Räikkönen: « The others have more money and staff » than Lotus

This Sunday, Kimi Räikkönen had to settle for finishing in the same position from which he started the Indian Grand Prix: seventh, behind Felipe Massa. With a current 67-point gap from the world championship leader, Sebastian Vettel, the Finn can’t realistically hope for much in the drivers’ title race as “only” 75 points remain to be awarded.

For its team, Lotus F1 Team, the games are already set for the constructors’ title, and while coming out of the summer break the men from Enstone hoped to continue fighting for third place or better, today they seem to have reached their limits against Red Bull, Ferrari, and other McLaren: « We constantly try to improve the car’s speed, but others have more money and personnel for development, and that’s where the difference is made, » explained the 2007 world champion this weekend to Finnish television MTV3.

The native of Espoo is pleased, however, that despite that we managed to fight well against the biggest teams. And the Lotus driver added: If we’re realistic, we’ve done a good job this season.

Nothing to discourage the Iceman who stated before the Grand Prix that he had no regrets about his return to Formula One: « I am happy. If someone had told me before the season that I would be in this position, with so many points and things like that, I would have signed up. But of course, when you have good races, you always want more and then you are disappointed if that’s not the case. It could have been better just as it could have been much worse as well. »

Consequently, Iceman should logically continue the adventure with Lotus in 2013 and, in India, Eric Boullier, director of the British team, promised an announcement before the end of the season: “The truth is that both our drivers have an option for next season,” he revealed on the airwaves of RMC Sport. “We will make an announcement in due course, surely before the end of the season.”

It remains to be seen, however, if the team owned by Genii Capital will be able to bring the necessary funds to Lotus to truly compete with the heavyweights such as Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, or Mercedes in 2013. This weekend, the paddock was buzzing with rumors about the sale of the team owned by Genii Capital to Malaysian investors, with Martin Brundle, a commentator for Sky Sports, even stating that Proton, which recently sold Lotus Cars to DRB-Hicom, would be in the running. Stéphane Samson, head of communication and marketing at the Lotus F1 Team, however, denied any intentions of selling from Gérard Lopez: « Yes, they are looking for minority investors like other teams and they were recently close to reaching an agreement, but it ultimately did not happen. » And added that « Proton has never been in contention » and therefore the Lotus team « is still 100% owned by Genii ».