ABU DHABI // After months of conjecture, an upset Kimi Raikkonen confirmed Friday night that he has not been paid by Lotus all season and that only last-minute talks with the team persuaded him to race in the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend.
The defending Abu Dhabi champion also threatened to skip the last two races of the Formula One calendar unless his issues with team management are rectified.
The Finn’s relationship with the team came into focus this past weekend in India after he was involved in a profane shouting match on the pit radio with Lotus’s operations director, Alan Permane, during the race.
The 2007 world champion, who is moving to Ferrari next season, did not appear at Yas Marina Circuit as scheduled on Thursday, leading to speculation of a rift, and while he took part in practice yesterday, he said he was not happy.
“I came here only because, hopefully, we found an understanding on the certain issues we have been having,” he said after going fourth-quickest in practice.
“Hopefully, it will be fixed and we can finish the season as well as we can.”
Raikkonen is upset with how he was treated in India, where Lotus ordered him to allow his teammate Romain Grosjean to pass.
“Sometimes, it is not very nice when you hear that you are not really a team player, and you don’t have the interests of the team – but you have been paid zero euros the whole year,” Raikkonen said.
Lotus’s financial troubles have been no secret. Raikkonen said in September, when he announced his 2014 move to Ferrari, that the cash issues had been one reason for leaving Lotus.
Moreover, he said yesterday that he would consider skipping the final races of the season, in the United States and Brazil, if he is not satisfied with his dealings with Lotus.
“I enjoy racing, I enjoy driving – but a big part of it is business,” he said. “Sometimes, when that is not dealt with like it should, we end up in an unfortunate situation.”
After being instructed to make way, in India, Raikkonen erupted over the radio with expletives. Lotus issued an apology for the language.
The Lotus team chairman, Gerard Lopez, played down the tension between driver and team, saying on the Lotus website: “Of course, recently a lot was made about the comments between Alan Permane and Kimi during the course of a tense moment in a race, but this was just one exchange, taking a matter of seconds, in the course of a two-year relationship.
“It certainly wasn’t the most beneficial few seconds, but you have to step back and accept that everyone is passionate about racing and sometimes these things do happen.”
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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