the most competitive contenders in this year’s championship fight and has performed quite convincingly in the season so far. However, they have not been able to claim any victory until now.

Raikkonen asserted that he was really upset over the result of the Indian Grand Prix as his car was competent enough to win.

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Kimi Raikkonen has admitted he is happy to take his return to F1 one step at a time.

The 2007 world champion returned to the sport in 2012 after a two-year rallying foray, and has just signed a contract extension with Lotus for 2013.

Earlier this week, he refused to rule out a return one day to his former teams McLaren or Ferrari.

"I'm happy to do year by year and see what happens," he said in Abu Dhabi.

"It makes life more easy for me, and I don't see a reason why I should make long-term contracts.

"If you want to decide to go somewhere and do something else it's less hassle and less problems," added the 33-year-old.

While one world champion’s comeback hasn’t gone as expected, another world champion is enjoying a dream return to Formula One.
Michael Schumacher hasn’t quite had it going in his second stint, but everything has fallen in place for Kimi Raikkonen, except that elusive win.

Raikkonen, who raced for Sauber, McLaren-Mercedes and finally won a world title with Ferrrari, quit the sport. But he made a comeback this season with LotusF1, formerly Renault. The ‘Iceman’ sits third in the drivers’ standings after notching six podium finishes.

Raikkonen and Lotus had signed a two-year deal with the second year based on a performance clause. With good results coming their way, the pair have induced that clause and the Finn will be driving for them in 2013.

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There were many doubts about how the Kimi Raikkonen/Lotus relationship would work in the Finn's return to F1. The results, however, have erased those doubts. Jonathan Noble explains why, in Raikkonen, Lotus has the man it needs

There are some qualities that a top Formula 1 driver must have that cannot be measured on a stop watch. And no matter how quick you may be – how much potential as a racer you may appear to have – if you don't have these inner strengths then you can forget it.

We are talking about 'belief' here – that vital element a team must invest 100 per cent in its driver. It has to know that if it goes the extra mile, then the man in the cockpit will dig deep to find another tenth, which can be all the difference between hero and zero.

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Kimi Raikkonen had no excuses about his mishap at the end of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, but was still hoping for a successful race outing at Suzuka on Sunday.

Kimi Raikkonen was in his usual taciturn frame of mind when he was asked what had happened at the end of the final round of qualifying for the 2012 F1 Grand Prix of Japan.

"I spun," he said simply, of the incident at Spoon that brought out waved yellow fags at a critical point of Q3 and meant several drivers had to lift out of their final flying lap attempts at Suzuka.

"I was on a good lap and I was pushing - maybe a little too hard," he admitted when pressed. "Lost the rear," he added.

"It's a shame as the car feels the best it has all weekend," he continued. "If the car's good tomorrow we should be able to move forwards. Let's see what happens.”

Raikkonen didn't have a chance to try another flying lap after his spin and duly ended up in eighth place on the timesheets in Q3, although he'll be boosted up a position thanks to a gearbox penalty for Jenson Button. The two drivers will start alongside each other on the fourth row of the grid.

Kimi Raikkonen believes he could have qualified fourth had he not spun off during Q3 at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Raikkonen was eighth fastest but will start from seventh on the grid once Jenson Button's grid penalty is taken into account. The Lotus driver was struggling for pace during practice, but said the car was much quicker by the time he reached the final stage of qualifying.

"We had some issues the whole weekend so it wasn't easy, but we had the speed in qualifying and I think we were fourth fastest but unfortunately I spun off," he said. "Looking at how difficult it has been with all the problems, it's been okay. I would rather it was like this than I'd been eighth because I was slow. So we had the speed at least.

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Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen has said that they have decided not to use their new double DRS device in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix as it failed to provide the desired results after testing in the Friday practice.

The Enstone based team first came up with their new device for the first time in the practice session of the Belgian GP but they haven’t used it since then as they believe that there is still a lot of work to be done on the design so as to get the most out of it.

Even though, they planned to take the advantage of their double DRS at Suzuka, however, Raikkonen thinks that they are not yet ready to run it at this point in time.

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Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean conducted setup evaluation runs and upgrade evaluations during the first day of running at the fabulous Suzuka circuit today.

Under glorious skies both cars ran reliably in the morning, however Kimi suffered a coolant-leak induced KERS issue in the afternoon meaning he missed most of the session.

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director - Technical programme notes:

• We ran updated front wings on both cars today.
• In the morning we ran the DDRS Device on Kimi's car and an updated rear wing on Romain's. In the afternoon, both cars used non DDRS rear wings.
• The Singapore-spec floor was evaluated on both cars.
• Pirelli's hard compound tyre was used in the morning, the hard and soft in the afternoon.


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NEW DELHI: They call him the Iceman and he's returning to Suzuka after a gap of three year. It was not the perfect start that Kimi Raikkonen  was hoping for on his return for the Japanese Grand Prix, only managing to clock the 14th fastest time with the Lotus team.

The former World Champion agreed that this was not the ideal start to the weekend. "We didn't get much running in FP2 because of the issue with the KERS, but at least it happened today and we got it fixed. It's not ideal when we're searching for the best setup but there's nothing you can do about these things. Suzuka is not the easiest place to get the car set up, but we still have tomorrow's practice before qualifying," Raikkonen said after clocking 1:34.291, a good two second behind leader Mark Webber  of Red Bull.

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Kimi Raikkonen has kept rumours about his plans for 2013 alive by insisting he is yet to agree to stay at Lotus.

Team chiefs Eric Boullier and Gerard Lopez have recently said the 2007 world champion is definitely staying in 2013, due to a contract 'option'.

At the same time, there have been signs that Lotus is an active player in the 2013 'silly season'.

And Raikkonen is now quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper in Japan: "I don't have any agreement for next season yet."

The monosyllabic Finn was willing to give much less away about his rival's plans, including Lewis Hamilton's switch to Mercedes, and the loss of Michael Schumacher's seat.

"That has nothing to do with me and that's why I don't want to comment on anything like that which is not related to me," Raikkonen insisted.

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Kimi Raikkonen believes he can still deliver a Japanese Grand Prix result that will keep him in the championship hunt, despite a difficult opening day of practice.

The Lotus driver was unable to get confident enough with the team's double-DRS, which has been ditched for this weekend, in first practice before losing time with a KERS failure in the afternoon.
Despite the setbacks, Raikkonen thinks that Lotus is in better shape than it has been in recent races, which gives him confidence he can close down championship leader Fernando Alonso.

"Hopefully we can score more points than Fernando," said Raikkonen. "Even if we lose a place to Lewis [Hamilton] right now, it makes no difference.

"We just have to try and gain on the front and hopefully at the next race we will get more new parts and it should make a bigger difference. We should be okay."

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Lotus will not run its rear wing 'device' at this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix after it failed to offer a significant advantage in Friday practice.

The system, often dubbed the double DRS, was fitted to the car for first time since practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, but again the team struggled to get it working properly. Kimi Raikkonen said a number of problems with the 'device' meant it would not be fitted for Saturday and Sunday.

"It worked a little bit but we're not going to run it," he confirmed. "Plus we had some other issue during the running so it probably didn't help to get the best out of it. But it's not going to make us really near the front if it would work 100%.

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Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen has said that they have fallen quite off the pace as compared to their major rivals which include, Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Ferrari.

Raikkonen struggled with the pace of his car during the Singapore Grand Prix which was held at Marina Bay Street Circuit and could only secure sixth place finish. Although, he was a little bit disappointed over his lack of pace in the last race, nevertheless, he believes that they can surely take the advantage of their update package and can improve their performance in the remainder of the season.

Moreover, he said that they are positively looking forward perform well in the Japanese GP which is to be held at Suzuka this weekend. He also said that they have planned to launch some essential updates in the Korean GP with which they hope to attain a competitive edge over other rivals.

“I think we've fallen off a little bit from the guys; the others have improved,” Raikkonen said. “We have some small parts - new parts - here so hopefully it will get us back more where we were being before. But I think we have to try to do the best over the weekend here and hopefully then for Korea we should get bigger improvements so if that works we should improve a bit more so we'll see.”


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