JUNE 13, 2006

Another way of looking at the Schumacher situation

Kimi Raikkonen has signed a deal with Ferrari for 2007 and beyond - it is hard to find anyone in F1 who does not believe that this is the case. However Michael Schumacher has not yet finished his F1 career and so this has confused matters somewhat as it is hard to imagine the two men racing together at Ferrari. Raikkonen will not want to be number two to Michael and Michael will not want an equal number one.

F1 deals are often much more complicated than they appear to be and it is possible that both Michael and Kimi do have deals to race for Ferrari in 2007. Felipe Massa may also have just such a deal in place. But in F1 three into two does go because it is not impossible that Ferrari would loan out Raikkonen to to its rival Renault. If the Italian team is confident that Michael can win World Championships in a Ferrari, letting Renault have Raikkonen makes sense because it means that eventually when Michael does quit, Ferrari has the man it wants to replace him.

This would be a great help for Renault as it currently needs a star name until Heikki Kovalainen has built up his standing in the F1 world.

The announcement that Michael has done the deal with Ferrari could well be being held up by the fact that Raikkonen and Renault have yet to sort out their deal now that Michael has decided what he is going to do.