Raikkonen deal with Renault almost done (New developments)

Source: [globoesporte.globo.com]

Well, the news is in portuguese, so I'll translate for you guys:

Manager confirms french interest. Announcement to be made in August.

London - Renault is very near of closing a deal with Kimi Raikkonen. His manager, Steve Roberson, confirmed the interest of the french team on Kimi. He said that the announcement will be made in August. The team wanted to make the official announcement on the French Grand Prix, but the pilot has a pre-contract with Ferrari that stops him from saying anything until the end of July.

The announcement is to happen in the Hungary GP, on the 6th of August, unless Renault can antecipate the date. Flavio Briatore, who had a surgery on tuesday, is close to signing to continue with Renault and the team should announce it on Germany. The team might take the oportunity to announce Kimi as well.

The finn will probably earn the same quantity offered to the current World Champion and season leader, Fernando Alonso, around 15 Million Euros.

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There you go. This could all revert, but I think we'll be seeing a Kimi/Fisico lineup at Renault next year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2006 03:44PM by Joe_Satriani.

wonder if he will race at mclaren for the rest of the year or will they rest him as well? i think he will race

That mean Kovy is off to Red Bull?

McLaren is going to hell...

Mclaren have obviously decided to have a proper reshuffle after the loss of their 3 main technical members.

I still think he dont end up with Renault everyone knew already that all top teams wanted Kimi both Steve Robertson and Kimi both said long time ago that every top team has made offer for him and Kimi will go to the best team and to be honest I think best team next year and even currently isnt Renault but what ever Kimi and his managers decide it will be better than staying in McLaren



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2006 08:44PM by vesuvius.

marcl Wrote:
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> wonder if he will race at mclaren for the rest of the year or will
> they rest him as well? i think he will race


Nah, he'll race. Alonso is signed with Mclaren, but you don't see them putting him on rest, do you? :P Also, unlike JPM, Kimi is not an incosistent driver and he already said that he wishes to win at least one GP this year.

@Vesuvius: I share the opinion that this might not end up happening, but it seems to be going that way. I don know this however: Even when Renault don't have the odds on their side, they know how to play it so that they come out on top. And this is coming from a McLaren fan...TBH, I don't want to see Kimi anywhere but McLaren next year, but I am also his fan, and I do believe he needs to go to another team if he is to win the championship anytime soon. McLaren has a very wierd performance curve, where one year they have a great but fragile car, and the other they have a robust but slow car. Been like that for a few years now...

Raikkonen deal with Renault almost done.... hmmmmmmm a few months ago, the Raikkonen deal with Ferrari was almost done too. Wonder if he'll drive for both teams.

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Well, all the Ferrari deals said to be almost done never came from reliable sources IMO. The Renault ones does however. And even though Kimi says he's not worried, I don't think he wants to arrive near the end of the year without a contract, something that's bound to happen while Schumacher keeps doing his 'Shall I retire or not' stuff...

i think he will just stay where he is now

@ joe Satriani, i totally agree with, 02' they couldn't finish the race, 03' nearly won the championship, 04' look at 02', 05' nearly won the championship, 06', nowhere.

the thing i dont like is that if this trend continues, alonso will walk into a great car, win and take all the credit, thats why im really worried kimi might not have the best package, in a perfect world, kimi would stay put for 1 year, beat alonso then move to ferrari when schumi retires, but it wont happen.

my prediction, massa to stay as number 2, kimi to renault, who will struggle on bridgestones and schumi to walk away with the title, making it 9 championships, he WILL win it this year.

finnish newspaper have said that they have 100% sure source from inside of the Ferrari that Kimi has a contract with Ferrarri for 2007 anyway it could also be only a pre-contract but it's there anyway . I trust this newspaper very much because they were the first one to publish Kimi's contract with McLaren few months before it was released officially .But everyone knows Renault want Kimi but they also want some publicity because they will lose some big sponsors after this season one of them is Mild Seven...

with them all on the same tyres will ferrari have an advantage though?

What helped mclaren last year was having the 3rd car on friday

Well, even if Mclaren builds a fast car for next year, they'll have as much problems as Renault will on the tyre issue. I have faith in Bridgestone however, that they'll try and treat everyone on a level playing field, so it won't be a problem.

On the Schumacher issue though, i've seen so many possibilities, that until we know what he really is going to do next year, all we can do is wait. IMO, if he wins the title this year, he might want to try again next year, or retire so that he ends his career on top. If he loses it this year though, he might want to retire afterall, he won 7 already, or he might want to stay for another couple of years and try to get his eighth.....so as I see it, we can't know what'll happen there O_o

And yeah, I have a bad feeling that Schumi might win it this year. This season has a bit of 2003 written on it. Although it pains me to say this, let's hope Renault and Michelin wake and win a few more races this year to make sure they have the driver's title.

@ joe satriani, i don't consider it a bad feeling, i actually want michael to win again, im a kimi fan, but i'd rather see michael win it again than alonso, i've got nothing against alonso, but everyone kept on writing michael off, i just want him to prove them wrong and show everyone stuck up fernando's back side that he is still THE MAN!

i think he will do next year and if still hungry for it the following year as well he will stop when he is ready and i think he will just stop not like mika and hill.

I think alonso will still win this year. Remember when michelin have the best tyre alonso could win with fissi and the mclaren between him and ms. Ferrari are hoping other teams get in bewteen ms and alonso.

Schumacher seems to be back.
It wouldn't surprise me if he wins again.
Shame it was the tyres, and not the skill of each driver what decided this year's title

I hope Schumi DOES win this year! It would be one hell of a comeback plus it would guarantee us some excitement for the rest of the season....



"There are some pikeys there at Turn 10 putting tarmac down - what do you think of that?" - Martin Brundle

So the chassis doesn't count at all?

I still believe Alonso will win this year and will not go to Ferrari if Schumi is still there. I also believe that Michael will do one more season with Ferrari and no-one else.
@ralv585 who has written of Schumacher? He is winning races, enjoying himself and is driving brilliantly. Alonso deserves to win the championship just as much as Schumacher and to be honest 7 titles is plenty, i doubt Kimi or Fernando will ever achieve that despite being as talented imo.