Ferrari will fork out R240 million for Kimi Raikkonen to join the Scuderia when his McLaren-Mercedes contract runs out at the end of the 2006 season, reports.The Sunday Mirror reports.content here
Ferrari will fork out R240 million for Kimi Raikkonen to join the Scuderia when his McLaren-Mercedes contract runs out at the end of the 2006 season, reports.
ITV commentator and former F1 star Martin Brundle recently suggested that Raikkonen, who has narrowly missed out on the world title twice with McLaren in the last three years, recently signed some form of agreement with Ferrari… In 2003, Michael Schumacher beat the Finn to the post by two points. And, despite being the fastest man for much of 2005, the Finn conceded defeat in the world title battle at Interlagos last weekend.
reported at the weekend that the Finn has concluded a deal to join Ferrari in 2007 and that Ferrari will pay the equivalent of £22 million for Raikkonen’s signature.
Most F1 insiders believe that Schumacher will retire after 2006, and Ferrari boss Jean Todt has regularly suggested that Raikkonen would be the ideal successor to the seven time champion. However, Rubens Barrichello’s successor at Ferrari, Felipe Massa, is only contracted until the end of 2006.
A source told the newspaper: “This is not about money. McLaren and Mercedes are big companies and can afford to match, or better, anything Ferrari is offering. They value Kimi highly. It is just down to what he wants to do.”
Whether Schumacher, Ferrari team boss Jean Todt and technical director Ross Brawn, will remain at Maranello longer than the end of next year, is not yet known. Will the German be willing to team up with the mercurial Raikkonen? The former recently said he would decide in April whether he’d stay in the sport or not.
Meanwhile, five-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi is increasingly open about the fact that Ferrari are courting him for an F1 future. It would appear that the Raikkonen-Rossi “dream team” line-up could be coming closer to reality.