I tend to agree with Nisti. Why, if he was to be paid $25 million guaranteed, would Kimi agree to accept only a fraction of that if he found a job elsewhere in F1? Something isn't right here.

(to be clear, I'm just playing along in speculative fun)

^ I would guess it comes down to the nature of pay past the 1st year. These two scenarios put Kimi in very different situations (and I'm just making up numbers)

1. It's a multi-year deal, where McLaren is saying first year is $15m McLaren + $10m Ferrari, and then second year is $25m McLaren

2. It's only a one year deal with McLaren OR they are saying McLaren will pay $15m in all years (so he does take a "pay cut" in the 2nd+ year)

Actually, what I meant was ....... if Kimi was guaranteed $25m from Ferrari, why would he let them off the hook at all. According to the article he agreed to an $8m paycut, if he doesn't find a job, why would he (even less so his agent) agree to let Ferrari get away with that? There must be more to this story. What is Ferrari up to?

^ again, just playing along for fun... I would guess there are two factors at play: 1) contracts don't seem to mean a lot in F1 and Kimi/Robertson know Ferrari could go to the mat on the whole issue, and 2) this is a great year for him to grab another (seemingly) top seat -- there is no guarantee he'd get a McLaren or Brawn seat in 2011 if the new occupants performed well.

rickoblue - 07 November 2009 10:24 AM

Why, if he was to be paid $25 million guaranteed, would Kimi agree to accept only a fraction of that if he found a job elsewhere in F1? Something isn't right here.

Do we know for a fact that the $25M was guaranteed? Most contracts are extremely complex, especially for this kind of money. It is quite normal for there to be many "terms and conditions" governing early termination. It's quite possible (or likely, even) that the Ferrari payout is to be mitigated to some extent by any any payments Kimi receives from another team during 2010.

No we do not. In fact we really know very little about any of the F1 contracts, other than that they seem rather nebulous at the best of times.

It would seem likely to me that Kimi's payout from Ferrari woul be affected by any contract he susequently signs. In most team sports it would be subtracted from what the previous team owes. Hence IF Ferrari owes Kimi $25m, and McLaren offers $5m, then in fact the payout would be reduced to $20m. It is the reduced payout if he doesn't sign that really puzzles me. Perhaps it was in the intially negotiated contract, I dunno.

If anyone has done their own business contracts or mortgages or wills and estate planning with their lawyers (if the lawyer is any good) , you'd know first hand that every contingency is spelled out in gruesome detail down to the letter and cent. And these are fairly simple relative to sports contracts with incentive clauses etc. Sports contracts are even worst in contingency details. And these are people in F1 who do this kind of stuff dealing with numbers that you and I can't imagine all the time like breathing - it's almost "automatic" or "instinctive" to them.

Nebulous (to us) is a good adjective to use. Of course it'd be beyond our scope of imagination on here. We couldn't come up with stuff they've seen a million times before and some things to consider that we can't even in our wildest dreams imagine for contingency. For sure, there must've been conditions for an escape clause. Most smart people have an exit strategy planned.

Sorry but there's nothing in this thread that will remotely come close to the complexity of the sell job Ferrari did to get Kimi to OK it. He sounds really "comfortable". He can "take it or leave it" kind of sounding comfortable if you know what I mean. They bought him out fairly well if he's that relaxed and it has nothing to do with his motivation. He's not burnt out like some of us plebs out here at our jobs (if we still have one).


Robertson is leveraging from a position of strength as if he was negotiating for a new contract and the teams are taking the Ferrari/Santander/Renault buy out for Alonso into account. Robertson obviously was told by Kimi not to.


Kimi said he'll be racing somewhere next yr one way or the other and frankly he's already got his pay owed for 2010 already in his bank account from the way he's negotiating. So why would he settle for a ridiculously lowball buyout for less than that amount ?

BTW one can google 25M and Raikkonen and contract and find the articles stating his estimated salary (speculated or not) and determine objectively from what source (reliability-wise or verification-wise) it came. And BTW it's 25M Euros on some sources and 25M Pounds on others not $25 M US (which is less than either Euros or Pounds).

James Allen:

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2009/10/thoughts-on-the-next-driver-market-moves/


Raikkonen to McLaren

"...From McLaren’s point of view the performance of Raikkonen this summer, since it became apparent that he was being pushed out, has been stunning. It shows that he still has the fire in his belly.

McLaren believe that he will perform at his best next year because he will be highly motivated to show everyone, but particularly Ferrari, what he can do. So it’s a good moment to get a very motivated Raikkonen. As for handling him and Hamilton in the same team, he isn’t someone who plays political games, so the atmosphere in the team will be one of straight competition....If it happens it will be the first time a team has had two world champions in it since Senna and Prost were together at McLaren in 1989!"

I don't know about you folks but this one ranks right up there in star power entertainment for F1 like Schumi's comeback. 2 WDC's as teammates at McLaren since the glory days of Senna-Prost against the "All-Latin" Passion line-up of the Scuderia next yr on the comeback yr for both perennial-contending major teams. It would have the billing of a major sporting event let alone racing event.

This against the David (of David & Goliath) spirits of RBR and Brawn GP (with Mercedes backing - does that make them David any more ?).

I'm really looking forward to next March now if Kimi signs on to the Show. It'll save Bernie's hind end if he does. Maybe he should sweeten the pot with some of his own money because he'll get it back and then some ?

I guess it is really all about the end game. If Kimi chooses to leave F1 of his own accord fine, but if he is pushed out of F1 by contracts, politics and inter-team rivalries I will be very disappointed. I have long thought Schumie departed before his time, I would hate to see the same happen to the Kimster.

"Co-incidently" they both left (I won't use the term pushed out for Schumi since it's "unconfirmed" and Schumi is still "hanging around" the "alleged pusher") with the initiatives & blessings of the same team boss.
Alonso will become stale eventually like an old supermodel past her prime and the new flavor of the month will replace him...cue Vettel ? (after all, we're all just "pieces of meat" to the "plastic beautiful people" crowd, right ?)

It has been stated, "Ferrari will be my last team in F1.". Is it not ironic that at Ferrari, those wishes seem to come true.