Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time at Jerez, as winter testing ahead of the 2012 F1 season kicked off in earnest. In total there were 11 teams running in Jerez, with only Marussia not present. Most teams were giving their new cars a debut outing, however both Mercedes and HRT were running 2011 specification cars. Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher got a chance to run in the Mercedes today. Raikkonen wanted to start strongly and send out a positive message and he certainly did that; he was straight into the groove, after his two day outing in Valencia in More…

The team formerly known as Renault officially launched its new Lotus era today by unveiling its new car with the relatively low-key target of moving up one place to fourth in the constructors’ championship in 2012. The Genii Capital-owned outfit revealed the E20 – the ‘E’ in reference to Enstone, the team’s home of 20 years – on the internet but, rather than a live stream, released a novel pre-recorded broadcast from its factory which included the car’s unveil, interviews with drivers and management, along with behind-the-scenes footage. The black and gold-liveried challenger features the in-vogue stepped nose, but is More…

Kimi Raikkonen completed his comeback F1 test this week and has spoken about his feelings at driving an F1 car after two years away. Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 world champion now aged 32, drove for two days at Valencia’s Riccardo Tormo circuit, which has been used for F1 testing for many years. Testing restrictions meant that he was in a two year old Renault on Pirelli demonstration tyres, but the Finn said it was enough to give him back the old feelings and to show that he’s still got it. “I was a little concerned about finding the sport had More…

Kimi Raikkonen’s comeback is go; the Finn is driving today the first of two days in Valencia at the wheel of a two year old Renault R30. It’s the car with which Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov campaigned the 2010 World Championship. It’s the first time Raikkonen has driven an F1 car since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He covered 300kms on his first day and will do more tomorrow. “Having not driven a Formula 1 car for two years and obviously with a new team, there is a lot to get used to,” said Raikkonen. “I’m happy because More…

Here’s a video that’s well worth watching of Kimi Raikkonen’s first interview since announcing his F1 comeback with Lotus Renault. He says that he hasn’t really followed the 2011 F1 season or the progress of the Lotus Renault team and reckons that the biggest thing he’ll have to get the hang of is the new Pirelli tyres, on which his rivals will have a year’s head start. He also says that he’ll have to step up his training and that he started a month ago on F1 level fitness.

Kimi Raikkonen, Formula 1′s most enigmatic driver, will make it a record six world champions on the F1 grid next year when he lines up to race with Lotus Renault. Fans have been on tenterhooks for months to see whether the 2007 world champion, who is still only 32 years old, would make a comeback, following in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher, who spent three years on the sidelines before coming back with Mercedes in 2010. Like Schumacher, Raikkonen was eased into early retirement by Ferrari. The Finn has been in rallying since he was dropped by the Scuderia after More…

Kimi Raikkonen is on the verge of signing a deal to return to F1 with Williams. The 2007 world champion has been in discussions with the team for several weeks, following a recent visit to the factory in Grove. Sources suggest that discussions are going the right way and they are now close to a deal. It is understood that the Finn, who will be 32 next month, is keen to get back into F1 competition after two years on the sidelines in rallying. The timing is significant as Williams are on the look out for a bold move to More…

Today Renault was at the centre of two stories. First Kimi Raikkonen distanced himself from the team’s recent suggestions that he was in discussions with them about next year and then the team announced that managing director and former technical chief Bob Bell had left the team. Team Principal Eric Boullier has been promoted to managing director and so now holds the exact same position as Flavio Briatore held. Raikkonen’s quotes in a Finnish newspaper end the speculation about his possible return to the sport with Renault. It was Boullier who let it out in Monza that Raikkonen’s management had More…

Sauber confirmed today that it has struck a deal with Nick Heidfeld to replace Pedro de la Rosa for the remaining races of the 2010 season. One would expect that if this works out well, he may be retained next season alongside Kamui Kobayashi, who has already been signed. One problem is that de la Rosa’s car has already used 9 engines this season, so Heidfeld could be rather on the back foot when it comes to engine penalties with five events still to go. This abrupt late season switch is reminiscent of 2006, when Sauber replaced another older driver More…

I see that the leading French sports paper L’Equipe has an interview with Kimi Raikkonen this weekend, where he appears to close the door on F1 for good. The 2007 world champion switched to rallying this season after being dropped by Ferrari in favour of Fernando Alonso. He joined forces with Red Bull and Citroen in WRC and this led to suggestions that his route back into F1 might be with the current championship leaders, but RBR team principal Christian Horner has always dismissed such suggestions and this weekend Raikkonen seems to be saying that he will not be back More…

This summer is unusual in that we already know the identity of most of the drivers in the top teams’ cars for next year. Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull will field unchanged driver line ups and the same is likely to be true of Mercedes unless Michael Schumacher has a sudden change of heart and decides to quit at the end of the season. But he has been talking about next year’s car and looks very much as though his thoughts are of racing again in 2011. This leaves only the seat alongside Robert Kubica at Renault. The team has More…

Kimi Raikkonen has given his first interview since becoming a Red Bull Citroen rally driver and it reveals some interesting points about his views on the way F1 is heading and on his own future plans. Clearly he feels that F1 is not on the right track, not for him anyway. Speaking in the German language edition of the Red Bulletin, Red Bull’s in house sports magazine, he says that there are too many negative things going on which overshadow the racing in F1. This took away a lot of the pleasure for him of driving and he feels that More…

Always a driver to do things his own way, 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen has announced that he will drive for the Red Bull Citroen team in the World Rally Championship next season. He is the first world F1 champion to make that move. The 30 year old Finn has always had a soft spot for the sport and has competed in several rallies during his F1 career, including Rally Finland. When he failed to find a deal with McLaren for next season in F1 he announced that he would take a sabbatical from F1. That appears to be the More…

Kimi Raikkonen has a blank space in his diary – it’s called 2010. He has not totally ruled out F1, as his manager Steve Robertson left the door open this morning in an interview with Autosport’s Jon Noble over in Macau, that he could re-examine the possibility of racing with the new Mercedes team, if they were interested in having him. “This is Formula 1,” said Robertson. “If they can offer, or convince us, that they can provide Kimi an opportunity that Kimi is happy with, and that we are happy with, and he feels he can win races and More…

Kimi Raikkonen will not be racing in F1 next season, his manager Steve Robertson has confirmed. He is calling it a year off and time will tell if he ever races an F1 car again. “The options in F1 were with McLaren next season or not at all,” Robertson said, “Kimi and McLaren were unable to reach an agreement, so he will not drive at the F1 level – at least not next year. “A gap year means nothing for Kimi. He is more interested in fighting for wins and the world championship. F1 will miss Kimi. He worked hard More…

There are a number of drivers in play in the current unfolding situation between McLaren and Brawn. There are three seats as yet unconfirmed and four drivers to fill them. Attention for the moment is focussed on Jenson Button, with some commentators predicting that he will imminently sign a three year £6 million contract with McLaren, leaving the team he has been with in various guises for seven years. Nico Rosberg is involved, but his position is clear; he has already signed a contract with Brawn, which was taken over yesterday by Mercedes and will become its works team next More…

Today has been a very interesting day in the Suzuka paddock. It was one of those days when there is a real buzz in the air and some paddock theatre going on. With the announcement last night of Kimi Raikkonen’s removal from Ferrari and Fernando Alonso’s arrival, it was clear that their respective press briefings and the one of Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali were going to be interesting. Kimi looked rather crestfallen today, as you would expect, but he was very dignified in the way he carried himself publicly. He did not criticise the team and they did not criticise More…

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has stirred up the Ferrari driver situation again by saying that while Felipe Massa’s position at Ferrari is assured for next year, Kimi Raikkonen’s is not. “We will have a Brazilian driver, who deserves another chance, seeing as he’s well. As for the rest, we are thinking about the best choice, but we still have time. We will decide in a few weeks.” This is a different line from the one he took at Monza two weeks ago, at the announcement of Santander’s five year sponsorship deal, where he appeared to be suggesting that the More…

Kimi Raikkonen won the Belgian Grand Prix today, for the fourth time in his career, beating pole sitter Giancarlo Fisichella into second place. The pair were never more than 1.1 seconds apart at any stage in a thrilling race, which turned on the restart on lap 5 after a safety car for first lap carnage. Fisichella led through La Source but Raikkonen was able to pass him on the straight after Eau Rouge using his KERS power boost button to take a lead he would never lose. They both pitted together at each of their stops, but if Fisichella had More…

I went from the Kimi Raikkonen press briefing this afternoon to the Fernando Alonso one and there was an interesting little cameo which came to light. There were some quotes yesterday from Luca Badoer saying that he had no help from Kimi Raikkonen, but Badoer said sportingly that this was “Kimi’s character.” This was interesting when taken in conjunction with the quotes from Felipe Massa to the effect that he had not had any kind of get well message from Raikkonen. Perhaps mindful of this, when he was asked whether he had helped Badoer, who struggled today, Raikkonen said “No More…

Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix today, heading home Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Mark Webber. Although many predicted a strong start for Hamilton after qualifying fourth, few would have guessed that he would drive away from the field in the race, his car handling both the soft and supersoft tyres very consistently. He made a move on Webber into turn one for second place at the start, but ran wide and Webber repassed him. Hamilton came back at him however and grabbed second place again. At the front pole sitter Fernando Alonso led in the Renault, but More…

Kimi Raikkonen will be in Regents Street, London this morning, opening the new Ferrari store. It’s a big site, I went past it yesterday and it’s full of Ferrari branded goodies. It’s amazing to think that it’s a year since Raikkonen last won a Grand Prix. He dominated the Spanish GP last season from pole, but since then he’s failed to make the top step. He would probably have won in Canada if he had not been hit in the pit lane by Lewis Hamilton and he was on target in France until his exhaust started burning a hole in More…