Kimi To Retire At End Of 2015 Season

Kimi To Retire At End Of 2015 Season

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VolvoT5

4,155 posts

173 months

Sunday 21st June 2015
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slipstream 1985 said:
Thread title change... "Kimi To be Retired At End Of 2015 Season
Certainly looks like he is well past his best now. I would love to know WTF has happened at Ferrari after two brilliant years at Lotus.... but Kimi should probably consider quitting now for the sake of his own dignity really. He has been absolutely diabolical these last few races.

Charlie_AL

532 posts

123 months

Sunday 21st June 2015
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As much as I like kimi, it's time for him to go at the end of this season. Get Hulk in a ferrari!

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Sunday 21st June 2015
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I agree, that seat looks a bit wasted on him really.

Annoyingly, being Kimi, he'll probably give us some stonking performances now that his neck is on the block.

deadslow

7,960 posts

222 months

Sunday 21st June 2015
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I think he signed his own P45 today

Vaud

50,285 posts

154 months

Sunday 21st June 2015
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Hulk would be a good call. I'll go out on a limb and say Verstappen is a contender.

My guess is Vettel has some veto.

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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Quite an exciting prospect actually, a driver retiring from the sport always gets the musical chairs going.

Several good options for Kimi's seat, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Grosjean, Ricciardo... Haven't checked any of their contract lengths mind.

Speed Badger

2,667 posts

116 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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If Bottas goes to Ferrari then that will leave a nice warm decently competitive ride for Hulkenberg at Williams...

Some Gump

12,671 posts

185 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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IMO Ferrari would not even remotely consider Verstappen. Rookies have never been their cup of tea - rather more the dedicated no. 2 chap with a decent bit of experience.

IMO it's Bottas or Hulk, in that order. Still a bit early for silly season guessing tho =)

swisstoni

16,844 posts

278 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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Maybe any decent driver with a future won't want to go there and be Vettel's bh.
That's the Ferrari way.

Emeye

9,773 posts

222 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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Alex Langheck said:
aeropilot said:
Emeye said:
aeropilot said:
As mentioned by someone else early on in the thread - I think Kimi could find a 'good home' in World Rallycross, would love to see him try it.
The last time he was in a rally car he was pretty rubbish
What's that got to do with Rallycross?
Probably nothing. Kimi tended to be quick on the short stages which he could remember from memory. Pace notes were not his strong point. So driving a rallycar on a circuit would suit him. Short intense 6 lap races is right up his street, WorldRX could have been made for him.
I can't see him in the WEC; far too demanding, he'd get bored during a long stint.
Pete Solberg - good in a Rally Car, good at Rallycross - granted some circuit drivers have made the move to ice racing quite successfully but the surface is pretty consistent, it's been so long since Kimi did any decent racing that I can't remember, but is he a good driver in changeable conditions, something that Rallycross appears to be all about!

aeropilot

34,294 posts

226 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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Emeye said:
Pete Solberg - good in a Rally Car, good at Rallycross - granted some circuit drivers have made the move to ice racing quite successfully but the surface is pretty consistent, it's been so long since Kimi did any decent racing that I can't remember, but is he a good driver in changeable conditions, something that Rallycross appears to be all about!
Whether he could or not is open to question given he hasn't tried it, but he got enough loose surface experience from rallying and his snowmobile antics, and he is a racer.
He's got enough of a profile that I'm sure he could get the sponsorship together, even though rallycross is dominated by Swedes and Norweigans these days rather than Finns.
Love to see him in the Andros Trophy as well.

Mattias Ekstrom (2 x DTM champion) does pretty well in Rallycross, and over in the USA, so have Piquet Jnr and Scott Speed, neither of which had what could be described as stellar F1 careers, and Andrew Jordan has successfully made to switch the other way with his BTCC championship win (even though he's still keeping his occasional hand in at rallycross both as a driver, and as a commentator)



carinaman

21,210 posts

171 months

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Friday 3rd July 2015
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sky f1 show just now - still "speculation" i guess - kimi has two races to get better or bottas will be in his seat?!

VolvoT5

4,155 posts

173 months

Friday 3rd July 2015
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hairyben said:
sky f1 show just now - still "speculation" i guess - kimi has two races to get better or bottas will be in his seat?!
IDK, I feel the media is almost on a mission to talk Kimi out of that seat at the moment, but one good weekend (not beyond possibility) and that would change around. It was only in April at Bahrain that people were singing his praises. So far he has had two retirements, one of which was admittedly his fault. The rest of the results have been 4th,4th,2nd,5th,6th,4th. Not amazing but not exactly horrific given he is 2nd best (in pace and pecking order) to Vettel and driving the 2nd best car. The most they can usually expect to achieve is 3rd & 4th most weekends.

Redbull claim Ricciardo is water tight with them and even if he wasn't I just can't see it happening, I mean how would it work with Vettel really.

The gossip is that Ferrari have offered 5 million to buy out Bottas but Williams want 15. If they settled at 10 million is that really good value - is Bottas going to add 10 million value over Raikkonen in 1 year when waiting another year Ferrari can get him with no buy out fee?

So IMO only realistic options are Hulkenberg or Gutiérrez / Verne. Given they clearly want Bottas for 2017, or at least to keep their options open, the question is are one of those 3 guys likely to do a better job than Kimi for a year (takes time to settle in the team). Also would Hulkenberg want a deal where he is potentially without a drive at the end of 1 year; my guess is he would take the risk. But FWIW Hulk claimed last race that he had no communications with any top teams at the moment......


Schermerhorn

4,342 posts

188 months

Friday 3rd July 2015
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Bottas seems to have his hands full with Massa. Either Massa has stepped up massively or Bottas isnt as brilliant we all thought he was. Remember this is the same Bottas that was matched by Maldanado for 2013 until the Austin GP.

Kimi is past his best. However he should bring a good game to Silverstone and Spa. I think we'll see something great from him at Spa.

Schermerhorn

4,342 posts

188 months

Saturday 4th July 2015
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Good return to form so far in Q1.

VolvoT5

4,155 posts

173 months

Saturday 4th July 2015
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Schermerhorn said:
Bottas seems to have his hands full with Massa. Either Massa has stepped up massively or Bottas isnt as brilliant we all thought he was. Remember this is the same Bottas that was matched by Maldanado for 2013 until the Austin GP.
Again today Massa beating Bottas for pace. Obviously it is the race that really counts but still.......... what is the next news story, Massa to replace Kimi? laugh

Kimi is his own worst PR enemy though.............. he (finally) beats Vettel fair and square and instead of talking himself up a bit and stating "I got the max out of the car today" (like certain other drivers would do) he immediately says how this is a bad result and how they could have been closer to 3rd with the previous set of tyres and a bit of luck..... blah blah.

Edited by VolvoT5 on Saturday 4th July 14:21

m444ttb

3,160 posts

228 months

Saturday 4th July 2015
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The Bottas-Massa comparison is a difficult one. Massa can go through periods of being genuinely top drawer. Or even 90% of a season like 2008. His highs are very high and his lows pretty low. I'm not convinced we've seen the best from Bottas yet but probably have from Massa. We'll see I guess.

If Hulkenberg doesn't get a better drive (be it Williams or Ferrari) next year I really hope Porsche want to retain his services on a full time basis.

VolvoT5

4,155 posts

173 months

Saturday 4th July 2015
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m444ttb said:
The Bottas-Massa comparison is a difficult one. Massa can go through periods of being genuinely top drawer. Or even 90% of a season like 2008. His highs are very high and his lows pretty low. I'm not convinced we've seen the best from Bottas yet but probably have from Massa. We'll see I guess.

If Hulkenberg doesn't get a better drive (be it Williams or Ferrari) next year I really hope Porsche want to retain his services on a full time basis.
So at the moment Bottas' is perhaps more consistent than Massa but can't match Massa's peak performance (which is probably not as good as it was in 2008)...... that doesn't say much really does it? Although I agree Bottas is young enough in his career to improve.

Hulkenberg, I'm still not convinced, I just don't see what everyone else does really. If Kimi is going I would rather see Grosjean in there than Hulk.

VolvoT5

4,155 posts

173 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
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Oh dear, another disaster for Raikkonen today, despite being faster than Vettel in qualifying and much of the race it still went wrong with the tyre call. About 5 laps too early for the inters ? Then as a result burned them out and had to stop again.

Bottas now ahead in the WDC too..... although Bottas failed to pass Massa today and didn't exactly sparkle IMO.