Räikkönen joins Citroën in WRC

Kimi Raïkkönen, sixth in the last world championship Formula 1, changes discipline and arrives in Rallyas an AUTOhebdo.fr announced it to you on Thursday, November 19. After three years at Ferrari, the Finn, ousted from the Team to allow the arrival of Fernando Alonso, will join Citroën and its Junior Team in twelve of the thirteen rounds of the next World Rally Championship. This season, Iceman competed in one round of the WRC, in Finland, at the wheel of an Abarth Grande Punto S2000.

Yet adept at very specific communication, Räikkönen was the most charismatic F1 driver and the most followed by the public. Despite a car reluctant, the Finn managed to grab sixth place in the drivers' world championship, failing to offer Ferrari third place in the constructors' standings. But his nonchalance and his lack of involvement within the Scuderia were often criticized, before he was fired at the end of the season, to allow the arrival of Fernando Alonso.

According to the driver himself, the only possibility for him to stay in Formula 1 was to join the team. McLaren, for whom he had already piloted several seasons. But the negotiations failed and it was ultimately Jenson Button, Formula 1 world champion this season, who finally joined Woking. Iceman then decided to take a year off from F1. Then, his growing interest in Rallying brought him inexorably closer to the WRC and Citroën.

However, one last track in F1 could convince the Finn. Mercedes GP, a team born from the takeover of Brawn GP by the German manufacturer, could have welcomed the 2007 world champion. If Norbert Haug, boss of Mercedes Motorsport, has always refused to provide the names of the drivers contacted, the manager of Kimi Räikkönen had confided that negotiations could be started with Mercedes GP.

But Kimi?s desire for a change of scenery was stronger, and the links already forged with Citroën consolidated Iceman?s attraction for the Rally, as did the desire to Red Bull to carry out this association. Kimi Räikkönen will therefore drive a Citroën C4 WRC in 2010, on the rounds of the World Rally Championship, except New Zealand. He will compose, with Sébastien Ogier, an explosive duo within the Citroën Junior Team. The main team of the chevron brand, the Citroën Total World Rallye Team, will always see Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo driving the C4 WRCs.