Lotus were the team hitting the headlines this weekend. Kimi kicked it all off by refusing to attend the regular Thursday press appointments the team arrange for him. Of course this followed the public spat on team radio last from the Indian GP weekend, where an expletive was directed at Kimi – to which he took exception.
Raikkonen had suffered some criticism for his on track behaviour in India, where most analysts suggest he made a pointless and obvious defence of his position against his team mate. Mikka Hakkanen was a lonely voice suggesting Kimi took the racing line to keep his tyres up to temperature.
Of course Kimi had all his fans reaching for the Kleenex when he revealed he’d been paid not a ‘single euro’ this year by the team, and threatened to not race in Austin or Brazil if the team failed to honour an agreement reached which saw him choose to race in Abu Dhabi.
The media discussion over this matter was confusing. Some appeared to suggest this kind of arrangement was becoming more normative – where the team paid certain drivers at the end of the year when the prize money was granted by Mr. E.
Kimi again is on a remuneration deal that is weighted towards the number of points he scores. His basic salary/retainer in 2012 was reputedly between 4-5m euros, though the BBC report he renegotiated this for 2013 for a higher basic of 8m euros and smaller ‘bonus’.
Suffice to say, it is Kimi’s salary that is outstanding at this point – his bonus would only ever be paid at the end of the season. Yet Kimi was paid by the Enstone team in a similar manner in 2012 and he has no reason to believe they will be breach of contract and not pay him for 2013.
Rightly or wrongly, following the radio message exchange in India Kimi decided to up the anti over his pay. This topic is not new in the public domain, Lotus team boss Eric Boullier said to the BBC during the Singapore GP, “The truth is, yes, we owe him money. He is going to be paid. Last year it was the same. We owed him some money and he got paid in full at the end of the year.
It is just the way we manage our cash flow. We are not as rich as some of the teams at the front. Maybe it is not as sustainable as it should be. We have favoured our people working in Enstone, which is understandable I think. There is nothing else behind this.”
Raikkonen said that despite being owed money by the team he would continue to race for Lotus this season. “It’s unfortunate but I want to help the team and I want to win.”
An interesting side effect of Kimi’s tantrum is that Quantum Motorsports have been handed a PR opportunity. Quantum chairman Mansoor Ijaz was quick to speak with the BBC stating, “There is no question the deal is definitely happening. It has now been completed from our side. Our deal is to buy 35% in newly-issued shares. We are essentially diluting Genii Capital. The options do allow us in a fixed amount of time to take control of the team later on.
We’re going to clear off the debt, and then we’re going to bring very high quality sponsors which you’ll see very soon. Those sponsors will give us the longevity and capacity to compete at the top end of the business for a long time.”
This is slightly disingenuous because the deal has been ‘done’ from Mansoor Ijaz and Quantum’s perspective for some time, it is Lotus who have been uncomfortable with some of the terms. Lopez said back in August the matter was with Genii to move forward with, and yet the team have since heavily courted Renault – both publicly and intensively behind the scenes.
TJ13 believes it is the case that investment/ownership deals with Renault or Quantum are mutually exclusive as Quantum wish to assume control of the team in the long term.
Lopez has been fairly transparent over the financial structures of the Lotus team. He told AMuS in August, “We continue to look for partners to join the team. First of all, I want to ensure that the team continues to be well-funded. Whether [Genii] gets the money back now or later, we have to see. It’s not about getting money back quickly now. [The total debt] is €120m, but four-fifths of it we owe to ourselves, to Genii, because we do not sponsor the team but finance it through loans.
We could have signed a cheap contract but we think, from the performance point of view, we need a sponsor who pays really well. We don’t want to sign something now for three, four, five years that we will regret later.”
A mischievous Mansoor Ijat confirmed to reporters that he personally had calmed troubled waters with Steve Robertson – Kimi’s manager - “I’ve apologised to Steve, we’ve apologised to Kimi.” He added, “They [Lotus] are going to pay a lot of bills this week, let’s put it that way. We’ve asked them to make sure things get paid as quickly as possible,”
We shall see how desperate Genii/Lotus are this week. TJ13 believes Genii are determined to get the terms and value they believe they have risked much for. Mansoor Ijaz is at present making cheap political capital on the Lotus team’s very public fallout with Kimi Raikkonen.
Quote: jpp47 wrote in post #587 I hope Hulk to be considered as Number 1 and not Gro as Hulk deserves it more than Mr Crash
It's hard to say if hulk fully deserves to be #1. He has a great reputation when compared to his teammates, and thus many people feel he has an extremely promising future. But this argument is exactly what some internet critics use when saying Vettel isn't an all time great. They reference he is up against a 'weak' teammate, and thus we don't know what another WDC could do in the same car (I.e. Alonso).
We do know that Kimi has clearly out scored Romain for two seasons straight. Even with development going away from Kimi (long wheel base car) and the team readying for life after Kimi (now that he's going to Ferrari), he is still scoring close to romain in that short stint of races. But outside of that, Romain has been demolished by Kimi.
I think Lotus are trying to portray Gro in such a positive light in order to show they have a future talent to potential investors. If hulk is announced as their second driver, then I think Lotus will soften their stance on Gro and you'll hear more about "we will let them race." In essence, they will start on equal terms and points will dictate who earns the #1 status.
Personally, I think Hulk is the stronger driver. But we won't know for sure until they race a few times in the same machinery
TJ13 reported back in June the dubious history of Mansoor Ijaz, yet it appears Formula 1 in the form of Lotus is about to embrace another influential character of disrepute. Ijaz seized the opportunity presented to him in Abu Dhabi when Kimi went public with his “I’ve not been paid a euro” sob story. He claimed to have smoothed troubled waters with Kimi and his manager – amazing seeing as Quantum are nothing to do with the team yet.
For smoothing troubled waters, read, made some promises that may of may not be fulfilled depending on whether Ijaz get Genii to bow to their demands.
Comfortable on his new F1 platform, Ijaz assured all Lotus fans, “We as incoming owners and shareholders have made it very clear what our preference is. I wish the transition had been smoother between Kimi and the next driver, who we believe will be Nico Hulkenberg, but sometimes in life things don’t happen so clearly and as nicely as you would like them to.”
So Lotus are about to receive unfathomable riches from the depths of the Sultan of Brunei’s treasure chest, and yet they’ve been talking to Pastor Maldonado – who we all know would only be preferred to Hulkenberg if his stash of oil dollars were necessary.
Genii are not comfortable with Quantum’s proposal, and Mansoor Ijaz has demonstrated this weekend exactly why Gerard Lopez has to date been cautious in pursuing their offers.
TS wrote yesterday evening, nothing has changed, Kimi hadnt got anything till the evening and is still saying if the plan isnt going to work, he will not show up in Austin. Robertsons and Kimi doesnt trust in Lotus or Quantum at all.
I'm mad, I tell you why. We have a weekly F1 show in Latin America, usually is just about the Spanish speaking drivers but they talk about the others on ocasions. Rarely speak of Kimi and they never interview him. Our commentators are very capable and very fair, they admire Kimi as a driver but as a person they think he is as everybody says he is.
But yesterday they judged Kimi incorrectly. They painted Kimi as a non sympathetic or charismatic guy like Vettel. They were impressed by how Vettel is the onlyone who can make the iceman laugh (by the way, Vettel said that he's still pending on beating Kimi on badminton). But what really got me mad is the assumption that by venting his troubles with Lotus in public, Kimi did wrong and was seen as not a team player (what the...) and that he only drives and thinks for himself. So next year in Ferrari he won't push the team forward like Alonso (what? Alonso is a team player and not Kimi? WTF!) I think I'll search for this guy's e-mail and explain a couple of things to him
By the way, our Fox Sports commentators are from Argentina and Mexico, because the broadcast is for all Latin American countries. So I'll have to find out what's the name of the currency in Argentina first :)
There are a lot of people who is taking sides against Kimi in this matter, but in truth they are not looking at the whole picture. For example that Boullier said just 4 weeks ago that Kimi's salary was fully paid up. Clearly they were straight forwardly lying to the public. They have been deceitful about the matter. They also made marketing videos which cost them millions. They didn't even make part payments, so they dont really they have much of an excuse. Kimi took a calculated risk to reveal the whole money issue, I think he knew what the reactions would be. I think the confession might pay off more in the future, but for now we are getting mixed results. You cant please everyone. I would be happy if I dont hear to much about this drama for the next few races.
If I were the Hulk I would be very careful to go to Lotus, the new investors are murky and the team is very much behind Grosjean. Ijaz is really talking a lot, he is listed as team owner on wikipeadia. lol
We are still not seeing any official announcements.
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Mon Nov 04, 2013 12:49 pm
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