How Kimi Raikkonen almost BANKRUPTED a Formula One Team
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- Опубликовано: 20 июл 2021
- It would be amazing if we could predict the future. I'd cash in on football accumulators and the lottery every Saturday.
But I bet the Lotus F1 team (not to be confused with Chapman's Lotus) wished they could predict the future when they agreed to let Kimi Raikkonen have a contract that said he could be paid 50k Euros per point. A decision that cost them a LOT of money.
But it's not the first time Kimi had been engaged in contractual gymnastics. As his first trip to Maranello proved.
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Steve. Steve Robertson.
My brain has melted. Gib aircon plox.
What - your utopian Shangri-La nanny state isn’t taking care of y’all?
Guess you gotta pay more taxes, mate. Not fair when people get to keep their own money. More subsidies for displaced immigrant sea-weevils will make things cooler - honest.
@@F-Man I'm allowed in the shops without a mask ;)
Da Aidan. whichs Aircon does Aidan Wants, Plox lets Know
buy youself an ice cream on me with the patreon bucks.
@@AidanMillward So am I. ;))
Alpine: Kimi, we will pay you the 6 million dollars we owe you.
Kimi: Bwoah, just use it to pay employees salaries
I love Kimi
Good guy Kimi
yes, yes yes, leave kimi alone, he's paying the salaries
the iceman that not that cold..
Did Alpine offered to pay the Lotus debt to Kimi? Is that a fact?
The way I saw it at the time. Kimi was getting frustrated with Lotus for not paying his or his mechanics full salaries and this (combined with back problems he had been suffering since about the time of the Singapore Grand Prix) affected his performances in the final few races and forced him to quit 2 races from the end of the season out of pure frustration and also so he could get his back properly operated on as he was unsure if the op would cause him to miss the second half of the season. He basically put the team and its employees before himself.
I think is the coolest thing to be fired by Ferrari, be given a bunch of money, take a break, and then they hire you back.
Right, so Kimi was literally too fast for the team. Huh.
Yes
Kinda weird.
Which is not very fast. In 2012 he should be f1 champion.
@@robertsmith8734 He was seriously good in '12. I hadn't remembered how good the Kimi/Lotus combo was, before watching a season summary video.
@@kimisdaman And even in '13 he was 2nd in the standings during a significant portion of the season, alternating with Alonso, and would have finished 3rd again had not been for this Lotus fiasco (AKA back issues)
Kimi didn't clean them out. Lotus signed that deal of their own accord and thus cleaned themselves out.
A small correction: Lotus was already in the hands of the Malaysians (Proton), Tony Fernandes bought the remains of Team Lotus, the original F1 team from David Hunt (brother of James) to be able to continue using the Lotus name.
Being specific helps. It's been a while.
Fernandes' original plan was to get the Lotus f1 team going, and then buy Group Lotus, but that didn't happen and everything got wobbly. So he bought Caterham, and after some initially exciting woohooing with the composites company and talk of developing a new road car, the whole thing seemed to just fall apart after lots of money got thrown into projects that came to nothing.
Incorrect
@@timyo6288 what is?
However Lotus Cars claimed that David Hunt was not actually the owner of the remains of Team Lotus and in fact, they did. It was all very complicated with various people claiming they owned X and Fernandes didn't own Y.
In the end, the high court stated Fernandes could use the name Team Lotus, but not just Lotus on it's own.
I’d honestly make a case that in the second half of 2013, Grosjean was the second best driver after Vettel. He was the only driver even remotely challenging the Red Bulls
Absolutely. If I remember correctly, Grosjean was actually leading the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix before something happened to him.
@ان شاء الله glad he's doing good in Indycar now
Haas was a mistake honestly and Lotus Renault was huge disappointment.
@@F1ll1nTh3Blanks Well he kinda had no choice going to Haas since he didn't know if Lotus would be around for 2016 since Renault didn't announce that they would buy the team before he signed.
grosjean was very quick he was unlucky not to get a win or two.
That fact with winning using 3 different types of F1 engines really hit me
Say what you will about Kimi but he sure has managed to maintain a high salary throughout his career in F1. I'll say this his race craft is worth it though.
I just wish that McLaren had been able to give him more reliable cars - One of them would have surely turned into a championship. At the time it was frustrating as a fan and looking back it feels like they got blindsided by the reliability gains across the rest of the field, especially at the front.
Yeah, Mika Salo asked why/how he can still race? Kimis answer was that "I have a such good salary".
the thing with kimi is, that even when he has slower car, he is good (sure, not fast as people in faster cars) but he brings money to that team, which is important
No one:
Kimi: "Bwoah, I drive a race in a Toyota Tundra and a race in a Toyota Camry for Kyle Busch in NASCAR then I return to Formula One it doesn't really matter"
Kimi was offered some money to drive in two NASCAR support series-the trucks and what is now called the Xfinity Series-by a company that makes all-natural jerky called Perky Jerky. He didn't finish either race, and with no more money went back to the WRC
Just on Kimi being the first to win in V10, V8, and V6 powered cars, Ayrton Senna managed this before Kimi did with the added bonus of winning with V12 engines.
Lotus: Suffering from success
How the hell is Mercedes and red bull still alive then
@@Ayad719 Because they are not stupid enough to sign a 50 000 dollar bonus for each point the driver win?
And i think they have way more financial power than Lotus too back then.
Never underestimate Kimi!
Steve Robertson is a negotiating geniius not only did he did he play Mclaren and eveybody to get Kimi's deal to Ferrari for 2007 he helped Kimi outsmart the management of Daniel Ricciardo to get a couple of one year extensions with Ferrari during his second spell there from 2014-18 ( Robertson having outfoxed the management of Paul Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg to get Kimi that second Ferrari stint in the first place) though the tragedy with Jules Bianchi probably helped a bit in this regard too as Ferrari had nobody in the young driver pipeline after that until Charles Leclerc. Also the seeds Kimi's current deal with with Sauber were sewn in 2017 when Kimi was on the same flight which a senior Sauber team manager was also on same flight who suggested he return to Sauber whenever Ferrari got rid of him. I remember there was all this press rubbish when Leclerc signing to Ferrari and Kimi went to what is now Alfa Romeo. When he signed for Alfa that Kimi had been placed at Alfa Romeo by Ferrari as an insurance that Ferrari could bring Kimi back to Ferrari mid season and swap back with Leclerc if things didn't work out. Good luck trying to place Kimi somewhere he didn't want to be which is why that theory didn't make sense. Kimi even had to deny it in press conference and stated it was his own choice to continue . Ferrari were surprised by the baseless rumours of them placing Kimi at Alfa as well. Given they actually said in their farewell statement 'we wish Kimi and his family all the best' -Ferrari assumed Kimi would probably retire like the press did before he signed with Sauber.
That theory is complte nonsense, it's long been public knowledge that Giovinazzi is the driver Ferrari placed at Sauber, not Kimi.
As for Ricciardo, he's actually said in the past that when he left for Renault, that was his earliest possible opportunity to leave the Red Bull stable according to his contract with them.
Kimi didnt go after his 6mil euro becuz it would cost ppl their jobs.
Just another reason to like kimi. 😊
Kimi is GOD of F1, period...
He is so good that even greedy team principals and owners miscalculated his worth... 😂👏👍
He deserved every penny thats whats funny. They hire a guy who left to go rally with point benefits then he straight up is at top of field. They where gling Bankrupt either way since renault left but w/o kimi may not have resold to renault
I know it's hindsight, but the people at lotus, who accepted this deal weren't the brightest ones. Come on! One very well timed safety car and they lose 1.25 million, even if they don't have the best car. It's a pretty bad situation, when a win is actually pretty bad for the team.
1.25 million isn't that much and it usually takes more than a safety car to win. Lotus/Renault weren't very competitive in 2011, so based on that season they probably negotiated that contract (expecting maybe 30-40 points). As it turned out, their 2012 car was far more competitive, which really cost them way more than expected. Interestingly, despite scoring like four times more points in 2012, they only finished one place higher in the constructors championship, so they wouldn't have received much more prize money. However, they could easily have finished one or two places higher had Grosjean been more consistent. So they ended up in the worst possible situation, with the expensive driver scoring most of the points (Räikkönen was 3rd in the drivers' championship in 2012), while their less experienced driver essentially cost them a few places in the constructors' championship.
Love the story times and the F1 history Vids. Cheers Aidan
Vegas 2011 was 34 cars, yes THIRTY FOUR. Making it even more insane that they would start more cars than indy on a higher banked track that is one mile shorter.
Another happy bedtime story - thank you for bringing us this.
Will there be any more That Racing History Podcast? Asking for a friend…
I keep checking my spotify for it. Thanks for asking it
Between esports, esports commentary and normal youtube stuff, there isn’t enough time in the week for everything while still having time for me to sit away from a computer for more than ten minutes. I’ll try and have some more done over the summer break.
@@AidanMillward hey dont sweat it. The wait is worth it :)
Another excellent piece Aidan keep em coming.
Only been watching F1 since 2016. never knew about theses insane storylines. but that small bit about Kimi almost racing in the same car that Wheldon has me shocked.
Finally the best series is back on the channel
It never went away...
Awesome work man, very well made video!!
I learnt about this Kimi and Lotus contract problem just recently, which was from a meme. After that I looked for it but not too detailed, especially from the Lotus' perspective. Glad to see Aidan tell this story in detail
Quick tip, please. I can’t keep up, having to choose between reading the captions and listening to what you tell us. I can’t do both, I’m a lot older’n you, have mercy
a lot to digest for sure :)
Already knew the story but watched the video anyway. That's how much I like this channel, it can be interesting even when you already know what it is about :)
I raced in 1991 British F3 Championship too in class B. Steve Robertson had an amazing hair style back then & drove a Lotus Esprit Turbo to race weekends. Won some races too..
Kimi has always been smart.
Great video, very interesting, thank you.
Very entertaining, thank you.
I wonder who at Lotus was like "yeah this seems like a good deal and there is no way it could backfire or anything"
Oracle Millward with another cracking video ALERT!!!!
I understood that referencé
No matter what: Kimi had 2012 and 2013 with Lotus (doesn't matter what the team originated from, called etc...) which was awesome!
4:39 ...Wait no mention of the fact that Lewis had to shill for them too during the 2007 season? With those weird ads that turned him into an Airfix kit and all.
If I gave every conceivable example I would be here all day.
@@AidanMillward Noted.
Worth checking out Matthew Carter (the Lotus F1 boss at the time of Grosjean & Maldonado) talking about this era on Missed Apex. Really quite interesting; the whole situation seemed like an utter, utter mess. Throw in having zero experience in running a team!
So a better title would be: “How Kimi avoided bankrupting a team”...
"yes, woof. Well done" 😂😂😂 that was brilliant
As if i didn't love Kimi enough. I didn't know he's still owed 6 million Euros.
Maybe a handful of times in life you encounter someone who simply is a true badass. Cold blooded, nerves of steel, all of it. Robertson sounds as if, at least in his element of being a Formula 1 manager, this is exactly what he is. He’d have to be or I couldn’t imagine Kimi working with him.
Addition: Kimi also came to the states & ran a MASCAR Truck Series race at Charlotte. They had engine issues if I remember, but Kimi looked like he had been driving those things his whole life. He impressed, but sadly that never happened again. I had forgotten;about that until you mentioned the IndyCar Vegas race.
Great work
Always thought it was a genius move when I found out about the details of the points bonus clause.
They accepted the contact, so it's as much their fault as his
It's totally the team's fault, they agreed to pay out more money than the points would bring in, which is a complete failure to correctly use a calculator
It's absolutely 0% of Kimi's or his managers fault
Absolutely. How can a team be skeptical of their own car's performance and Kimi's talent that they would give him a contract like that?
Well, Lotus really underestimated Kimi and their own car so...
Great story, thanks for the vid.
Nice piece
Enjoyed this, story time is back!!!! 😎
Pretty certain I did one a couple of weeks ago 😉
Something this video made me realis is that not only have renault technically raced against themselves. They have also used merc pu’s
I have a vague memory of grosgean and team mate having to eat at another teams hospitality, because the teams catering bills weren't paid and they had none.
I don’t know about the drivers, but the other teams in 2015 did end up providing food for the Lotus team members so they wouldn’t go hungry.
cool video did not know about alot of this
". . . . because he was born in the wrong country." We Race As One, right?
I was going to watch a Zak Wylde video but then I spotted this in my feed so Zak can wait. Anyway... roll titles
Ahaha nice
I still find it odd that Rossi came / / this close to joining f1 immagine if rossi won the 2007 championship instead of kimi,
Very professional
Kimi also raced in Nascar around that time as well i think after he left ferrari
2010 i believe in Richmond and las Vegas
Anyone else think the most interesting parts of the 2021 season included some of the midfield events and races within the races,
Great video as always.
9:05 - it’s an interesting claim that, whilst certainly less reliable, I’m not entirely convinced the 2014 Renault PU was less powerful than the Ferrari, in 2015 they certainly were, but in the first year of the hybrid PUs I’m not sure.
can you imagine if Lotus pulled off what Ferrari did , & sign Fernando & Kimi ?
They would've gone financially bust ! but may have been successful ?
*bwoah* almost bankrupted a F1 team
I think I go to Ferrari again
Missed apex with Mathew carter has some nice add-ons to this.
Crikey Kimi took that contract to the cleaners
Could you explain the Sergio Perez Force India thing in a video please? That never made sense to me!
Kimi was still really good at Ferrari the second time tho. Vettel just had the benefit of being a number one driver
For the 4:20 part you would be surprised what kind of politicking was necessary to keep the money coming in to run all these expensive teams and their cars.
I maintain that Kimi got screwed by Ferrari politicking from as many WDCs as Mclaren engines blowing up left and right in the years before.
To make matters worse Mclaren solved their reliability issues for 2007 just as Kimi was out but thank god Lewis and Fernando clashing with superior cars allowed Kimi to steal at least one WDC. I still maintain this is one of the unluckiest drivers in terms of the timing for his career moves and obviously his nationality. My god how many he could have won in terms of his ability alone. Ofcourse there are other drivers in history like him but I actually saw this career tracjectory unfold while I was still actively following F1 so it left a huge impression on me.
But to be fair Fernando also got robbed by just having no chance against the red bulls (still making it close in some seasons). He did get the better of Kimi in Ferrari but mainly due to contractual reasons, there was never a battle between them. I still remember the crazy pitstop shenanigans Ferrari had to pull off to get Fernando ahead of Kimi at all costs, had a few laughs watching those races. But with that said Fernando is also one of the all-time greats in my books.
Kimi "The Iceman" Raikkonen aka The Bwoahman, a legend who won the race in his shitbox and almost bankrupting his team because he's just too good as a racecar driver. And that's him racing as his hobby, imagine if he race as professional.
I know the 2007 season was awesome anyway. But i really wish Schumi had stayed. Bench Massa for a year and have kimi as Schumis team mate. I honestly thing Schumi would have picked up his 8th crown
Not sure. Kimi is ice-cold in and out of his car, never(nearly) giving up and we know he's been quick, even too fast for F1 (ask headscratching engineers which tried give him a car that didn't break down).
But in the end it actually doesn't matter; we'll never get to know since it never ended up that way...
Yes Woof, well done. Classic!
Aidan almost smiled...
Aiden, sometime in 2016 I think Kimi was asked "did you get all your money from Lotus", and he said yes!. So I'm not sure where you got your info from he is NOT owed 1 cent. I would add that whilst Renault (Alpine) bought the team they would have come to some arrangement with suppliers to settle debts and whilst they did not buy the debts from Lotus, they would have reached a settlement agreement with he owners Gerard Lopez and Genii Capital.
Also I find this business about "bankrupting the team ridiculous". Without Raikkonen the team would not have earned approx $60- 70Million each year for prize money for 3rd place and probably $40m+ for 5th. You are right in saying the team "overspent" particularly after so much unexpected success in 2012 , but that's a management problem and nothing to do with Raikkonen, and the high success they achieved bought in big sponsorship money from Total, Clear, TW Steel, MS Dynamics etc. Besides that $19.5m is for 2 years, along with his base I'm guessing would be about $10m/pa that's still far less than say Alonso or Vettel would have been getting. Definitely an excellent management team the Robertsons - particularly that earlier Ferrari deal worked out to USD51M /pa in 2007.
here we go again
Given the Genii experience, I fear for the Williams team to be honest.
Dorilton handles money a bit differently to Genii.
And is legit and doesn't sign mazeapin ingore the spelling ugh
@@fnafboy-fnafgirlssistercar685 spin
@@fnafboy-fnafgirlssistercar685 if I'm honest, I think they only own the team because of the heritage money it receives from FOM
When you are too successful for your own good: the movie ^^
Had cost caps been implemented back then that Team Lotus or whatever it was called could have been the Force India of the second half of the 2010's, constantly punching above its weight
Senna and Ron decided the value of senhas contract on the flick of a coin
It was so confusing have two Lotus teams of the grid.
Can I find a agent like Steve Robertson , just don't stab in me the back
You're good bro pole position, fastest lap, run away win.
So in summary, kimi's agent is a legend & kimi is an even bigger one !
you got the fernandex lotus thing a bit wrong
in 96 the then bugatti owner sold lotus to a consortium that owns proton, and being malaysian the government is very hands on with its brands, so when fernandez starts his team, it becomes malaysian government backed, like air asia and tune group. that came about when they licensed the lotus name, but that went at the end of 2010 the first year. fernandez then "buys" the team lotus name from james hunts brother who some how bought some remains of the team that went kaput in 1994 (so team lotus caterham is actualy the team jim clark and graham hill drove for) then the whole caterham thingy happens
7:27 what race in las vegas? Was it indycar or NASCAR? Also not sure why it would be such a big deal.
The one that Dan Wheldon got killed in.
I would love to live in the universe where the Rossi - SCHUMI line up exists.
A universe where Schumacher might have actually become a 9 time world champion as well.
@@karolingus9329 meh, not really. I'd like to live in the universe where prost has 6 titles though.
“ yes, woof, well done “
Surely senna was the first to win with a v6, v10, and a v8.
V6 renault and Honda for lotus
Honda vs for mclaren (1989/90)
Ford v8 for mclaren in 1993
Kimi Almost Bankrupting Lotus..
Kimi: Its more like a hobby for me, so i don't need too do it if i don't want too
6:09 😂😂absolute savage
Never knew that
With all those years worth of interest I wonder what Geely still owes Kimi.
Nothing. It's Genii that owes him and not Geely.
@@AidanMillward would genni still be responsible of the debt tho. If Renault bought the team and Geely bought the brand would one of them have inherited the debt as part of the transaction? I don’t know how willing genni would of been letting those assets go if the debt from said assets wasn’t tied into the sale
Maldonado went to Lotus in 2014, not 2015, small correction ;)
Would love to see Kimi in this years Ferrari. When he is in a car that is capable of being competitive he can get just that little bit more out of it than others can ( Hamilton- whom has a different way of driving the car - he drives it to where he anticipates it should be and trusts the car will go there - and other drivers wont ! (always done that since karting and before, Alonso- who again will find different lines and turn ins , and Maybe Schumacher (but his turn in on others tactics rules him out for me) are probably the drivers whom improve more (than a team mate in the same car) when the car is close to being the fastest on the track and the team dont mess up).
On an episode of Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away! on Channel 5 bailiffs turn up at the Lotus factory.
I remember that episode, it was such a surprise to see them talk about it
I saw the one where they went to Swindon Town FC. That one was mad.
Wow! Lol. Usually standard sir. Thank you very much.
"Lotus had come back to f1 in 2010"
HONK
When will we get the Rubens Barrichello story?
Isn't Lotus now in Geelys hands?
To Gerard and Genii, grow yourselves a pair and pay what you owe.
Lotus is owned by Geely now
Is there anything they DON'T own at this point?
I'd say Kim should have had nearly 500 points if you include every single misfortune that he suffered i.e. failures, missing races due to back injury etc. In 2013 alone after taking everything into account, Kimi should have had 287 points which means he should have had 494 points overall.
One interesting thing tulman aryton senna benneton micheal Schumacher Renault Fernando Alonso lotus kimi Raikkonen Renault riccardo alpine ocon at one point the edstone teams lineage they have had world champions or race winners as their drivers
Still a better deal than Bobby Bonilla though. I mean, Kimi's not being paid 20 years post retirement...