Lotus F1 Team 2013

[stefan_]

I think a lot of people got it wrong. Nobody ruined nobody's race, Lotus are fighting for 3rd or even 2nd and is not in their advantage to ruin either of their drivers' race.

Alan (knowing that Grosjean has Massa on his tail) was telling Kimi to get out of the way faster so he can go away with Kimi already knowing that his tires are finished and fighting was useless. OK, maybe Alan didn't have to tell him "Get out of the f**ing way", but in that situation of tension you don't think too much about how you say it. It was like "Come on, get out of the way faster".

There are a lot of harsh words over the radio that we don't hear. Only this time happened to be broadcasted.

[Boudica]

I think a lot of people got it wrong. Nobody ruined nobody's race, Lotus are fighting for 3rd or even 2nd and is not in their advantage to ruin either of their drivers' race.

Alan (knowing that Grosjean has Massa on his tail) was telling Kimi to get out of the way faster so he can go away with Kimi already knowing that his tires are finished and fighting was useless. OK, maybe Alan didn't have to tell him "Get out of the f**ing way", but in that situation of tension you don't think too much about how you say it. It was like "Come on, get out of the way faster".

There are a lot of harsh words over the radio that we don't hear. Only this time happened to be broadcasted.

According to Permane they didn't tell Kimi anything beforehand. In Permane's own words they assumed Kimi would be smart enough to just let Grosjean pass.
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 75586.html

Kimi race would have been much better if they had employed a two stop strategy, so Kimi's race was ruined by strategy.

[skoop]

didn't kimi change the tactics himself?

AMuS states:

Räikkönen änderte eigenmächtig seine Taktik

Der Finne erwiderte seinen Vorgesetzten: "Ich fahre gegen alle gleich. Gegen Fahrer von anderen Teams und gegen meinen Stallgefährten." Räikkönen hatte schon vorher eigenmächtig entschieden, die geplante Zweistopp-Strategie in ein Einstopprennen umzuwandeln. "Als er hinter Massa zu viel Zeit verlor, hat er uns gesagt, dass er es mit einem Stopp probieren wird. Wir kennen ihn, und wissen, dass er so etwas möglich machen kann", erzählt Permane.

it basically says that räikkönen decided to change tactics becouse he lost too much time being stuck behind massa

[anzx]

I think a lot of people got it wrong. Nobody ruined nobody's race, Lotus are fighting for 3rd or even 2nd and is not in their advantage to ruin either of their drivers' race.

Alan (knowing that Grosjean has Massa on his tail) was telling Kimi to get out of the way faster so he can go away with Kimi already knowing that his tires are finished and fighting was useless. OK, maybe Alan didn't have to tell him "Get out of the f**ing way", but in that situation of tension you don't think too much about how you say it. It was like "Come on, get out of the way faster".

There are a lot of harsh words over the radio that we don't hear. Only this time happened to be broadcasted.

According to Permane they didn't tell Kimi anything beforehand. In Permane's own words they assumed Kimi would be smart enough to just let Grosjean pass.
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 75586.html

Kimi race would have been much better if they had employed a two stop strategy, so Kimi's race was ruined by strategy.

Actually you can't blame lotus for tactic at the first point, it was Kimi's fault because he was overtooken by Hulkenberg in the first lap, so I think this ruined his race... That's why they were forced to go on one stopper... I don't want to blame anybody, but if you look the starts of GP's this year, Kimi always lose a place or two at the start, I don't remember when he did have a good start and gained places, (maybe in Korea). The starts are the biggest problem of Raikkonen. I'm not the hater but this is what I see.

[Manoah2u]

to be honest, i think there's a lot going on behind the scenes we don't know.

What I geniunly believe though, is that kimi isn't the most pleasant guy to work with. Some call him a hero for his
outings, and it may give good TV, but honestly, he's showing more like a respectless spoiled brat then actually correct
behaviour with a way too huge ego.

some examples?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbmjSHFde9Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoLqW6Be7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT6LSd2fvkk
[check the 4:05 mark]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjSSLiOC4dI
[from the 1:35 mark]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLM5xqZdy2E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m52phKv3nA

"i don't care what happens to others"
"last time was giving me sh*t coz i didn't smile enough"
[in other words, i don't care about the fans wanting me to hear what i feel now i'm on podium, so f*ck the fans]

some more quotes of kimi showing just how much he cares about the people he's working with and who pay his paycheck:
"“I’d rather be probably out of second and third place so I don’t have to go to the prize-giving.”"
"“The Constructor’s Championship doesn’t really mean anything to me.”

all I see is a team doing effort to keep the driver updated to ease his work, and think in benefit of the team,
not just a 1-man ego. Kimi only cares about himself, the rest of the team think about the entire team achieving
their goal.
Which shows kimi has little respect for the team itself.

so let's just say there was a whole history here, and we don't know what happened in the past months since kimi chose
to just out and leave lotus for ferrari.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62mNV2o1ssQ

in the end, we don't know what radio messages have been going on between them and the team before.
And mind you, just as kimi shows little respect by not showing up for their employer yesterday, he did behave with little respect all past race weekends. Imagine you doing that to your employer when leaving for the competition.

and how about this during a race?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arIhAANsSZk

may be funny tv moments, but in all fairness, people supposedly complain when reporters ask 'stupid questions' to kimi,
he himself acts stupid on the track just as much.

so here we have somebody who has zero respect for somebody else, only has interest in himself, is a bad employee since he decided to go for ferrari again he's not showing any intent to do what 'comes with the job', he only cares about his paycheck, he only races for himself and doesnt give squad about the team that employed him and their constructor championship which means millions for the team, lotus invested time and money, and the endurance of a particularly not easy to work with person, and then, in all the midst of the situation, kimi is treated EXACTLY THE SAME he treats others,
and for that lotus should apologise and gets ---?
that's hypocrism at its best and fans threatening alan parmane is absolutely rediculous.

lotus' image of how it felt kimi leaving for ferrari "it hurts a little bit" and the rabbits, tells more then you think i guess.

kimi has lost it and i'm wondering how next year will go. He's a great driver, no doubt there.
but he shouldn't b*tch about nor do other people should b*tch about when he gets treated the way he treats others:
you reap what you sow. And kimi's given more then enough reason to get that radio message so if you ask me,
he should not cry like a little child with a way to big ego.

How he acts is up to him, and some may find his behavior fantastic and brings character, others think it actually shows 'little character' and respectless, indecent and improper.
If he wants to behave like that, that's fine - but accept the consequences. If it's o.k. kimi behaving like that, it should be
o.k. if he get's treated similar aswell. If others don't make a big deal of how he treats others, he shouldn't make a big deal
about how others treat him.
But the question itself is: how does kimi really think about what happened during india? Media are always all over the place
coming up with this and that, so do we really see the correct reflection of kimi's thoughts? i kinda doubt that, tho.

but yes indeed, it wasn't particularly 'nice' from the team to shout to the driver that way.

IMHO, it shows emotion from Lotus' side. I think lotus has a long breath, since they're still giving Romain Grosjean a chance [actually it pays off] even after he gave them enough reason to ditch him for someone else. So i think nobody should lose a night's sleep or tear about the kimi-lotus relationship. I'd be more interested to see Romain Grosjean in a Lotus against Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari though. It would be a bit easy to say: Kimi will own him by miles. Maybe. But
what if Grosjean would walk around Kimi?
Lotus will need to bring a good car for that, tho.

[MOWOG]

There is a poster in every locker room on Earth that reads "There's no "I" in the word "Team". Kimi is a very talented driver, but he is all about Kimi and nothing else. So far, it hasn't affected his career very much, but no organization can perform at the highest possible level without everyone on the team pulling together as one. Ferrari may find that their newest driver comes with more baggage than his skill is worth. It's that old 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it" thing.

While this may seem too far off topic, bear with me. There is a point to it.

Recently, the Boston Red Sox won the 2013 world championship for baseball. Prior to this season, ownership had drunk deeply of the Kool Aid that says to get the bestest, most high priced talent available. And so they acquired a bunch of very talented players who did not realize they were participating in a team sport. With one of the largest payrolls ever seen in the sport, the team lurched to dead last at the end of 2012. Fans started staying away in droves. Television revenue plummeted.

Over the past year, ownership has jettisoned all those high priced players and rebuilt the team with castoffs, has beens and never beens. All they cared about was "Is this a player who really wants to play in Boston?" Some of the new acquisitions gave up higher offers elsewhere to come play in Boston. Throughout the season, the players melded into a unit. They rooted for each other. They were happy to speak with the press. They signed autographs for hours before and after games. The embraced the city and the fans embraced them. The stands were full again. TV revenue soared. And they came out on top in the end.

I think there is a valuable lesson for any team sport in what the Red Sox accomplished this year.

We now return you to your regular programming, already in progress!

[ptw]

I think a lot of people got it wrong. Nobody ruined nobody's race, Lotus are fighting for 3rd or even 2nd and is not in their advantage to ruin either of their drivers' race.

Alan (knowing that Grosjean has Massa on his tail) was telling Kimi to get out of the way faster so he can go away with Kimi already knowing that his tires are finished and fighting was useless. OK, maybe Alan didn't have to tell him "Get out of the f**ing way", but in that situation of tension you don't think too much about how you say it. It was like "Come on, get out of the way faster".

There are a lot of harsh words over the radio that we don't hear. Only this time happened to be broadcasted.

According to Permane they didn't tell Kimi anything beforehand. In Permane's own words they assumed Kimi would be smart enough to just let Grosjean pass.
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/form ... 75586.html

Kimi race would have been much better if they had employed a two stop strategy, so Kimi's race was ruined by strategy.

Actually you can't blame lotus for tactic at the first point, it was Kimi's fault because he was overtooken by Hulkenberg in the first lap, so I think this ruined his race... That's why they were forced to go on one stopper... I don't want to blame anybody, but if you look the starts of GP's this year, Kimi always lose a place or two at the start, I don't remember when he did have a good start and gained places, (maybe in Korea). The starts are the biggest problem of Raikkonen. I'm not the hater but this is what I see.

Actually it was Lotus who made a 6.5 sec pitstop for Kimi and saying that was because they had to check the car for the damage. In fact - they were late with rear LEFT and Marc hit Kimi from the RIGHT, so - that's not the excuse.

There are some who believe that it was Kimi who decided to swith to plan B. In fact Kimi only requested for some changes and it's strategists who had to analyse everything and make a right call - which is to call him in as soon as he started to lose time.
It's the team who ruined his race

[Manoah2u]

There is a poster in every locker room on Earth that reads "There's no "I" in the word "Team". Kimi is a very talented driver, but he is all about Kimi and nothing else. So far, it hasn't affected his career very much, but no organization can perform at the highest possible level without everyone on the team pulling together as one. Ferrari may find that their newest driver comes with more baggage than his skill is worth. It's that old 'Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it" thing.

While this may seem too far off topic, bear with me. There is a point to it.

Recently, the Boston Red Sox won the 2013 world championship for baseball. Prior to this season, ownership had drunk deeply of the Kool Aid that says to get the bestest, most high priced talent available. And so they acquired a bunch of very talented players who did not realize they were participating in a team sport. With one of the largest payrolls ever seen in the sport, the team lurched to dead last at the end of 2012. Fans started staying away in droves. Television revenue plummeted.

Over the past year, ownership has jettisoned all those high priced players and rebuilt the team with castoffs, has beens and never beens. All they cared about was "Is this a player who really wants to play in Boston?" Some of the new acquisitions gave up higher offers elsewhere to come play in Boston. Throughout the season, the players melded into a unit. They rooted for each other. They were happy to speak with the press. They signed autographs for hours before and after games. The embraced the city and the fans embraced them. The stands were full again. TV revenue soared. And they came out on top in the end.

I think there is a valuable lesson for any team sport in what the Red Sox accomplished this year.

We now return you to your regular programming, already in progress!

+2. nothing to add. =D>

[ecapox]

For those of you that say Raikkonen is not a team player, i'll just leave this tidbit here:

"Sometimes it is not very nice when you hear that you are not really a team player, and you don't have the interests of the team [at heart] - but you have been paid zero Euro the whole year," said Raikkonen.

I wouldnt be a team player either since Im not really employed....

[Manoah2u]

“The truth is that yes, we owe him money, that’s true. He’s going to be paid, that’s true too,”
" last year in the same period it was the same story — we owed him some money but at the end of the year we paid it"
" unfortunately we are not as rich as some other teams on the grid."

“The reason why I left the team was really on the money side,” Raikkonen said. “And with things like they are, I don’t have my salary.

Kimi earned a total of 18.35m euros (£15.8m) last year, when the team were also late in paying him.
I see all the blind Kimi fans applauding him for his honesty when in fact he isnt being honest - kimi has been paid his wages. He hasn't been paid the bonuses for performance. It is the method that Lotus uses.
The drivers get a partial payment on bonuses for wins and points and get a final accounting at the end of the year.
That is how they did it when they were Renault and how they did it last year.
he has Ten million euro's in his pocket so far - so that should be enough beer or wodka money even for him

apart from that, hanging out the dirty laundry publicly is very, very respectless and he shouldn't have done that.
ESPECIALLY somebody who always keeps his mouth shut at seemingly every interview and thinks nobody has to know
anything about his personal or private life and neither should ask, does the exact opposite to the team he can thank his
comeback to. Classy. =D>

Some figures:

When Kimi Raikkonen joined Ferrari in 2009, he signed a 3 year contract which ran from 2007 - 2009 worth $153,000,000. His average income per game was $2,942,308. It is estimated that in 2009 he earned a minimum of $45 million.
2013: Kimi Raikkonen Net Worth: $130 million. 2012-2013 Earnings: £4 m (Sunday Times) Salary/Winning/Bonuses – £3 Million Endorsements Earning: £1 Million.
that means he's missing out on 'just' 4 million pounds in unpaid salary.

I get my christmas bonus at the end of the year, too, and my salary at the end of the month. I'm not going to the competition hanging out the company's dirty laundry along the way, while my own boss promised that i'll have the money
they own me by the end of the year - exactly like the year before, guaranteed.

They friggin' should have made a clause that if he damages the brand name, he'd get fired immediately without promise of getting paid and replace him with the reserve driver.

Bild correspondents Nicola Pohl and Helmut Uhl report that Ferrari made the Finn an offer, “more lucrative” than what is being promised by Red Bull. Bild says that Red Bull’s offer is a $15 million retainer, performance bonuses, and sponsorship of his motocross team.

In other words, for kimi, its not about racing, he admits himself its "ALL ABOUT THE MONEY".

I'm sorry but my respect for this driver has plunged after he stabbed lotus in the back with his announcement to go to Ferrari and hang out the dirty laundry.

Lotus has been honest and clear about the $$ all the time and they delivered the promises they made to kimi. They delivered him a title-contending car throughout the majority of the year, and gave a win in Abu Dhabi. They clearly focused al their attention on Kimi, not on Grosjean who was a absolute clear number 2 driver. Now Kimi stabbed them in the back, and it's wrong that Lotus shifted all their attention to Grosjean? Think not. I think Grosjean really deserves a win and i really hope it's this year and during the Abu Dhabi race this weekend.
Grosjean didn't whine like a p*ssy when the team told him to f*cking smile at the cameras and at the podium after Grosjean was too kind and friendly on track probably being a bit hesitant and overwhelmed on attacking or ending in front of Kimi.
I hope they'll feed Grosjean enough hunger to eat up Kimi the coming races yet remain his head on his shoulders.
No company is without flaws, so isn't lotus.

"Don't bite the hand that feeds you".

If ANYBODY else then kimi did the same to their team, they'd be despised, hated, eaten alive by both fans and media.

No, there is no class to be found here.

[ecapox]

If Kimi says to the press that he has been paid ZERO EURO this year, I believe him. I wouldnt quote the Sunday Times about someone's personal and confidential salary figures.

[Manoah2u]

If Kimi says to the press that he has been paid ZERO EURO this year, I believe him. I wouldnt quote the Sunday Times about someone's personal and confidential salary figures.

i'll raise you with another article from the mirror

"Earlier this year Raikkonen revealed he had not been paid a good chunk of his salary, which is bonus-based.

Raikkonen’s return to the sport has been so successful his record finishing streak, including victories in Melbourne and Abu Dhabi, have resulted in a payday bonanza amounting to £22m, meaning he is paid more than four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.

"
Chunk of his salary, bonus-based. that's not ZERO.

and again, this is Lotus manner of handling cashflow, it has been this year, it has been last year, and it has been the years before. It's not like it's new.

I wouldnt quote the Sunday Times about someone's personal and confidential salary figures.

look what Kimi did with Lotus [Genii]'s confidential figures.

[turbof1]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111042

Is this the true Kimi we are seeing here? This is unworthy for F1 in any case. I never ever have heard from a racing driver, inside or outside F1, unwilling to finish up the season because he doesn't get paid on time. Sure, there is a financial aspect too on it, and there are other ways to enforce that. It's called sueing and getting a lawyer. But just treatening to stay out of the car?

If I was team manager at Lotus, I would throw him out of the car right now and let him stay home for the last 3 races, this one included.

[Manoah2u]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111042

Is this the true Kimi we are seeing here? This is unworthy for F1 in any case. I never ever have heard from a racing driver, inside or outside F1, unwilling to finish up the season because he doesn't get paid on time. Sure, there is a financial aspect too on it, and there are other ways to enforce that. It's called sueing and getting a lawyer. But just treatening to stay out of the car?

If I was team manager at Lotus, I would throw him out of the car right now and let him stay home for the last 3 races, this one included.

there are multiple reports backing this story up:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1 ... en-2662500

"Kimi Raikkonen close to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix boycott over x-rated radio-row with Lotus crew

Kimi Raikkonen considered boycotting the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after an x-rated fall-out with his Lotus team, writes Byron Young in Abu Dhabi.

The 2007 champion’s deteriorating relationship with team bosses plumbed new depths today after he failed to turn up for clear-the-air talks in Abu Dhabi.

The 34-year-old also dodged crucial set-up meetings and media functions for the third time in under a year.

And sources close to the highly-rated racer, who switches to Ferrari next season, said he was so insulted he briefly considered not turning up altogether."

[Pup]

he isnt being honest - kimi has been paid his wages. He hasn't been paid the bonuses for performance.

You have proof of that? I mean, actual proof, not hearsay. (I don't know the answer myself, but you seem awfully sure.)

Before you answer, this doesn't count...

Asked why he was continuing to drive for Lotus if he was not being paid – the issue is understood to centre around performance-related payments rather than his basic wage – Raikkonen said: "I like to race."

What you see there is classic tabloid stuff - structuring the paragraph to make the inattentive reader think Raikkonen said something when in fact he was answering a completely unrelated question. Frankly, the dishonesty of that move makes me doubt the entire article.

I'm much more inclined to believe a direct quote from Kimi, i.e.:

"Sometimes it is not very nice when you hear that you are not really a team player, and you don't have the interests of the team [at heart] - but you have been paid zero Euro the whole year," said Raikkonen.

Don't you think? I mean, it's got to sew at least enough doubt to prevent you from making such cocksure posts about it.

Besides, does it matter? Obviously his bonuses form the vast majority of his pay.