Kimi: Future Not Necessarily F1 or Rally

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Wow.

But think about it for a second. He just made in the neighborhood of $50 million last year. He stands to make $20 or so million next year for doing nothing. So, that’s $70 million in two years. You think he could do “other things?”

Still, the snark aside, Kimi’s lack of commitment—or clever negotiating tactic—is at the center of the entire silly season at this point. Both McLaren and Toyota are waiting his decision, and with Nico Rosberg seemingly committed to Brawn GP next year, I’ve got to wonder what Plan B is for McLaren. [Could be Timo Glock. Could be, maybe, Adrian Sutil.] But Toyota is looking out of luck if Kimi doesn’t put on the white and red.

Does a Jarno Trulli/Kamui Kobayashi pairing really fire anyone up?

Whether you like Kimi, or not, or think he’s a good driver when behind the wheel but not when it comes to working hard and developing a car, there is no arguing that for Kimi to slightly pull himself out of the mix is a game-changer.

Or, again, it could just be a negotiating tactic. But which other driver could credibly say he has other options? That may very well sum up Kimi better than anything else.

Here’s the full exchange courtesy the official F1 site .

Q: Kimi, what are your thoughts on leaving Ferrari?

KR: Well, it is not any different than a few races ago. I don’t have a contract anymore with them. It is the last race and we try to make a good result and we will see what happens in the future.

Q: Is your focus totally on Formula One or would you like to pursue your rallying career?

KR: Basically I have a few different options and we will see what is the best one overall and then make my decision.

Q: Would rallying be a consideration?

KR: It is definitely one of them, but I mean it is not just Formula One and rallying. There are other things I could do and we will see what happens.

Q: Just looking back at the second part of the season. You have only scored two points less than the person who has scored the most points. Considering that development has stopped on the car it is a pretty remarkable record, isn’t it?

KR: Yeah, I think we had a good second half. The car is definitely not the fastest but we found a pretty good way of working with the car and getting the best out of. It has been more normal to drive than for a long time before. Once you get something that you have a good feeling with, then usually you get good results. The bigger teams or the better teams who have been faster this year should have done better; better cars, better results and better points overall in the last part but they haven’t and I think we did pretty well.

Q: It seems almost unfair that the focus has been on your team-mates and how fast they have been going whereas you have been racking up points all the time.

KR: It makes no difference for me really. I don’t think they have been going very fast and they can talk to them as much as they want. We just try to score points and get good results. That has been our aim and is still our aim in the last race and hopefully we can get a bit more than McLaren.

And then later there is this addition:

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) … and Kimi, we heard something about you taking a sabbatical next year in 2010. Is that true, it’s an option or not?

KR: I can if I want. I can do whatever I want, but like I said before, I haven’t made my decision what I want to do yet.

And finally, one more question for the Kimster:

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