Raikkonen rubbishes talk of WRC return for 2019 

Kimi Raikkonen has rubbished suggestions he is planning to quit Formula 1 to return to the World Rally Championship next year and slammed recent reports as lacking “knowledge about racing”.

Raikkonen, who occupies fifth place in the 2018 F1 standings, competed in the WRC for two years between 2010 and 2011 after being replaced at Ferrari by Fernando Alonso, scoring a best result of fifth place on Rally Turkey in his first campaign with the Citroen Junior Team. 

Raikkonen rubbishes talk of WRC return for 2019 

Kimi Raikkonen has rubbished suggestions he is planning to quit Formula 1 to return to the World Rally Championship next year and slammed recent reports as lacking “knowledge about racing”.

Raikkonen, who occupies fifth place in the 2018 F1 standings, competed in the WRC for two years between 2010 and 2011 after being replaced at Ferrari by Fernando Alonso, scoring a best result of fifth place on Rally Turkey in his first campaign with the Citroen Junior Team. 

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Reports by Finnish media outlets which surfaced over the course of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend claimed Toyota would be interested in signing Raikkonen and suggested a deal could be on the cards should the Finn opt to ditch F1.

“It’s just rumours and ideas of them [media],” Raikkonen said when asked about the reports. “For sure I’m interested in rallying, whenever I’ll stop Formula 1, and that’s not a secret. But there are no contacts or contracts anyway, so it’s not really my issue.”

But Raikkonen said media outlets reporting the story are simply lacking knowledge about racing and know nothing about his life. 

“I think there are Finnish people here from that Finnish newspaper, maybe not exactly the same newspaper, but if you speak to the lady that wrote it you’ll probably find out there is not much knowledge about racing or anything else,” he added.

“But the funny part was that – I saw it, or, better, somebody told me about it – Mika Hakkinen confirmed it. Honestly, it’s like the lady who wrote it or him, how much do they know about my life? So, no, there’s nothing in that.”

Raikkonen rubbishes talk of WRC return for 2019 

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