Raikkonen adamant on McLaren option

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source Autosport

By Jonathan Noble and Dieter Rencken    Saturday, October 31st 2009, 11:29 GMT

Kimi RaikkonenKimi Raikkonen has reiterated his belief that it would be a waste of time to sign for any team other than McLaren next season, explaining he is only interested in fighting for the title in 2010.

Although talks between the Finn and McLaren appear to have stalled over financial terms and other contractual issues, like the number of sponsor appearances, Raikkonen has made it clear he is not interested in signing for anybody else.

"There is no point to go to other teams where you cannot win," said Raikkonen, who has also had an offer from Toyota. "They [McLaren] are the only team that can offer you a good car to be in a position to fight for the championship."

McLaren has been linked with Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld in recent days, but it is believed that Raikkonen is still top of its list of candidates to partner Lewis Hamilton next year.

Rumours linking other drivers with the team certainly do McLaren little harm in showing Raikkonen that the team has plenty of other options for next year if the Finn is not willing to bring down his financial demands.

Raikkonen's decision to either do a deal with McLaren or potentially take a sabbatical from F1 next season means that Toyota will now have to look elsewhere for a lead driver next year.

The Japanese manufacturer had hoped to do a deal with Robert Kubica before the Pole committed to Renault, and it subsequently set its sights on Raikkonen - who now also appears to have rejected its overtures.

Toyota F1 president John Howett said that Raikkonen's decision meant the team was now clear on what it was going to do - although he would not elaborate on what that plan was.

"We tried to get Robert but he decided that Renault was more interesting," Howett told AUTOSPORT. "We are interested in Kimi although he has indicated that we hadn't had contact and he is only interested in McLaren. Obviously from our side, if that is the situation it is fairly clear in which direction we want to go in.

"Even two or three years ago we indicated that we would like Kimi and, if he was available, we would be interested. We've put forward what we felt was an offer that we could sustain regardless of the budget situation, and so far it was obviously not appealing enough. So fine."

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McLaren chairman Ron Dennis made a timely return to a Formula One paddock on Saturday, witnessing his prot?g? Lewis Hamilton dominate qualifying for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The 62-year-old former long-time team boss began his exile earlier this year, apparently in a low-profile agreement with Max Mosley following the lie-gate scandal. Perhaps not coincidentally, Abu Dhabi is the first race since 1993 without Dennis' nemesis Max Mosley in charge of the FIA. Mosley's successor Jean Todt is also trackside this weekend.

While Dennis now heads up the McLaren sports car project, his successor as team principal was very happy with the performance put in by Hamilton.

?Lewis did a brilliant job, demonstrating prodigious speed, to secure pole position in dominant fashion in Abu Dhabi this evening,? explained Martin Whitmarsh.
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?We were relatively aggressive in terms of his fuel strategy, but we?ve certainly been more aggressive in a few other qualifying sessions this year and there?s therefore no doubt that his pace here is very genuine.?

The well oiled McLaren machine did not run completely according to plan however with Heikki Kovalainen?s MP4-24 grinding to a halt with a gearbox problem in the second round of qualifying leaving the Finn 13th on the grid.

?Heikki, too, would have figured at or close to the front had he not been hampered by a gearbox problem not of his making, but you can be well sure that he?ll be pushing as hard as ever tomorrow to make good progress from his P13 grid slot,? Whitmarsh concluded.