{"id":13745,"date":"2011-09-24T16:53:19","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T20:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=13745"},"modified":"2011-09-24T16:53:19","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T20:53:19","slug":"williams-using-raikkonen-as-pay-driver-leverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/williams-using-raikkonen-as-pay-driver-leverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams using Raikkonen as pay-driver &#8216;leverage&#8217;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reports are gathering steam that Kimi Raikkonen is seriously considering a return to formula one in 2012 with Williams.<\/p>\n<p>In the Singapore paddock, it is now an established fact that the 2007 world champion &#8211; and recent world rally and Nascar driver &#8211; was given a detailed tour of the famous team&#8217;s Grove headquarters by Adam Parr.<\/p>\n<p>Germany&#8217;s Auto Motor und Sport said the visit took place on the Wednesday before Monza.\u00a0 Chairman Parr is not in Singapore this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The magazine is however sceptical about Williams&#8217; motives: &#8220;Raikkonen could be used as leverage for other interested parties,&#8221; said the report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It could drag another one or two million from their sponsors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>31-year-old Raikkonen, on the other hand, is apparently serious.\u00a0 &#8220;He wants to return to the tracks.\u00a0 And he does not want to put more of his own money into his racing,&#8221; said Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n<p>Also reportedly in the running for the 2012 seat alongside Pastor Maldonado are Adrian Sutil, Jules Bianchi, Giedo van der Garde, Vitaly Petrov and Romain Grosjean.<\/p>\n<p>Auto Motor und Sport insists that, despite the German&#8217;s categorical denial, Sutil made a low profile visit to Williams late on the Wednesday before Monza.<\/p>\n<p>It would be good news for Nico Hulkenberg, who after losing his Williams seat in 2010 would almost certainly fill Sutil&#8217;s place at Force India.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of talk and rumours but I just try to concentrate on myself, do my best and watch what happens,&#8221; reserve driver Hulkenberg told the Today newspaper in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reports are gathering steam that Kimi Raikkonen is seriously considering a return to formula one in 2012 with Williams. In the Singapore paddock, it is now an established fact that the 2007 world champion &#8211; and recent world rally and Nascar driver &#8211; was given a detailed tour of the famous team&#8217;s Grove headquarters by &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,5340,152,595],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13746,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745\/revisions\/13746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}