Europe's biggest magazine Bild Zeitung published in their Tuesday issue news that at this point shocked the F1-world, by telling that Red Bull might be interested in hiring Kimi Räikkönen with a one year contract for next season to drive alongside Sebastian Vettel.
The story doesn't claim that Räikkönen would be coming back. The story doesn't claim either that Räikkönen would be the strongest candidate for Red Bull's second seat.
The team is looking for a short-term driver who can win races, since the WCC is highly prestigious to Red Bull.
According to Bild's editorial F1-staff, the interest to hire Räikkönen came from a very reliable source close to the team. They schedule Räikkönen to be Vettel's team mate only for year 2012, after which the team's own young drivers would have enough experience to switch to the main team.
A week before Silverstone GP Christian Horner said in Swiss Servus-tv that Räikkönen is not one of the options from which they are choosing Vettel's partner.
When viewers got to vote for their favorite driver candidate Räikkönen got almost as much support as Mark Webber, who's contract has been seen as practically certain. Webber got 26,2 and Räikkönen 26,1 % of the votes.
When it was certain in October 2009 that Räikkönen would leave Ferrari at the end of 2009, Helmut Marko who decides about Red Bull's F1-driver matters went immediately on Suzuka's paddock to inquire if the Finnish driver would be interested to switch to their team after Webber's contract would expire.
However that meeting didn't lead to closer negotiations over a F1-seat.
Räikkönen has said more than once that he will make his decisions for next year only after this year's races are over.
All the time his condition for a possible comeback has been that there would be a seat in a winning team and at the same time freedom to race for the victory. At the moment every driver starting from Lewis Hamilton would want especially to Red Bull.
In May Räikkönen assured in a press conference before the Nascar-race that he has never said his F1-career would definitely be over.
– There were many reasons why I quit. But I haven't said that it's final. At the moment I don't miss F1. I have wanted to do different things and have got great opportunities to try rally and now also Nascar. I have never said that I wouldn't go back to F1-level. There are no plans about what I will do next year, Räikkönen said at that time.
Turun Sanomat, Silverstone
HEIKKI KULTA
Courtesy: Nicole
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