Raikkonen reiterates: McLaren or I walk

Saturday 31st October 2009

Kimi Raikkonen is adamant that his only choice for a new F1 team is McLaren, saying there's no point staying if he can't win.

Raikkonen is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of this season and has yet to secure a deal for next year's Championship despite being offered one by Toyota.

The Finn, though, insists that if he can't race for a Championship-winning team he would rather not race at all, reiterating his recent statement that McLaren is his only option.

"There is no point to go to other teams where you cannot win," Raikkonen told Autosport.

"They (McLaren) are the only team that can offer you a good car to be in a position to fight for the Championship."

Toyota F1 president John Howett says he accepts Raikkonen's decision as the 2007 World Champion obviously felt the deal offered by Toyota was not "appealing enough."

And with Raikkonen's refusal being final, he says Toyota can now press ahead with other plans.

"We tried to get Robert (Kubica) but he decided that Renault was more interesting," Howett said.

"We are interested in Kimi although he has indicated that we hadn't had contact and he is only interested in McLaren. Obviously from our side, if that is the situation it is fairly clear in which direction we want to go in.

"Even two or three years ago we indicated that we would like Kimi and, if he was available, we would be interested.

"We've put forward what we felt was an offer that we could sustain regardless of the budget situation, and so far it was obviously not appealing enough. So fine."

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