Kimi Raikkonen has successfully defeated attempts by the media – and Sky Sports – to learn whether or not he is contemplating a return to McLaren.
The Finn is reported to be on McLaren’s ‘long-list’ to replace Fernando Alonso at the team if the Spaniard opts to leave.
But despite the best efforts of the press pack and Sky Sports, Raikkonen was giving little away when he faced the media ahead of this weekend’s Austrian GP, live on Sky Sports F1…
Attempt number one
‘How does your future look right now?’
Kimi: “Same as always, every year. We’ll see.”
Attempt number two
‘You’ve previously said you would be happy to finish your F1 career with Ferrari. Is this still the case or would you be open to moving to another team?’
Kimi: “I don’t know really. I said, I think it was 2007 already, that I would finish at Ferrari and obviously at some point it didn’t look like that and now it looks like that again. You never know what comes after and this and that, but we will see. As always a lot of talk and I’m not really happy to comment on those. We’ll see at some point what happens, including me. Let’s wait and see.”
Attempt number three
‘Have you or anyone representing you spoken to McLaren?’
Kimi: “I spoke to them, for sure, but in the past a lot obviously when I used to be there. Like I said, I have zero interest to get involved in all the nonsense, in my view.”
Attempt number four
‘Ok, but have you had a chat about next season?’
Kimi: “You would like to know, would you? You can take it as you want. I don’t think you ask our opinions about a lot of stuff you guys write. So it goes either way, you can put yes or no. You usually write what you decide yourself, whether it’s true or not!”
Attempt number five
‘How are you dealing with the speculation?’
Kimi: “It’s a normal story for this time of year for as long as l can remember. It’s obviously absolutely nothing which comes from me. It’s people who write the newspaper or write the stories, it’s their opinion. I don’t know. It’s a never-ending story. I’m sure at some point everyone will know the truth, whatever that is.”
Attempt number six
‘Do you feel at the end of your career or the peak of your career?’
Kimi: “I don’t feel any different. Most of the years I don’t think I drive any differently than when l won the championship.”
Attempt number seven
‘Rumour of the week is that you are not going to stay at Ferrari you are going to re-unite at McLaren. Would you consider that?’
Kimi: “There are always a lot of rumours. I always said that with rumours and things eventually it will hit the correct one at some point but I don’t know. Every year it’s the same story so we will see what happens.”
Attempt number eight? We know when we are beaten…
0:30 Sky Sports F1 will be home to four F1 races in July during a bumper month of Formula 1!
Can Sebastian Vettel recover at the Austrian GP or will Lewis Hamilton extend his championship advantage? Watch every session live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Watch Sunday’s race, underway at 2.10pm, live on Sky Sports F1.
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Sourse: skysports.com
