F1: Raikkonen To Replace Webber At Red Bull?

Formula 1

F1: Raikkonen To Replace Webber At Red Bull?

Former World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is rumored to be in line to replace Mark Webber at Red Bull next year...

SPEED Staff / GMM | Posted July 12, 2011 GMM Newswire

If Kimi Raikkonen returns to F1 next year, it won't be with Renault. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Red Bull is planning to pair Sebastian Vettel with his friend Kimi Raikkonen in 2012.

That is the sensational claim of the high-circulation German newspaper Bild-Zeitung, less than two days after Mark Webber ignored team orders at the end of the British Grand Prix.

Finn Raikkonen, 31, left Formula One at the end of 2009, and Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was quoted on Monday as saying, "I believe he has put F1 behind him."

Bild said the plan to replace Australian Webber with 2007 World Champion Raikkonen is "top secret" but divulged the information of a source "at the highest level."

German Vettel remains friends with Raikkonen, the pair often meeting in Switzerland to play badminton. Asked recently who his ideal teammate is, the reigning World Champion replied: "Kimi."

The former Ferrari and McLaren race winner had talks with Red Bull last year and has now "apparently changed his mind" about wanting to stay in rallying and NASCAR.

And referring to Webber, Red Bull's driver manager Helmut Marko told Bild recently: "We have other options but I don't want to talk about them now."

The report also said Raikkonen told a Finnish journalist recently: "I have never said that my Formula One career is over."

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SPEED Staff / GMM

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