Oliver WhiteThe Finnish press are currently up in arms over a supposed leak from a member of staff at
Michael Schumacher’s manager – Willi Weber – is saying nothing other than Michael is not afraid of Kimi, and that “Michael has always been able to beat his teammate.”
Curiously, Alonso’s former manager Adrian Campos has stated that he is certain that Kimi will leave McLaren at the end of the year.
Raikkonen has said that he will make his mind up after he can asses the competitiveness of the 2006 McLaren, but surely Kimi won’t want to wait too long before deciding his future.
I discussed not so long ago about Kimi’s options, and I had decided at the time that Toyota were his best option for the long-term. But maybe the young Finn has decided he can carry on what Schumacher started. And for sure the money would be good!
I’m guessing we are going to have to wait a bit longer to find out if there is any truth in all these rumours, but I’m also betting it comes out before anybody really wants it to.
Do you think Kimi should switch to the
Via ITV-F1 and The Prancing Horse
i’m going to say yes he should go, but, the reason i believe that is because of the rule changes coming in 2008.
if manufacturer teams do end up getting less money than independents, and ferrari manage to convince the FIA that they’re not supported by Fiat, then they are the team to be with in two years time. by getting in a year early, Kimi has a chance to settle himself before launching a full-on title campaign the following year.
if the have any sense (and any say), next year ferrari should take a punt on a kimi + rossi line-up and accept it’ll probably be a bad year but one that build’s for the long term. they’ve got to loose msc soon, loads of talent but not a long term solution.
I agree, I think Ferrari would be wise to sign Kimi and Rossi and just accept that a year will be lost, but the future may be rosey. Ferrari really need to think about what they are going to do when Schumi leaves – but of course, I think they already have. I actually think they have signed Kimi.
I like your point about Ferrari trying to claim they are not supported by Fiat, thus may be entitled to more money for being an independant. There are a lot of ‘ifs’ in the statement, but it is something I hadn’t considered. If the FIA did award indie teams more money, could Ferrari really claim that Fiat don’t support them? But then, with all the talk recently about Fiat selling Ferrari, maybe it won’t be too much of a lie?
the impression i get is that ferrari would make a claim they’re actually makers of luxury consumables: toys, clothes and watches (take a look at the ferrari store for example – ferraristore.com). they’ll probably also say the cars that they make are very, very luxury consumables.
so long as they can prove fiat offer them no additional income then i think it’s highly likely that they’ll *get away* with it.