Raikkonen to make shock return to Ferrari in 2014?

Ferrari will announce a news bomb in the coming weeks if German and Finnish media are correct regarding Raikkonen's return to the team. Auto Motor und Sport confirmed today that Raikkonen's manager has indeed been in contact with Ferrari during the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Finnish media report that the deal has been finalized. 

German newspaper giant, Bild, was the first to report on Tuesday that Kimi Raikkonen was approached by Ferrari with an offer to rejoin his former team next year. On Thursday morning, Finnish media backed the story and claimed that they have highly reliable sources confirming that a contract has been signed and an announcement is imminent.

Today, the highly reliable Auto Motor und Sport confirmed that Raikkonen's manager, Steve Robertson, was seen entering the Ferrari motorhome in Hungary. Robertson has also been in contact with Red Bull and Lotus. AMuS reported that Ricciardo has the upperhand to join Red Bull, and that Raikkonen is probably unwilling to stay at Lotus, who have been late to pay his salary on two occasions. 

Raikkonen's return to Ferrari would be a shocking twist to earlier reports of him joining Red Bull. It is currently unknown whether he would replace Fernando Alonso (also linked with a move to Red Bull) or Felipe Massa. Finnish media are reporting that Ferrari will replace both drivers and hire Hulkenberg or Bianchi alongside Kimi Raikkonen. 

Alonso considers move to Red Bull as Ferrari offer seat to Raikkonen for 2014

The 2014 driver market became a real mess after Bild reported on Wednesday morning that Ferrari have made an offer for Raikkonen to rejoin the team next year. Raikkonen is in contention for a Red Bull move too, but Alonso’s manager also held talks with the team. 

Kimi Raikkonen was part of the Italian team from 2007 to 2009, until Santander brought Alonso in and Raikkonen was pushed out. German newspaper Bild now reports that Ferrari established contact with Raikkonen's management on Thursday prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix, in an attempt to convince the Finn to rejoin their team. Fernando Alonso has a contract for next year while Felipe Massa's seat is under threat. 

The event supposedly triggered another shocking twist to the silly season. Fernando Alonso's manager was seen having talks with Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, on Saturday afternoon. Mark Webber's departure means that there's a hot seat available at Red Bull for which Raikkonen and Ricciardo are favorite. Now Alonso is also in the mix, should Ferrari manage to convince the 2007 world champion to join them. 

However, Raikkonen is more strongly linked with Red Bull, after Finnish reporters claimed that the deal is close to being finalized, and is something more than an F1 contract. Red Bull are interested in signing a 10-year deal with Raikkonen, including a partnership arrangement, in which the brand would sponsor Raikkonen's Ice One Racing team as well as his motocross adventures. 

What Honda's return means to Formula 1

Honda's return to Formula 1 has been a rumor since last season. Now the company will announce its return to the sport after 4 years of absence. A welcome news that grabs the attention from the recent tyre scandals. 

The 2014 turbo engine era is knocking on our door. And with Pirelli changing tyre compounds 4 weeks from now, it will be a challenge to prepare for the upcoming season without compromising this year's development.

The bad news for the Renault-powered teams like Red Bull, Lotus, Williams and Caterham are the immense costs of the new turbo charger from the French engine manufacturer. The estimated cost of the Renault power source will be around 20 million euros, while Mercedes and Ferrari are charging 15 and 10 million euros respectively. Red Bull, which is operating on a bigger budget than Williams and Lotus might consider staying with Renault for 2014.

On the other hand, Lotus, Williams and Caterham, teams operating on a tighter budget, might switch to other power sources next year. With Honda returning as an engine supplier in 2015, that's good news for these teams, especially if Honda can undercut Renault in terms of pricing. 

So far only McLaren are expected to use Honda engines, as the team prepares to part from its current supplier at the end of 2014. McLaren will also change its title sponsor from Vodafone to Telmex. It's likely that the name change from VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES will move on to TELMEX MCLAREN HONDA by 2015. 

Honda's return will no doubt draw attention to other engine suppliers and car manufacturers. Volkswagen and Porsche have presented keen interest to enter Formula 1, but the costs were simply too high and that might change after 2014. Last year, BMW has also been tipped to make a return to the sport after their shock exit in 2009. Whether Honda's move will influence the rest remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it was finally time for some good news after the tyre scandal in recent weeks. 

Honda will announce Formula 1 return this week

Honda will hold a press conference this week to announce a partnership with McLaren in 2015. This will mean the end of a long partnership between Mercedes and the Woking team. 

Honda are expected to announce shortly they will return to Formula One in 2015 as an engine supplier to British team McLaren to revive their championship-winning partnership, a company source said Wednesday.

Honda president Takanobu Ito is to make the announcement as early as this week, the source said, confirming domestic press reports.

"Honda has not officially denied these reports," said the source, who asked not to be named. "Please prepare yourself for the announcement."

The Japanese automaker pulled out of F1 after the 2008 season, ending an involvement that began in the 1960s, in a bid to cut costs during the economic downturn that ravaged Japanese exports to the United States and Europe.

It sold its team to former principal Ross Brawn the next year.

A recent change in F1 rules, promoting the use of environmentally friendlier turbo engines, has made the comeback decision easier because Honda could readily transfer the technology to its commercial vehicles.

If realised, the plan would see a reunion of the McLaren-Honda alliance that conquered F1 from 1988 to 1991 with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the wheel.

Honda started racing in F1 as a full-fledged team in 1964, and stayed until 1968. During that time, it won two races.

Then, as a supplier of engines to other teams including McLaren, Williams and Lotus, it raced from 1983 to 1992 and won 69 races.

After an eight-year hiatus, Honda returned as an engine provider and then part owner of the BAR team from 2000 to 2005. In 2006 it took full control and renamed it Honda.

Championship already a three-way race

After Spain, it is now becoming clear that the championship will go down as a fight between three drivers: Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso. 

Sebastian Vettel has a slight edge over Kimi Raikkonen, with the Finn trailing the defending world champion by a mere 4 points. Alonso is slightly behind with 72 points to his name, 17 points behind Vettel. With Ferrari's recent resurgence, that difference is also minimal.

Having dominated the Australian and the Bahrain Grand Prixs, Raikkonen and Vettel were left scratching their heads after Alonso sprinted away from the pack in Spain to take a comfortable win. It was the Spaniard's second victory after triumphing in China as well. 

Vettel and Alonso have two victories so far, while Raikkonen has only won the opening race. But the Finn is the most consistent out of these three, with 1 win, 3 second place finishes and a 7th place in Malaysia. He is two races away from beating Schumacher's record of most points finishes in a row. It should come as no surprise after Raikkonen's solid comeback year. 

Red Bull are currently struggling to understand the tyres, which are relatively the car's Achilles heal. It has downforce and speed but is unable to manage the tyre degradation as well as the Ferrari and the Lotus. It's, however, only a matter of time before Adrian Newey comes up with a solution.

The Ferrari on the other hand has decent tyre management and is as fast as the Red Bull. A good news for Alonso, who was able to fight for the championship already last year with a worse car. Reliability seems to be a slight hiccup, with DRS failures here and there. 

The Lotus is a mystery to most. The car has excellent tyre management, with Raikkonen always being able to do one stop less than the above two in every race. The speed is also there, albeit there is work to be done to improve qualifying position. With a relatively tighter budget than Ferrari and Red Bull and having recently lost their technical director, time will tell whether the dark horses will be able to keep up with the development. 

Why the Pirelli tyre row is now becoming ridiculous

In the aftermath of the events at the Spanish Grand Prix, Pirelli was bombarded by angry fans with accusations that the tyre manufacturer is destroying the nature of the sport. But are they pointing fingers at the wrong suspect?

Outrageous and unacceptable. That's how the situation at the Spanish Grand Prix was described by F1 fans and pundits alike. 80 pit stops all in all, a lack of aggression and overtaking is not what everybody expected after the Italian brand promised a more durable compound. Drivers are complaining that the cars' potential cannot be fully exploited with the fear of having a sudden puncture or tyre failure. And usually what the drivers say is golden. 

It's no secret that this tyre war is a rupture in the system and is plaguing the sport more than it should. 

But are Pirelli being righteously accused? After all, it is the sport's governing body, the FIA, that asked them to spice things up and deliver multiple stop races with high degrading rubber

This might have gone a stretch too far. We end up with drivers not pushing 100% as they have to nurse the tyres. Qualifying has lost all its importance: with Mercedes 5 tenths faster on Saturday, but losing all the performance on race day due to tyre degradation. 

Fans are now demanding longer lasting tyres for races in which a driver can push a car to its limits. The fans are not alone in this. 


Red Bull's RB9 is widely believed to be the car that produces the most downforce in Formula 1 this year, but it cannot make use of all that peak performance because it puts the tyres under too much stress. That is why Red Bull and Dietrich Mateschitz are in favor of Pirelli changing the structure of the tyres by the time we set sail for the British Grand Prix

The nature of the challenge of looking after tyres means cars that are more mechanically sympathetic like the Lotus and Ferrari are better equipped when it comes to being consistent in the races.

Therefore, if Ferrari and Lotus are perfectly capable of balancing speed and tyre management, why should there be a change? Formula 1 has always been about nursing either the engine, the gearbox, the brakes and now the tyres. It is a sport in which the team and the driver that is capable of mastering the rules and conditions wins. 

Red Bull closing in on Raikkonen deal

After James Allison's departure from Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen's move to Red Bull now seems imminent. SkySports is reporting that talks are already being held between Red Bull and Raikkonen's management. 

James Allison was the main contributing factor to Lotus' recent success. Having lost their technical director, Lotus will certainly have troubles keeping Raikkonen for next year. The Finn had a lot of respect for Allison and his departure will set things in motion regarding the 2007 world champion's move to Red Bull in 2014. 

Raikkonen has been backed by numerous F1 pundits to join Red Bull in 2014. The team have a solid resource base and with Adrian Newey as the mastermind, they will likely be in contention for the world title for a few more years. Allison might be joining them and if that's the case, Raikkonen will surely follow. 

Dietrisch Mateschitz and Helmut Marko have both presented keen interest in Raikkonen and have not ruled out the possibility of hiring the Finn. Of course, Raikkonen's lifestyle and image would boost Red Bull's marketing system and the 2007 world champion would get a car capable of fighting for the world championship. 

Todat, SkySports reported that Red Bull have started negotiations with Raikkonen's management regarding a contract for 2014, but don't expect an announcement until August. 

Whatever the case, Raikkonen obviously has a word or two in this. The Finn might not want to get involved in all the PR activities at Red Bull. He's limited on PR duties at Lotus and at the moment he seems happy where he is especially that he's sill fighting for race wins and podiums. Nevertheless, if we look at Allison's case, things can change rather quickly and it would be a severe blow below the belt for Lotus if they lose their star driver.