planetf1.com

He is almost single handedly putting them at the 4th in standings, generated so much hype about the team, gained them millions and millions of fans and put Lotus under the spot lights so many times this year, being on the podium almost half of the races. And there's no doubt of his contribution of them getting the newly sponsorship signed with Coca-Cola

I think if he wasn't there, we could've seen another Wiliams, or Sauber or even FI where they shined few times and disappeared.

I hope smaller teams learn from Lotus and sign drivers based on talent and not on how much they bring on the table (looking at Williams)


I dedicate this thread to thank Kimi for coming back, giving us great entertaining races, and probably saving a great team from an ugly demise


GO LOTUS, GO KIMI

Points wise, and in some races RoGro was doing quite well against him (for a semi-rookie v WDC)
But it's all gone down the drain for him and Kimi has undoubtedly led, and dragged on some occasions, Lotus into a good position.
Such a shame for RoGro though he was in contention of winning in Valencia till his alternator blew

Having such a great driver (Kimi) in a team like Lotus helps the team reach new heights, Lotus owe Kimi more than Kimi owes Lotus.

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I'm in a band...

Millions and millions of fans? Dream on.

Podiums in almost half the races? If you think 7 is 'almost half' of 19 then you need your head checked.

And no doubt of his contribution to Lotus getting the new sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola? Yes because he absolutely LOVES doing PR work, doesn't he?

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I think all top drivers can have those effects on teams. Their professionalism and competitiveness shows in more ways than just points and a paycheck which is what you're hinting at with the Burn sponsorship. Just like Mercedes won't be short of any sponsors with Hamilton around. I think the only thing Kimi really lacks in terms of value to the team is being a very invigorated, spirited personality to possibly help boost team morale a la Schumacher and Alonso. Though, he certainly seems to be making attempts to change that some in his "2nd" F1 career.

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[ Kimi Raikkonen ]
2007 Formula 1 World Drivers Champion

I don't think what he said is really over the top, Kimi does have a lot of fans, I was never really a fan until this year, but he has drove solidly throughout the year. I think you're just trying to have a pop at someone tbh.

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A man exists for only a lifetime, a name lasts until the end of time.

I think there's a bit of exaggeration in terms of his contribution to signing Coca-Cola... swearing on the podium, and a negative public attitude aren't too good, though at the same time his fan collective could well be something that Coca-Cola took into consideration. The fact Burn is largely promoted in Scandinavia (I think... I could be wrong) and Kimi has a massive fan base that they might want to tap into?

I think Lotus would still have surprised many, afterall 3 podiums from RoGro isn't anything to sniff at, given Perez's sudden stardom for the same amount of podiums and similar crash tendencies at the moment, and arguably RoGro has shown more natural speed from time to time. But the fact Kimi has put RoGro in the shade this year has made people think without him Lotus would be absolutely nowhere. Even if they had two RoGro's, they'd be on 200 points as a team, and in exactly the same position in the WCC. Kimi has just dragged them slightly closer to McLaren (nothing to sniff at mind you).

My point is, people seem to overestimate Kimi's importance to the team, as though they'd be nowhere without him. Yes he's important, like any star driver, but he hasn't made THAT big a difference I don't think. If anything actually, Lotus has had more grief since Kimi's been there, given his fan-base's cries of favouritism and mediocracy any time he didn't win a race or got a strategy wrong (not all fans I know, just some of the things I've seen on the forums... bloody armchair experts hehe).

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

Imagine if they still had Kubica in the team. I reckon those two would have put Lotus ahead of Mclaren and Ferrari in this years WCC. I know it's all hypothetical but that would be one heck of a strong driver pairing.

Not sure about Grosjean. When he keeps it out the gravel he can be as quick as Kimi on his day. Those days are all too infrequent and sparsely distributed however.

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I remember when this website was all fields.

I think the team were at that level in 2010 when Kubica made the most of the car to score several good results and also in 2011, especially at the beginning when they were scoring podiums, but they didn't have the drivers to make the difference. So Lotus's jump from last year to this year seems massive and while Kimi undoubtedly helped them score more results than with Petrov, Heidfeld or Senna in the car I don't think he turned the team into a winning team single handedly. Grosjean was on his pace for much of the season before he scared himself into mediocrity; if he was THAT good Grosjean would have been nowhere near him.

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Official Kamui Kobayashi Fanboy

It's completely over the top. I can't see anyone, no matter how famous, suddenly getting 'millions and millions' of new fans. No matter what their profession.

And the sponsorship comment is laughable at best.

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+1

Eric Bouiller - "We are excited to partner with burn to build a new and innovative model for sponsorships that will combine experiences, content creation and social media; an area in which our team has been at the cutting edge in Formula 1 for the past 18 months, recording the highest growth rate amongst fans this year."

And about Kimi being a PR nightmare, it's actually quite the opposite.
Sure, Kimi hates going to sponsorship events etc. but where the money is really earned is on the track.
Just look at the icecream story, and this year at Abu Dhabi with the radio comments.
Kimi always gets media attention, therefore drawing attention to the team, and therefore the sponsors.
You don't have to talk alot to be a good thing for sponsors.

Do you have any proof to go against him? If not then why are you going against it. I went to the Austin race and I was shocked by the level of people buying lotus/kimi gear. As of Saturday morning before qualy, there were more people around the lotus shop than the ferrari shop. The white kimi female shirts sold out in every size on Friday. I finally found the white shirt that my wife wanted from someone else that was able to sell it as long as the black was still available.

Everything #9 was first to sell out. It says something about how big the kimi fan base is.

Are you genuinely stupid or what?

Kimi is one of the most popular drivers on the grid. He's undoubtedly in the top 4 when it comes to numbers of fans. Do you genuinely not realise that?

As for your PR work comment, I just don't know what to say to that. Results get you sponsors, not drivers smiling and saying the right things. Again, are you that thick?

Oh wait, I see you're a Schumi fan. Too bad his comeback has been reputation-destroying. Are you bitter, by any chance?

I disagree. He has indeed made THAT big of a difference, on all fronts. Lotus has said as much, why would you disagree with them?

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Thats the difference of having a good driver or a pay driver in a team. You choose potentially good results or guaranteed money and average results.

I'm a bit of a Kimi fan admittingly (Sauber, Ferrari and Lotus, not McLaren the traitor ).

Anyway, he's certainly attracted attention back to Toleman/Benetton/Renault/Lotus that we've not seen since Kubica was there, maybe even Alonso or Schumacher. I've noticed Rovio (read Angry Birds) also sponsor Lotus this year and Kimi's cap has the Icebird on it. He's brought in a similar level of interest/sponsorship/merchandise sales before the Scandanavian based Burn brand joined.

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"We can not drive slower, just to make the races more exciting." Alain Prost

And if Red Bull didn't have Vettel?
If Mclaren didn't have Lewis?

And more obvious of all if Ferrari didn't have Alonso?

Kimi has drove as good as he could, probably the most consistent this season apart from earlier on with qualifying.

Romain has been awful compared to him in a car which is much faster than Romain's abilities show, one or two good races of good speed don't mean much if your piss poor at most of the others.

However, if Kimi was not at Lotus, maybe there would of been another top driver there instead.

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RSR Racing

Kimi has been excellent this year, i wonder what he would have done had he been not out of F1 for 2 years! Renault/Lotus have been competitive since 2010 and he would have done a good job with Kubica in 2010.

Maybe with a more "involved" driver they could have gotten better results, but I think Kimi even with 2 years off is better than most of the current options who were active at the time. He is a WDC!

Grosjean also showed he has the pace and next year will be interesting between them given that RoGro keeps his place (which i think he deserves)

Yeah im looking forward to see what Lotus can do next year, i really hope they build on their success this year. Would love to see Kimi really challenging for the title.

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A man exists for only a lifetime, a name lasts until the end of time.

interestingly enough, he was on the podium in exactly half the races by the summer break. Since then the car has taken a dip in form but overall he's only 2 races off half, so no heads need checking. Bit OTT reaction

Honestly i don't see that his comment is somehow out of this world. Kimi has always had huge fan base and the buzz around Lotus has been immense compared to any other year.
You got a also ask does the "traditional" faceless marketing on a marketing event be anymore effective than brand that Kimi has become. Did Kimi himself sign a deal with Coca Cola? of course not, but he has more than enough contributed this year on the visibility of the team... and that's exactly what Coca Cola is looking for.

I think Kimi has certainly contributed this year in a way or another at seemingly securing safer future for Lotus and that's great because Lotus is exactly the kind of teams we need more in this sport.

you'd be surprise. kimi has more than millions of fans worldwide. Particularly in Asia, the first f1 driver that we mentioned will be Kimi, and the rest....

the team merchandice has been pretty much out of stocks and you got fans everyday complaining on lotus fb and ask for new stock....

Kimi has a lot of fans, and a lot (not all) of his fans seem to almost have a love affair with him I've noticed
I just find it's better to let them have their time in the sun, makes them feel happy, therefore keeps the forum happy.

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Danger is real, fear is a choice.
PF1 Pick 10 Competition
Best Round Result: 1st (Monaco 2012)
Podiums: 4
2013 Championship Standing: 74th

i like your stereotype argument. So kimi who had shown nearly all races his speed still lose out to romain who only showed it occasionally?? and he still has more natural speed??

i know qualifying is still an issues, consider that as 2 year skipping syndrome. Michael Schumacher need 3 years to get back to his best in qualifying, but i think kimi already improved alot by not making too many mistakes.

Romain missed the chances to shine when kimi still abit off in qualifying, instead he got humiliated by kimi many times in races despite starting far off back, and still ended up in front of him. Notably Bahrain.

And in abu dhabi, despite starting on fresh tyre and clean air, kimi still trash him by 7 tenths in average pace. In austin, kimi suffer tyre graining on hard tyre, but romain still cant close the gap, instead it got bigger at the end when kimi finnaly make the tyre works and was on the same pace as the leader.

Mind you, kimi 's engineer mark slade recently admitted that the power steering issue still persists, but kimi kept his head down and deal with it.

If romain cant trash a handicapped Kimi, next year with much stability, the gap will be further more btw the 2. Unlike romain, kimi kept improving from race to race, his race craft is pretty much exceeded his ability back in 2009, reflex is as good as when he was 21 at sauber, race pace is as good as before, only things left is qualifying. And also overtaking, simply brilliant, all his maneuvers are very artful.

i hv seen many kimi fans that are all sensible and nice people, myself nt included. They didnt react like lewis fan and open new thread to bash jenson after each races.

NvrDieYoung why must you react in such a manner in all of your posts?
So many exclamation points.
Not everyone is a Kimi fan, and you're not going to convince them to switch, especially talking like you have been.
And Kimi fans already know how good he is, we don't need to hear it all the time, especially in your manner.

so i should seek your advice in the way i like to react in my post?? i include every facts in my post, much better than yours. Just because you dont dare to speak out, dont expect others to be coward like you.

im not posting to please you, stop demand others to react in the way you like.

as Kimi said : i dont give a sh*t

Lol if you want facts just look at my signature.
I don't need to preach to the world how good Kimi is.
I'm just trying to make the forum a place where everyone is happy.
Surely, nobody is happy reading your silly comments.

If you believe Piquet jr if Alonso was in a Lotus he would have won a WDC this year.

i think the most silly things would be confusing stats with facts, silly you, nt me!!

you cant make everyone happy over here, naive thoughts as ever.

Or JV for that matter

Edit: JV would say something similar, not that Piquet thinks JV would've been WDC in the Lotus

Pretty sure stats are a factual piece of information, not opinion.
Just saying.

Swearing on the podium, at-least Kimi's bit wasn't that controversial that sponsors would think of it as a factor, he is mature enough to understand that it caused a fuss once and he will not do it again. It is not a habit, it hasn't been.

May be the very much criticized Éric Boullier should deserve some credit.

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I'm a racing driver. Always was, always will be.

for? screwing kimi up in bahrain by not asking romain to yield straightway?? and cant perform simple undercut strategy??

Eric later claimed that he doesnt wnt to make romain feel bad...........he treasure romain more than win.

Agreed, if he'd f-bombed like Vettel it may have been different. You never knw actually, swearing on the podium could be seen as 'rebellious' which may fit Burn's 'hardcore energy drink' image or something. Rebellious attitudes can be powerful marketing brands actually. He hasn't made a habit of it at all, and don't think he would, it was far too casual to be a forced effort.

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

Alright, calm down, I was only putting forth an opinion, not FACTS as you so regularly like to claim you're stating. At what point in my post have I knocked Kimi's ability anywhere? The point about more natural speed is in regards to Perez, you know, where I mentioned Perez's stardom at getting 3 podiums, while Romain has the same number of podiums but has shown more natural speed in my opinion. Apologies if that wasn't clear, but it wasn't a comparison with Kimi.

My post was stating that yes Kimi has put Grosjean in the shade (I did say that, go back and check), but if you took two Grosjean's instead of the current pairing, the team would still be in the same place in the constructors, and would have still had some outstanding performances that would have attracted attention. I'm saying Kimi hasn't made that big a difference to the team, that they still would have stood out and raised a few brows. Kimi has been excellent all year, even if all the excuses about graining, power steering, and other issues anytime he's matched or beaten are true. They could be facts, but you don't need to defend him so vigourously against any post that you misinterpret as an attack.

As for my stereotyped argument, I suppose saying Kimi dragged the team closer to McLaren and put his team mate in the shade is so stereotypical hater right?

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"You are the universe expressing itself as a Human for a little while..."

LOL, I had been always told that Kimi coolness was all about never asking for team orders...

That said, Lotus performed better than expected, so I think that Boullier can't have ALWAYS been wrong, don't you think? If Whitmarsh gets all flak for McLaren poor results, why can't Boullier get some praise? Or do you think Kimi arrived to the team, sat in the car, drove and won one race and 3rd place in WDC without any further effort from the team?

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I'm a racing driver. Always was, always will be.