So Kimi Räikkönen has then visited Williams' F1-team head quarter last week
In F1-circles they see it unlikely that Räikkönen would go to Williams, because the team is only 9th in the WCC-serie and their point score to Red Bull is 5-451.Kimi has said that he only accepts a seat in a top team. At the moment Williams is not one of them. Could Williams still interest Räikkönen?
Williams is however one of the big names in F1, despite their poor last seasons. The team has won 9 WCCs during their history and only Ferrari has done better, hence representing Williams would be honorable even for a championship-level driver.
A big dealing in the top teams will take place for season 2013, since Felipe Massa's, Michael Schumacher's and Mark Webber's contracts - and most likely also F1-careers - end after next season. Räikkönen would now have a year to restore his racing- and driving-feeling in Williams before a possible top seat. At the same time team managers would see that Räikkönen still is fast and motivated, which would lower the threshold to hire him.
Next season Williams gets similar Renault-engines as Red Bull does, hence at least that area is in order. Williams' new head designer Mike Coughlan worked in McLaren as head designer during Räikkönen's McLaren-years and he could create competitive cars for the Finn. Since Räikkönen's former race engineer Chris Dyer is on the free market after being sacked by Ferrari he could go with Kimi to Williams. It would hence be possible for Räikkönen to put up a team in Williams which he earlier also has succeeded with.
Williams' owners have lately been selling their team's shares to investors through the stock market, so why couldn't it be possible to take care of Räikkönen's salary at least partly through the shareholders, if Kimi would be interested in going to Williams for a longer time as 'his own' team. Räikkönen already has a team in Motocross and WRC.
However Williams is much more than just a F1-team, it's a diversified motorsport-racing company, hence Räikkönen's Ice One Racing –team might be up to something completely different than co-work in F1. For example, Williams designs together with Jaguar a C-X75-supercar, in which Räikkönen could fit in as a testing driver or as a commercial figure.
By Jani Merimaa
Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Nicole
