Sobre Steve Robertson

Muito bom artigo sobre a atuação de Steve Robertson como empresário de Kimi. Todos aqui sabem que gosto muito dele e confio no trabalho dele e de seu pai David.

Leiam, porque vale a pena entender um pouquinho sobre este cara tão importante na carreira de Kimi.

KIMI's MANAGER IS A WEATHERVANE

20.11.2009 klo 09.08

Kimi Räikkönen's manager Steve Robertson's impression of the contract situation turned 180 degrees.

He is said to be a strategist who always has 'leaked out' information about negotiations.

Options in F1 next season were:

- McLaren or nothing. Kimi and McLaren didn't reach an agreement, therefore he won't drive in F1 next year, Steve Robertson told Turun Sanomat on Tuesday night.

- Mercedes is a possibility. This is F1. If they can offer us something that assures us and can give Kimi a chance that will make him happy and so that he can feel that he can win races and championships we cannot say 'never', Robertson said to Autosport Thursday morning.

It's not about which one we should believe because we are talking about the same person. It's more about what he wanted to achieve with the comment about Kimi taking a sabbatical year, if the back door to Merc was always open.

- Kimi isn't interested in many teams because he is honest when he says he wants a winning car. He isn't interested in just money.

- Naturally money is a part of this but he doesn't need it. He wants a car where he can show his talent. Kimi was really frustrated last year because he couldn't win races and challenge for the championship.

Managers primary task is not to tell the truth. Their task is to make sure their protegés get the best possible job. But how would the story about the sabbatical year help in Mercedes-negotiations - if they are going on as we speak?

Räikkönen announced ages ago that his 'only' option is McLaren. Apparently it was already clear at that moment that McLaren wasn't even a possibility. When the McLaren-seat officially went to Jenson Button it's important to give the negotiators the signal that the Brawn/Mercedes -seat would definitely not be the 'only' option because that would give Brawn/Mercedes a strong upper hand.

It's hard to tell how much Ross Brawn or Norbert Haug read newspapers? Apparently a lot but assumably they understand better than to believe anything - at least when it comes to F1-news.

One would think that they know the options without any smokescreen.

- Now it looks like Kimi wouldn't be driving in F1 and we are looking at other options. Rally or something else. But we haven't signed anything yet. The F1-season only ended a few days ago, Robertson told Autosport.

Although when it comes to Robertson it's useless to talk about confirmation. He is a fox when it comes to manipulating the information.

- It is pretty sure that Kimi will take a year off - but of course I can't say anything 100 %. Kimi had a goal and we worked for it but it didn't work. We negotiated with McLaren but unfortunately we didn't find the mutual language in some matters, Robertson described.

Räikkönen doesn't take part in the negotiations himself. To borrow his favourite saying 'it doesn't interest me'. Of course when it comes to the final games he either rejects or approves the papers his managers have negotiated but at this moment he is sitting somewhere else enjoying his life.

Robertson by the way is in Macau where they have the final race in custom car's championsip-serie. It's hard to imagine Räikkönen's destinyt would be negotiated there either.

Maybe we will know more next week.

JANNE PALOMÄKI

Agradecimento e tradução para o Inglês: Nicole (Kimi Raikkonen Fan Club - Facebook)

Beijinhos, Ice-Ludy