McLaren and Ferrari urge Williams to sign Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen’s most recent teams think Sir Frank Williams would be wise to sign up the 2007 world champion for next season.
For his part, 69-year-old Williams remained calm amid the waves of speculation in Abu Dhabi, refusing to let slip the status of the talks with the former Ferrari and McLaren winner.

“I cannot make any comment about supposition, sorry to be so unhelpful,” he told reporters.

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, however – now the head of Raikkonen’s Woking based employer between 2002 and 2006 – was emphatic when asked what advice he has for Williams.

“Try and sign him,” said the Briton. “I hope that he (Raikkonen) is hungry.

“I am sure he hasn’t lost the capability to thrill us so I think it would be fantastic for formula one,” added Whitmarsh.

“I wouldn’t ordinarily presume to advise Sir Frank who he should sign but I think it would be exciting if he did.”

Another man in Abu Dhabi who knows Raikkonen well is Stefano Domenicali, team boss at Ferrari, the Finn’s last F1 team and the scene of his title triumph.

“I know Kimi very well,” said the Italian. “He is very talented, very strong, he was the last driver to win the world championship with us and he will want to show he is still one of the strongest.”

0 comments

Other articlesgo to homepage

	Police detonate suspected bomb in F1 paddock(0) Monaco’s party atmosphere late on Thursday was broken by the sound of an explosion. Bomb police cordoned off an area of the formula one paddock near the media centre after someone noticed a suspicious plastic package. Experts detonated it with a controlled explosion just before 10pm, the Press Associated reported. It also emerges that some

	Schumacher must convince Mercedes to ‘want him’(0) If Michael Schumacher wants to keep racing beyond 2012, he will need to convince Mercedes. That is the claim of former German F1 driver Christian Danner, referring to rumours the seven time world champion’s future beyond this year is uncertain. Schumacher, 43, has said he is yet to sit down for talks with Mercedes, who

	Button says Lotus car to beat in Monaco(0) McLaren’s Jenson Button has named Lotus as the team to beat in Monaco. After Romain Grosjean was second fastest in both practice sessions on Thursday, Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton concurred that the “Lotus looks pretty good”. “Normally, there are seven tenths between the two tyre compounds,” said the 2008 world champion. “Jenson was only four

	Force India wants to keep di Resta in 2013(0) Vijay Mallya on Thursday admitted he would like to keep the same driver lineup for his Force India team in 2013. There has been speculation that Paul di Resta has caught the eye of top teams including Ferrari and Mercedes. “Paul is a huge asset and a very valuable asset to us,” insisted the team’s

	McLaren set to offer Hamilton $150m(0) McLaren is offering Lewis Hamilton a lucrative new contract for 2013 and beyond, British newspapers are reporting from Monaco. The stories – in all the major dailies including the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, Express, the Star, the Sun, the Mirror and the Times – consistently contradicted an earlier rumour that Hamilton might need