Rumor

Formula 1

Raikkonen absence was Lotus ultimatum?

Kimi Raikkonen was not present for the Thursday media day at Spa, and rumours on why were the main conversations in the paddock.

GMM

Edited: Aug 23, 2013, 7:54 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus F1 Team

Aug.23 (GMM) Was there more to Kimi Raikkonen's mystery illness on Thursday?

While some believe the reticent Finn skipped his media duties at Spa-Francorchamps because he was actually feeling unwell, others think he was keen to dodge the media spotlight in the heat of his leading role in the 2014 'silly season'.

According to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, however, there is a third paddock theory.

"Either I get my money, or I do not drive," said correspondent Michael Schmidt, imagining a theoretical conversation between the 2007 world champion and his Lotus bosses.

Raikkonen went into the August break admitting there have been problems with the payment of his wages in 2013.

The 33-year-old's friend Sebastian Vettel, however, doubted there was any truth to that rumour.

"Kimi is not going to just throw his title chances away (by not driving)," the German said.

And Lotus team boss Eric Boullier insists there is still a good chance the Enstone based team will win the battle to secure Raikkonen's signature for 2014.

"Kimi wants to stay with us," he told CNN on Thursday.

"It's up to him to choose what he wants to do. We know what he wants. We will do everything that we can to get what he wants.

"We need to make him just happy to stay," added the Frenchman.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Bitter Sutil tells Hamilton to 'grow up'

Next article Kovalainen admits mind on Formula One race return

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 36 min

Barcelona set to host IndyCar race in 2027 under multi-year deal

Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

2 h

Winners and losers from a Chase-altering NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix

Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 2 h

Heart of Racing rules Valkyrie GTP step next year ‘too soon’ for IMSA standout Barrichello

Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 h

Sergio Perez: Debut Cadillac season "without a doubt one of my best years"

Feature

Discover prime content

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts