Kimi Raikkonen to return to McLaren
You read it, the fiery Finn is coming back to McLaren, looking to save the team from the debacle they’ve been having this year.
Looks like McLaren – Mercedes is already making some moves to rectify the pathetic campaign they’ve been having this 2009 F1 season. In case you haven’t been paying attention, McLaren’s defending champion, Lewis Hamilton, has only won a couple of races this season and the team in general hasn’t been faring well too, dropping to fourth in the constructors championship standings.
With Lewis Hamilton struggling this year, McLaren has to come up with an insurance policy for next year’s run and with the team signing a former world champion like Kimi Raikkonen, they may have found exactly that.
Kimi Raikkonen raced for McLaren a few years ago so there won’t be any adjustments as far as the Finn is concerned. Back in 2007, Kimi Raikkonen left McLaren for Ferrari in a £25 million a year deal that made him the highest paid driver on the grid.
He rewarded them by winning the world championship in his debut campaign but his position came under threat when Fernando Alonso, Renault’s double world champion, was rumored last year to join Ferrari and replace him.
The major problem has been Raikkonen’s $50 million (£31 million) a year contract with Ferrari, which had another year left to run then. Lawyers have been working overtime back in Singapore to complete the final details of his pay-off, with McLaren expected to pick up the Finn at a fraction of the price.
Raikkonen’s departure from McLaren after five years followed a falling out with then team principal Ron Dennis. But with Dennis having left the team, a source close to the negotiations said, ”Kimi is only looking at McLaren and McLaren are only looking at him.”
Raikkonen, 29, will replace his fellow Finn Heikki Kovalainen in McLaren.
”I am very sad to be leaving a team with whom I have spent three fantastic years, during which time I won plenty of races,” Kimi Raikkonen said.
”Together, we have won 50 per cent of the world titles in that period and I managed to take the drivers’ title in 2007, thus achieving the target I had set myself at the start of my career. I have always felt at home with everyone here, and I will have many happy memories of my time with the team.”
Can Jenson Button win the 2009 F1 Drivers Championship and punch in the first world championship for Brawn GP? SPORTSBETTING.COM has the odds.
Jenson Button 6-5
Lewis Hamilton 8-1
Felipe Massa 8-1
Fernando Alonso 14-1
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