consolidated

Interesting article. Hoping Kimi buries the red cars in 2012.

"THE TRUTH ABOUT KIMI RAIKKONEN, FERRARI AND SANTANDER IN 2008"
http://f1bias.com/2012/04/05/truth-a...antander-2008/

Racerrob

Wow, I am a long time Ferrari fan but that was real BS they pulled. Sponsorship is certainly important to any team but a team of Ferrari's stature never has a problem landing a big fish. I guess it is poetic justice that little miss sunshine and all his money have not been able to do much.

FGL28

It doesn't surprise me that Alonso, again, is part of some dirty dealing. Spy gate, Crashgate, Sponsergate this guy always is in the middle of it.

Ray S

It's uncanny how scandal and conspiracy follow Alonso from team to team. Obviously nothing more than coincidence, nothing to do with the drover.

Surely as the "best driver in F1" he will develop the car onto the top step this year as it has all been foretold......

Veloce Raptor

FIFY

paradisenb

No matter where, when or with what team, if DV is involved scandal and dirty dealing will lead or follow.

Can't see why Ferrari didn't just say -Business Decision -. We are taking on DV because it is in our best financial interest. Period. But noooo. They have to be $hit heads about it and screw around a talented driver and destroy their own car and title chances in the process.
And what did they get? FM in a crash that has basically ended his competitive career, a car that for both years DV has been there has been less than the car Kimi left them and a lot of fans who have lost all respect for Ferrari as an organization. Whew! Brilliant!

ltc

I will not stand for this libelous slander fabricated against the Best Driver in F1 and the driver who IS the 2012 WDC (after only 2 races it should be obvious).

Therefore, I am left with no other option other than to report this thread in the hopes that it will be deleted.

FGL28

Who are you and what did you do with Lewis?

multi21

I read the entire article and there are so many holes in it that it looks like Swiss cheese. The author is a blogger, no different than everyone here on Rennlist with a lot of "Opinions". Some things make sense and others he leaves to speculation and says as much in his article.

Do I believe Santander pushed Kimi out? Yes, but I don't think Ferrari purposely sabatoged Kimi. If you look back at that year, Kimi made a lot of mistakes which the author calls "bad luck".

And to keep Massa because of an IPO now, makes absolutely no sense when Ferrari could have had Senna in the off season. I don't buy this story.

Soren

Hey guys. As the "blogger" in question I thought I would chime in just for fun
First of all, I am not the main author, but a friend called wrcva. And even though we are not investigative journalists, we do not claim to be either.
However, even if our opinion may shine through, I am sure you are aware that the same can be true even of acclaimed journalists.
In this case you could say that we are only calling the shots as we see them.

The idea behind the post is that there is a chain of events that took place. It is documented well enough for anyone with the time and inclination to do the digging to find - as wrcva did here. All we did was connect the dots. While I may or may not be biased on this, I think the articles speak for themselves. I do not think we have made any wild stretches to make the parts fit. And there are tons of more stuff out there. We just had to leave a lot out to still make it readable. More research wouldnt hurt, which we also encourage in the post.

Anyway, in the end it is up to everyone to make what they will. For me its pretty obvious at least. That money rules decisions in F1 is hardly a shocking fact or a new discovery.
The upsetting part is the way it was done. Sabotage is a strong word, but the PR machine was clearly set in motion that year.

As for the "lot of mistakes" you mention Pete, I would not agree. The big mistakes he made was in Monaco while crashing into Sutil. But his race was already destroyed before it began when Ferrari didnt get his tires on and he received a drive-tru. Another was in Singapore when going to hard over the kerbs and hitting the wall. I would not count crashing out in Spa under tricky conditions on slicks while battling for the lead as a mistake. But thats me. And there was Australia going wide in the gravel while advancing through the field.

His biggest problem that year was qualifying. Kimi could not heat his tyres enough for a quick single lap for most part of the season. But being one who followed him closely that year, it was clear that his race pace was blistering once his tires got 4 or 5 laps on them. With DRS, its safe to say that he would have made up places easily - but such were not the rules back then. Often he was stuck behind someone for most of the race. But once he was in clean air, he was setting fastest laps right away. So no one can say that he didnt have race pace as he did this almost every race. I think its safe to say that lack of performance was not why he was ousted.

Anyway, sorry for the long post but cheers for discussing the article guys. We might never quite be done with debating 2008
For now I am happy to see Kimi back and seemingly thriving in his new team.

Soren aka Desdirodeabike

agdamis

News flash: bloggers discover that big international sport with enormous annual expenses allows funding and sponsorship to play into their decisions!

And in other news: Bloggers "connect the dots" and prove that Alonso with the help of Santander are responsible for the Spanish debt crisis.

Soren

Like I said in the above post - the fact that money rules decisions in F1 is hardly a shocking fact or a new discovery

As for your second point, I could not say nor have I ever claimed such a thing. But I urge you to look into that if you think there is some meat on that bone

multi21

Credit to you for coming in here an discussing the article.

I highlighted the mistakes in the paragraph above to illustrate the amount of mistakes he made. As anyone knows, it's usually the person who makes the least amount of mistakes that wins the WDC. Reference Fernando Alonso in 2010. If he would not have made some many mistakes, he would not have to had to rely on passing Petrov in a slow Renault to secure the WDC. The fact is he (FA) made too many and did not win the WDC as Kimi did in the year in question. With regard to SPA and tricky conditions, well these are the types of things that make or break a WDC bid. If I remember correctly he was battling with Hamilton for the lead and Kimi took his car into the wall where Hamilton went on to secure maximum points. Tricky conditions, yes, major mistake as well.

Finally, it's a bit unfair to say that if DRS was in use during that year Kimi would have done better, as you can say that about anything and any year about anyother driver on grid. IF Button did not have the double diffuser with Brawn GP would he have been WDC in 2009?

Ray S

Welcome to the Rennlist funny farm where all things F1 are often debated with plenty of passion and vigor. Stick around for a while, you might like the place.

paradisenb

Hi, Soren. Welcome. Glad you dropped by.

The burning question many of us would like to know is: what do you think of Fernando Alonso? How about opining on his character.