Apparently talks broke off and Riccardo is going to be announced as Vettel's teammate this weekend at Spa.

Kimi's options are to stay at Lotus where his paychecks have been late and the team is $160m in debt..... or go to Ferrari.. what will he do?

 

Well, that leaves DV out in the cold with nowhere to go. He will be staying put at Ferrari. I still think Kimi is better off at Lotus. He calls the shots there. At Ferrari he would be #2. He would best DV in the car, but be held back because of in-fighting. Not ideal for Kimi. RB or Ferrari w/o DV would have been great for him. Now he is kind of stuck.

Isn't Lotus being bought out by the Russian gazillionaire? If so, his son will be #1 at Lotus (not driver, but...you know). Kimi will teaching and cleaning up behind him.

 

It seems like every week there is a Russian Gazillionaire with a 17 year old son buying a team.

Just last week it was Sauber.

 

"Just leave me alone. I know what to do!"

 

dumb question: What does this "DV" thing mean when referring to Fernando Alonso?

Thanks,
Rich

 

Too bad Kimi is not going to be with Red Bull. It would be fun to see him shove a big can of Red Bull up Seb's *** when he pulls some of the crap he pulled on Webbo.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on how badly Ferrari want Kimi? Gotta look at the situation both ways.

 

Hard to say. Luca was not pleased with Alonso publicly airing his dirty laundry and speaking badly about the car/team so it could be a matter of leverage or they are really tired of Alonso's BS and for the most part Kimi is a pretty low maintenance guy... just leave him alone and he does fine.

Unless your inside the upper inner circle, you don't really know how much **** Alonso is putting Ferrari through. In the past, he has spoken out again Renault (both his first stint in the team and the second) and of course the infamous McLaren debacle. I predicted he would implode at Ferrari as well, but it didn't materialize until now.

If nothing else, Ferrari is all about the team. If you are behind the team 100%, you can never go wrong (the loyalty shown to Massa is unprecedented). If you go against the team, you can be out on your a$$ pretty quickly, no matter if you are a multi-WDC (just ask Alain Prost).

 

Interesting read

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23761323

 

Lotus has had good success this year and has a historic name. Surprising they can't find more sponsors with deep pockets.

 

I agree with rlets.

What is 'DV'??

 

Luca loves DV's sponsor $$ I think a bit too much. Keep in mind, nothing would give me greater pleasure than seeing DV booted from Ferrari.
Then, and only then, could I return to supporting Ferrari in F1 .... until that time, Luca gets to keep his mistress DV.

Perhaps Kimi can simply tell Lotus in exchange for being paid, he can just own the team.

 

I dont pretend to know how they might have their contracts done.

But it is undeniable that Kimi has been a big part of restoring Lotus. Part of the reason they are under such hard financial times is just how bad they were. Bernie only pays them a year in arrears too - so they wont see last years 2012 money until this coming December 2013 or January 2014.

Kimi seems to me to at the top of his popularity too. Moreso than when he was WDC I think. He is my favorite, but on any given day I have to believe that it is Alonso, Vettel and Kimi in the top 3.

I am not sure how the drivers do their outside sponsorships or personal services contracts, but I think Kimi , if he wants to, has those avenues for bringing him checks. Sure he wants his paycheck from the racing too. But Kimi knows his way around this as he has been with top teams.

How about this. If McLaren gets any car development going, maybe they drop Button and bring in Kimi . I would .

 

There's a lot of talk now about him going back to Ferrari but someone told me this "Red Bull talks have ended" is just F1 talk, meaning it's not ended at all or might actually be the contrary.

Ferrari would be cool from the point of view that we'd get to see DV & Kimi in same car (as long as Ferrari would listen Kimi instead of going the 2008 & half of 2009 season route) but Luca doesn't want him so even though the rest of the team would like to have him, I don't see Luca giving up.

I'd almost rather believe the McLaren route that Ferrari if RB is not the choice...

 

As has been speculated in many reports, I think Luca's ego is too large to admit it was a mistake to dump Kimi for DV.
Granted, Luca's and DV's egos are both large enough to be seen from the International Space Station by the naked eye, but I digress.

The man loves women, but I think DV would go Glenn Close Fatal Attraction on him if Kimi were to arrive at Ferrari next season.