Full Throttle

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen seems to have priced himself out of a possible return to McLaren as a partner to Lewis Hamilton, thereby opening the door for his exit from Formula One and entry into the realm of World Rally Championship.

Kimi Raikkonen’s topsy-turvy attitude and its resultant pay back has deepened with the thrown-out Ferrari driver’s future now a dead-cert to take him rough-riding in the World Rally Championship (WRC).

The ace’s refrigerated and remote demeanor — easing only when he was partying in a nightclub — put a frost on the Ferrari garage and the skids under him and his Prancing Horse ride.

Since then, with the incoming Fernando Alonso reckoned to the better bet for a return to the title glory they last consistently enjoyed with the now-retired legend Michael Schumacher, there has not been the excited stampede for his services that Raikkonen might have expected had he managed to recapture the form and finesse that won him and Ferrari the championship in 2007.

Maybe it is due to his £30 million-a-season asking price.

It is one of Formula One’s riddles that the 30-year-old’s career went into reverse so far as the Grand Prix scene is concerned.

But F1’s loss could be rallying’s — and his — gain now, he has been signed-sealed-and-soon-to-be-delivered as Citroen’s mud-plugger for 2010.

It appears he — or rather his management team — priced himself out of a return to McLaren as a partner to Lewis Hamilton, a seat eagerly snatched by this year’s champion Jenson Button with a meager £8 million wage. The Citroen rally boss, Olivier Quesnel, stoked the rally-switch story when he said somewhat enigmatically: “I have not spoken to Kimi even on the telephone and nothing has been signed… But it is more than a rumour — it is a real possibility.”

That guarded response has now found reality in yesterday’s announcement that Raikkonen is today a Citroen capture.

Raikkonen underpinned his pedigree as a rallyman during his debut in F1’s mid-summer break in his homeland event in a Fiat Arbarth Grande Punto, a personal show Quesnal described as “amazing”.

The Frenchman added: “Kimi is an exceptional driver. He certainly did not become Formula One World Champion by accident. He was a worthy winner”.

Reports suggest Raikkonen will not join six-times world champion Sebastien Loeb in the No 1 team but, instead, will lead the second-string line-up in a full-spec C4.