The future of Kimi Raikkonen is an odd thing. The Fin stated that fans might find his decision odd but that he would be behind his team no matter where he went. We thought that was an odd statement and being conspiracy theorists, we wondered if that didn’t signal a return to Ferrari or at least talk between the two.
Then this week, Kimi’s manager told the press that the deal with Red Bull was not going to happen for 2014 and some considered this a good sign that the Fin might be willing to stay at Lotus F1. The team has a much smaller budget than Ferrari or Red Bull but Kimi seems to be a good fit there…at least until team boss Eric Boullier added his commentary on the famously disengaged driver:
“If we can’t afford him because of finances, then I don’t want to have him because he will be a pain in the arse – and it will difficult to build something on this.”
Now that’s an odd way of saying that you’d like to have him if the money is right but if he asks too much, the team simply can’t afford to blow the whole budget on a driver. If he’d had said that, I would have considered that a wise position but that isn’t what he said. What he said was that if they paid Kimi big money to stay, he’d be a pain in the ass. What?
Surely Boullier means that Raikkonen’s big salary would be a pain in the arse to the team and take away from the resources they need to develop the car, right? Or did he? How do you read that comment? Is it a simple case of resources being a pain and salaries that are large won’t allow them to build upon the development program or is a well-paid Kimi Raikkonen a real pain in the arse to the team given his attitude? Let the conspiracies roll!
Ultimately I think AUTOSPORT has the right call on the comment in which Boullier is simply stating they won’t break the bank to keep Kimi as that would be a real pain to the team but when you’re hanging on every word to find some evidence of where Kimi might go for 2014, it’s fun to speculate and create conspiracies from thin air.
The enigma that is Kimi Raikkonen is never dull and I do love the simple fact that a guy who says very little can create so much talk around him…but then that is Kimi.
