The Renault/ Kimi saga continues

Negative Camber

Oct 7, 2010

Considering it’s either that or the Team-~~Formerly~~-currently known as Lotus F1, I’ll take this. Although Eric Boullier’s comments just further convince me that he’s actually The Flav in one of those villain masks like on Scooby Doo. (And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids!)

Yesterday, SJ Skid reported on the unhappy Kimi who was not only hands down refusing to ride for Renault, but he was a bit upset (yes that’s what Kimi looks like when he’s upset, I know it’s similar to happiness and sadness, but trust me – he’s upset) that they’re using his good name to get some bonus PR for Renault.

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Which is totally what they’re doing.

HOWEVER, today Boullier comes out and denies that he’s doing anything to Kimi’s name except telling the truth. He WAS contacted by Kimi’s manager, he DID discuss Kimi driving for the team, and that he was very excited by the idea.

From Boullier’s interview with Autosport:

"
We have not piggy-backed on Kimi’s image at all, which is what he has been claiming in the press. We were contacted by his managers after Spa. They wanted to enter into discussions and at that time we said: ‘Please wait. Yes, we are very flattered that you have contacted us, but we need to finish the evaluation of Vitaly’s [Petrov] potential and from that point, when we have our own conclusion, we will get back to you.’ There was nothing else. Since then, I had not got back to them because we had not finished the evaluation of the potential of Vitaly and there was nothing else to say. I never used the media, and I don’t see the benefit of telling to the media that Kimi is interested and chasing us. What would be the purpose of this?
"

What would be the purpose of this? Ah keeping you name in the papers is the name of the game and what better way to do that then to call back F1′s prodigal son to the fold? Slaughter the fatten calf, the Iceman has returned!

"
At the end, there was clearly a big interest in the media and during the last week the media kept reporting about our contact. I guess it was because there was nothing else to report, and I guess Kimi got upset to have all this in the press. But I always stuck to my word – and when it was public I was fair and courteous. Yes we were flattered to be contacted but I didn’t say anything else. Now, I think it is clear for me, and clear for him, and this is the end of the discussion.
"

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You cannot be disappointed in his comment, but I do not understand why be aggressive and accuse us of something. I would never chase the media to explain them something like this – we were just replying to the questions. Even for us it was pulling us into a bit of trouble because it was constantly back on the table.
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Are you new to Kimi Raikkonen and the F1 media? Of course they’re going to bring this up every chance they get. How could they not. Nothing sells papers, especially when there is no other news, like the talk of Kimi coming back to F1. That’s not a name you can just throw around and what not.

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I have been very clear and very fair with everybody. I would not get into deep discussions with anyone, because that would be unfair for them if we took the decision that we were ready to keep Vitaly. The idea was we are interested in talking, and if we believe Vitaly cannot do it we will call you back and we will discuss it. But why discuss it before? You can play with the media, you can play with pressure, but that is not the game here.
"

Because you really never had a shot at getting Kimi in the first place! If you did, why wouldn’t you drop one of your drivers for him. This is Kimi Raikkonen – you don’t string him along like a backup college, you sign him ASAP. To me, this whole article is either really clever (Hello Flav!) or Eric Boullier is really that new to the world of F1. I didn’t piggy-back on Kimi’s name… right and Bernie Ecclestone isn’t a crook, he’s just a good business man.