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Kimi Raikkonen 2008: Connecting the "dots"

September 10, 2013 UPDATE:  Today, Ferrari announced Kimi's re-signing for 2014 F1 season as a SF driver.   In many ways this is a confirmation of what we have been saying all along that Kimi's ousting at the end of his first stint took place under a totally unusual circumstances which had nothing to do with his racing and driving abilities.

I'll continue to update this documentary blog as new information becomes available but judging from the visitor traffic to this blog a lot of people are now even more curious as to why would Ferrari re-employ Kimi if in fact all those reasons and justifications to fire him were true... So, my guess is that we'll continue to learn a lot more about the details of 2008 events as the insiders continue to talk (they always do...).   We'll keep this documentary blog as an example of a Hall of Shame Piece for Formula One Journalists who have been either sleeping on the job or too scared to expose/talk about what goes on behind close doors...  

This is the working version of the article "

Why Kimi was not on top of his game in 2008"

-- the original was published in AS forum and F1Bias.com (Soren is a good friend).

Dates of events in the following timeline are important, because according to official Ferrari, or Santander accounts, and timelines most of the following did NOT take place in 2008, but in 2009.

You may read all original articles in this blog in their timeline order (starting from the bottom on the main page, all articles are posted under their original 2008 dates).

Why Kimi was not on top of his game in 2008

by wrcva

The period between April-July 2008 is probably one of the worst periods not only for Kimi’s F1 career but probably in his life.  All his life he and his family believed in hard work and doing their best to achieve good things on merit. In Kimi’s case this means putting his natural talents to best use in performing, and winning races.

2007 season was a dream come true year for Kimi.   He won the closely fought Formula One (F1) World Drivers Championship (WDC) and was ready for defending his title in 2008.   From all indications outlook for the 2008 season was pretty good, arguably conditions were even better than the 2007 season for Kimi to defend his title.

Backdrop for 2008:

 As of April, Kimi Raikkonen is already leading in WDC points 4 races into the 2008 season. Generally, life is good other than the management changes that took place at Ferrari as

Stefano Domenicali

replaced

Jean Todt

as the head of Scuderia Ferrari the 1st of January 2008. It's no secret that Todt and

Luca di Montezemolo

(LdM)

had a power struggle within Ferrari, something which lead to Todt'd eventual and swift exit. With Todt effectively out of the way from early 2008 and Domenicali, di Montezemolo's protege, in his place it was basically a different Scuderia overnight

(thanks to OSX).

"In 2007, [Todt] prepared the ground for Stefano Domenicali to succeed him as head of the Scuderia as from 1 January 2008. Then, on 18 March 2008, he resigned his position as Special Advisor to the Ferrari board, to be replaced by Amedeo Felisa. He nonetheless remained a member of the board of Ferrari for a further year before resigning all his functions within the Italian firm in March 2009."

April 27, 2008

-- FIA post-race press conf after winning Spain —

Kimi –

“It was a perfect weekend for us in Barcelona,” explained Raikkonen. “We were going really fast all the time and we didn’t have the slightest problem. Many times I have won and afterwards still had the feeling that it could have gone better. This time I did not have that feeling: this was probably the best weekend I’ve ever had in my career.”

Comment

: The guy won Spain just several days ago… then, all of a sudden Public Relations (PR) seed planting & “rumors” kick in.  It is not clear who started them but the mission was to melt the iceman because it would be terrible PR to get rid of a 2 times WDC, in the event that he managed to win the 2nd one in 2008.

In the following, partially narrated timeline, I tried to put the main news item with the earliest approx. date of first showing up (in google news based on article posting date) out of 100s or 1000s regurgitated ones for each article. They give a good glimpse into what was in Kimi’s mind as he was facing a psychological PR war, aside from racing issues during 2008.

May 1, 2008

–  

Luca di Montezemolo:

Massa’s future with the team is secure. It will be too damaging to partner Alonso with Kimi.  

Keke Rosberg:

Kimi has to make way for Alonso…

Stefano Domenicali:

Kimi is motivated from head to toe, and I know he is not thinking about retiring.“

here

.

Comment

: You can tell that they have been talking about Santander coming in as the new long term sponsor but the plan is to not to talk about it externally… This is the first time appearance of Kimi’s “motivation” by Domenicali. It is not yet used in a negative way but it is a crucial PR keyword because at this point they cannot start talking about Kimi’s performance as he is in the lead.  But, this is point the decision has been made that

Kimi has to go

. Also note the disconnect between LdM & Dom’s statements. Yes, the date is correct - May 1 2008, and Ferrari leaders are are forced to answer questions about the driver line-up, Kimi's motivation, and retirement rumors instead of talking about their win of Spanish GP several days ago.

May 8, 2008

– Niki Lauda scoffs at Alonso-to-Ferrari rumours —

"Raikkonen and Alonso together?"

former triple Formula One World Champion Lauda, 58, is quoted as saying by the German news agency DPA.

"Last year Raikkonen was champion and now he is number one. Why must we now discuss whether Alonso is going to go there?"

the great Austrian wondered.

"They already have the perfect team with Massa, so why should they bang their heads together?"

Lauda, who won two (1975, 1977) of his drivers' world titles with the Maranello based team, added.

Comment

: Hearing all kinds of rumors, Lauda is wondering WTF is going on at Ferrari as they seem to have one of the best line-ups for defending the championships they won with Kimi just six months ago... He is a racer and he simply is thinking about these rumors from the racing perspective as to why the team would change their existing WDC/WCC wining line-up... but what he does not know is that the seed is already planted about a month ago when

Emilio Botin, Fernando Alonso and Flavio Briatore

(Renault boss and Alonso's manager)

, and

Luca di Montezemolo

got together to discuss

Santander/Alonso Ferrari move

(April, 21 2008).   Interestingly, the next day

Montezemolo (April, 22 2008)

,  and subsequently

Briatore (April, 24 2008)

both denied the rumor

,

Briatore agreeing with Montezemolo that.

"When a team has two drivers equally good, the teammates become their biggest enemies. Pilots as Raikkonen and Alonso are complicated and put them in one team does not produce the best result for a team. During the last year, see the McLaren. Hamilton and Alonso lost the championship and the reason was simply because of their rivalry." -- link

So, by the first week of May 2008 Santander-Alonso-Ferrari plans were already in motion.   From this point on Ferrari's challenge is to manage the situation with the media and fans to make sure Kimi is phased out of Ferrari with minimal negative publicity for Ferrari for getting rid of their World Champion.  

May 24, 2008

– Alonso signs for Ferrari —

The word in the F1 paddock in Monte Carlo is that Fernando Alonso has just inked a deal to drive for Ferrari in 2010. No confirmation is expected for a year, and there may be denials of any arrangement, as there would obviously be some serious knock-on effects for other parties in the F1 paddock.

here

Comment

: Spanish press is going nuts over this as well at this time.. You can use google news with date filters if you want to see for yourself.   Emphasis:

do not confirm and deny until next year

— which they did…

June 6, 2008

– FIA interview —

Kimi: “

I still have a contract until the end of next year,” Raikkonen said during the press conference ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Thursday. “I haven’t made any decision as to whether I will keep going or not. That’s the last contract I have and we will wait and see during this year and next year what happens.” “I haven’t made my mind up and we will see.”

"I like the racing and the other stuff is not always the best thing... When there's too many things that you don't enjoy, or you think that the whole thing is not what you want any more, then it's time to go away.  

Comment

: (this is the GP Hamilton rear ended Kimi) — why would this contract issue come up in the FIA press conference?   You can tell internal discussions about his departure is well underway.  Yet, we are only 7 races into the season…

July 10, 2008

–  German magazine Sport Bild

According to popular German magazine Sport Bild, it would seem that Spanish bank Santander would be moving from sponsoring McLaren to become one of Ferrari’s top sponsors from 2009 onwards. The big bank would have their adverts on the front and rear wings, alongside lettering on the drivers overalls. Ferrari have been touting for a new top sponsor since cigarette advertisers were not allowed in many countries, Marlboro being the major backer for many years. With a contract with Marlboro still in place, hash markings would still be on the cars. For the Scuderia though, Santander have said the major condition of their deal is that former World Champion Fernando Alonso would drive for the team. He won’t confirm his future, and will not comment until September.

here

Comment

:

Santander-Ferrari-Alonso deal is done at this time but negotiations with Kimi are in full force. Look at the desired date for the sponsorship… Now, how did Alonso come up with that

September

date, unless he red Kimi’s contract, and is familiar with the performance / and renewal options Kimi could exercise?   I think that is an accidental slip up by the Spaniard because the September date was significant only to Kimi’s contract.   He cannot comment on what will happen because they do not know what Kimi will do yet – as Ferrari is still negotiating! (see Sep 12 news, in the following).

July 11-19, 2008

--  Kimi's front suspension is updated sometime between these dates..

According to Interview with Ferrari team principle Domenicali on December 16 2008, this is the point Kimi lost his front suspension.   From all indications this was a surprise to Kimi, given how sensitive he is to changes made on the car.  

Question to Domenicali by Autosprint:

Did Kimi share his problems with you? - We always talk with each other and argue about general technical issues. From the technical point of view he was dissatisfied with front suspension, and it didn't work the way he wanted. The front suspension to suit him was a recurrent topic of our discussions. How fast did you discover that? - In midseason. We changed the suspension in Germany and returned it for Kimi in Monza.

In this interview Domenicali misspoke.  Kimi got his old suspension back in Singapore, not Monza. This issue is also alluded to by Michael Scumacher who is in charge of car development and updates:

“In a way it is his (Kimi's) strength that he has a very focused vision, and maybe sometimes it doesn't always help him. We could maybe help him more if he would ask for it,”

said Schumacher in an interview for BBC earlier yesterday. The German insisted that part of Kimi's loss in form in the second part of the season was because the Fin failed to adapt to the new developments introduced by Ferrari in the mid-season. “I think I have to protect him in many ways, because in the middle of the season we made some developments to the car but Kimi simply didn't get on with these ones. The moment we went back to those changes, we got him back to competitive lap times," link

Here, if we look at the WDC points table, from mid-July to the end of September Kimi was able to score only 9 points in 6 GPs. Surely, there was some bad luck involved as well...

July 20 2008

-- FIA -

German Grand Prix

Post Race driver quotes:

Look at Kimi's reaction in the interview in his own words:

"This was definitely not the kind of race we had been hoping for. We have struggled all weekend and we have to try and understand why. Usually, our race pace is always good, but today that was not the case, because I almost always suffered with a lack of grip: only in the final stages did the situation improve a little bit, but it was never enough to be competitive. We have a test in Jerez, where we will try and improve the car so as to arrive in Budapest in better shape. This is definitely not a crisis, but we have to study carefully the handling of the car to understand if we have taken the right road in terms of development." Source: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2008/7/8126.html

Comment

:  Mr. Schumacher definitely knew what was the deal but maybe he did not have a chance to inform Kimi that his front suspension was totally different for the German GP...  This also amplifies the communication and turf problems between Domenicali and Schumacher.

Now, imagine or try to visualize what would Schumacher himself (as a driver) or Alonso would have done after learning the fact that their front suspension was replaced without their knowledge or they were not invited to driver debriefs... not a pretty picture huh.

Interestingly, Schumacher made another comment back in early April about Massa with a prediction.  At the time, it was not a big deal but hindsight his support for Massa, and willingness to predict his WDC chances, given his 3rd and development driver role for Ferrari, further supports the timeline that he knew a bit more...

"He (Massa) has zero points for the season, so it is not the best of starts ... he has played his jokers so far, and doesn't really have any more jokers to play,"

"But things will turn around very quickly I think in his favour. He is certainly still very capable of winning the championship this year.

"If Massa wins the championship at the end of the year, nobody will care or remember about the start of the season." (link)

July 31, 2008

– FIA Thursday press conference - Hungary

Question: People are talking about you retiring, not necessarily at the end of this year but at the end of next year. Are there any thoughts on that?

KR:

I never said anything like that. I only said that I have a contract until the end of next year and then somebody made up that I will stop at the end of this year or the end of next year, but I never said that.

here

Comment

: Guess who is propagating retirement rumors?   This is a pretty major PR war against Kimi… and they are wearing him out. You know, all by itself, it is pretty hard to fight for the WDC – even when you have full support from the team…

Aug 24, 2008

– FIA post-race press con –

Massa: “My win in Valencia moves me ahead of Kimi into second place in the championship. I’ve been asked if I feel Ferrari should favour me for the title since there are just six races remaining. All I can say is that I want to keep winning, to keep beating not just my teammate (Kimi Raikkonen) but others too,” Massa was quoted as saying on the Ferrari website. The Brazilian, who is on 64 points, six behind the leader Lewis Hamilton, further added that he has got nothing to do with such decisions. “I just do the best possible job for the team and leave the rest to the management,” he added.

Raikkonen is third on the table with 57 points. Meanwhile, Kimi has rubbished the claim that he lacks motivation.“Next week, we will go to Spa (venue of the next Grand Prix). I love this track. I will give it all to win again. If someone has doubt as far as my motivation is concerned: go ahead. I want to win. More than ever,” he said on the Ferrari website.

Comment

: Since April, Kimi’s lack of motivation stories have been propagating into millions of articles, blog and forum posts. (Google is your friend). Motivation is the keyword because they still cannot talk about performance…

Sep 12, 2008

– Ferrari confirm Raikkonen to end of 2010 —

Ferrari have announced an extension to Kimi Raikkonen’s contract for a further two seasons, keeping the world champion with the Italian team until the end of 2010. With Raikkonen’s teammate Felipe Massa also under contract for that period, it means Ferrari’s race line-up will remain unchanged until at least the start of their 2011 campaign. Raikkonen joined Ferrari from McLaren last season, while Massa has been with the team since 2006. The announcement should end media speculation suggesting that Raikkonen may retire at the end of this season.

here

Comment

: This is the automatic contract renewal option Kimi is exercising to increase the Santander/Ferrari payout based on exceeding his performance benchmarks on his contract.  He knows he is done with Ferrari… and if he could find a way, he could have left by the end of 2008.  He is loosing the PR war, but trying to secure finances in negotiations.  I also think this is the point that Kimi's generally cooperative relationship with LdM went south.  (read about

Kimi's contract

)

Sep 12, 2008

– Alonso "Kimi deal has no impact"

Fernando Alonso insists that Kimi Raikkonen's extended Ferrari deal has not put a dent in his plans for the future.  Ferrari announced on Friday that Raikkonen had extended his contract and would remain with the Scuderia until the end of 2010.

 This put an end to reports that Alonso could be heading to Ferrari at the end of 2009.

However, the Spaniard insists those were just rumours and that Raikkonen's deal has not upset his future plans.

"I knew already that they will extend the contract," he told Autosport. "Nothing has changed. "Talking about 2010 and 2011 is way too far for me. I want to win before that! "Always my plans were more focused on 2009 and in 2009 there was no possibility of Ferrari so it was never in my plans." It remains to be seen which team Alonso will race for next season as while Renault are keen to retain their double world champion, Honda are also reportedly on the look-out to sign him.

here

Comment

: Alonso knew Kimi had to exercise the automatic contract renewal option after negotiations with Santander failed... I guess he could not convince Botin to pay up Kimi to walk at the end of 2008, so he could move to Ferrari starting 2009.   It is interesting that Kimi's contract renewal announcement date is the same date as Alonso's statement: September 12 2008.

I also think between July and September 2008 Santander explored various possibilities to get McLaren let them off the hook from the exclusivity clause in the old Santander-McLaren sponsorship agreement but their attempts were unsuccessful (probably Ron asked for a lot of money).   If that took place Santander could have started their Ferrari sponsorship a year earlier.   So, during this period (until September) Kimi was waiting to see if he would be able to end his relationship with Ferrari at the end of 2008.

Sep 14, 2008

– FIA post race int. Monza —

Raikkonen. “

You don’t have to be Einstein to understand that this is not the right way to fight for the title. It’s not over yet, but now it will take a miracle, like one that makes lightning strike twice

.”

Comment

: He is not just talking about racing here. Even though he is still within the mathematical possibility with 4 races left in the calendar (he is 20 pts behind Massa, and yet that still is better odds than 2007); he is up to his neck in the swamp trying to fight/fend off elegators on multiple fronts:

Santander/Ferrari lawyers…

His relationship with Schumacher.  It was never emphasized in 2008 but I think it was a very significant issue.  For 2008, Michael’s role was, per LdM: “official 3rd driver, in charge of car development.”   See footnote 1 (and check out Michael’s Ferrari and wiki profile for his role in 2008).   Kimi did not like this at all because Michael was in charge of something (the car itself) that he had been used to controlling/influencing all his career. Link

Pressure from LdM and Dom to help out Massa because if Massa wins the 2008 WDC, Santander will be thrilled given their upcoming 2009 IPO in Brazil. In my opinion, Dom or LdM never mandated this, but they highly encouraged Kimi to fall back because financial implications for Santander, the future sponsor, was in Billions of $. (not Millions, it is Billions) And because Massa is a native son of Brazil who can mobilize local investors even better than Alonso. here.   In the end, Santander’s IPO gains were about $9 Billion. See footnote 2.   Note: IPO means Initial Public Offering. Or the stock market launch for that company. In this case, in Brazil. Click on this link to read about the inportance of Brazil to Santander.

Sep 24, 2008 - Pitpass –

Spanish media is claiming that Ferrari’s recent decision to re-sign Kimi Raikkonen until the end of 2010, is a smokescreen, aimed at putting everyone off the real story, which sees Fernando Alonso heading to Maranello as early as next year. Spanish newspaper Marca claims that Santander, which headed to McLaren with Fernando Alonso in 2007, is behind a move which will see the two-time champion join Felipe Massa. The Spanish banking giant is due to take its account to Ferrari next year, and, having lost out when Alonso quit McLaren after just one season, wants its national hero back on board and in a winning (red) car. It’s claimed that the bank will not only meet Alonso’s financial requirements but will also meet any compensation demanded by Raikkonen.

It is fair to say that the announcement that Raikkonen is to stay with Ferrari for two more years caught many by surprise, especially since the Finn appears to have lost his sparkle in recent months, a situation not helped by the fact that he is now almost certain – barring a miracle recovery – of having to play second fiddle to his Brazilian teammate. While several teams, most notably Honda, have been wooing Alonso, the Spaniard needs to be back in a winning car, and other than BMW – which is backed by Santander’s rival Credit Suisse – Ferrari appears to be the only option.

Comment

: Looks like negotiations for buying out 2009 failed, probably to Kimi’s dismay — from here on it is a Cold War within the team and

Kimi is the unofficial #2

by corporate decision because they still need to ramp up Massa’s standing in Brasil for the upcoming IPO.

The only thing they could not foresee was Massa’s accident in 2009. Kimi’s departure was a done deal as early as May, 25 2008, latest Sep 14 2008. They just had to make sure he did not accidently win 2008 WDC as Ferrari would have looked really stupid… Very curious about that pit screw up in Monaco, if it was real or orchestrated because this is where it all started, it is a milestone event for things starting to go wrong for Kimi for the rest of the year, along with some unlucky situations.

May 25, 2008 FIA post race Monaco — Kimi “A very poor race for me, right from the off. There was a problem with a wheel before the start and we broke the rules, which meant I was given a drive-through penalty. During the race, my main problem was trying to get the tyres to work as well as possible. Then we decided to change the strategy as we expected it to rain again, but it didn’t happen. Twice I had to change the nose after breaking the front wing. So, as you can see, a long run of things going wrong which explains the 0 points. I am sorry for Sutil, who I hit with just a few laps to go. I lost control of the car under braking coming out of the tunnel and I could do nothing to avoid him. It’s a shame how things went today, as we had the potential to do well. It’s true that I’ve lost the championship lead, but I always said the championship would be a very long one. Now we must prepare as well as possible for Canada where we will try to make up for this disappointment.”

That is why, Kimi always said;

“There are many reasons. In F1 there is always a lot of money and there can always be different options. That’s what happened in the end. It’s nothing to do with racing or what I do in the team.”

In short, Kimi was in the wrong team, at the wrong time stuck between Ferrari and future sponsor Santander, because he had the wrong nationality (the Latin lineup), relative to Santander’s business plans, and Ferrari’s role within.

January, 13 2009

-- Ferrari approves of Kimi's rally outing --

  Ferrari has no problem with Kimi Räikkönen contesting Finland's famous Arctic Lapland Rally later this month, team boss Stefano Domenicali has insisted.

Formula one teams often baulk at drivers' requests to engage in dangerous off-season activities, but it emerged last week that Räikkönen, the team's title winner of 2007, has entered himself as the driver of a Fiat Abarth S2000 in the event later this month.

"This is the traditional attitude we take to our drivers," Domenicali said at the launch of the team's new 'F60' single seater for 2009.

"We always try to have a very open attitude to what they do. I see this as an extra two days of testing for Kimi."

 -

here

Comment

: Why change of heart by Ferrari after two years with Kimi, all of a sudden approving a "dangerous sporting activity" for Kimi?   Because that was a part of

Kimi's separation negotiations

back in September that he will be allowed to participate in whatever sports activity he desired, including rallying.   Domenicali is referring to Michael's soccer activities in  "We always try to have a very open attitude to what they do."  

Possible reality is they are no longer concerned about Kimi or whatever happens to him as he is on his way out.  Again, note the dates...  

Now, let's fast forward to September 2009...

September 14 2009

-- Formula1.com - Q&A with Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali--

  Formula1.com Q&A with Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali

Q: After all the rumours it would be helpful to hear one word from you regarding Kimi’s future. Is Kimi driving a Ferrari in 2010?

SD:

I am definitely not going to discuss that now. As everybody is aware, Kimi has a contract with us next year and I am very happy with his performance because he is driving very, very well, especially in the second part of the season. The last five races he has always been on the podium and I think after Barrichello he has scored the most points, so he has shown true qualities of fighting for the championship. That is our position

.

Comment:  

So, Kimi's ousting is not officially announced yet...but the new contract was already signed and sealed about a year ago, back in Sep 2008 that;

Option 1) 2 year full pay (2010+severance) provided he walked away from F1 for 1.5 years.

Option 2) 1 years pay (2010) + some severance + get the McLaren seat.  

As we know Kimi took option 2 - you can read more about this

here

.

December 11 2009

-- SportsPro discussion interview --

  The following snippets are one of the few direct mentions of Massa's role within the Santander world from Mr. Cendoya, who is the Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Communications, Corporate Marketing and Research for Santander Bank (Mr. Botin's number 2 guy for sponsorship affairs)

.

... Cendoya is understandably reluctant to place the bank in the pecking order of Ferrari sponsors and says simply: In Ferrari, we are on the podium and the podium is a very good place to be. Ferrari has a process and they are going to announce the car and image later on. We are a main sponsor; we are not a title sponsor. I cannot say more... ... Cendoya rightly points out that Santander is not in charge of driver selection and intriguingly suggests that, for example, the commercial appeal of current Ferrari driver Felipe Massa might be an effective way of growing the brand worldwide the implication being that, even with Alonso on board, the bank's popularity might only increase in Spain by one or two percentage points, whereas the potential gains in other markets are significantly greater. Cendoya says it is all about creating an emotional link between potential new customers and the bank. How many Spanish people, for example, are today very happy because we are with Ferrari? I don't know, but in my opinion a lot because I received more than 700 emails giving felicitations for this agreement. Every employee in our bank can guess a figure but it could be 10 million. In Brazil there are 50 million fans of Formula One, 80 per cent of them are Ferrari fans and they now feel happy and proud of being part of the Santander group (source article::  Sport is playing its part in the Santander story).

This SprortsPro article is very telling about why Kimi had to go without mentioning his name even once.  Mr. Cendoya further states;

Cendoya makes clear, a cold, rational business decision, just as was the decision to sponsor McLaren three years ago. We started at the McLaren team, with an English pilot and a Spanish pilot at the beginning. We had a low presence in the team but we paid a lot of attention to every penny, peseta, euro that we were spending. We don't give money away. We have given a lot of attention over the last 100 years to caring for the money of our shareholders.

Comment

: This article also sheds light into Massa's continued presence at Ferrari without results (read update on this here).  His presence alone is enough to produce the expected

Return On Investment

(ROI) at the levels that are even better than what Alonso is able to generate as a Spaniard.   Santader's ROI does not even depend on Alonso or Massa winning races. Given their demographics they have enough appeal in the Latino world to satisfy Santander's financial expectations by just driving the red cars around to boost credit card, insurance, other financial instrument sales as well as merchandising.

What is a bit hard to understand is how the journos/media could not connect these dots to show what really went on in 2008.   You do not have to do any major investigation because pretty much everything is in the public domain.   While we understand commercial pressures on the racing business, 2008-9 was anything but sporting for Ferrari.   They should have just let him go after 2007 instead of playing all kinds of games, and engaging in a PR war to give it an appearance of performance problems.

I suspect, even Massa will not bet against Kimi’s performance this year, or when he appeared to beat him back in 2008-9 as he knows what the deal was relative to his role within the Santander world. I think Kimi understood the business aspect of the issues, and in line with his character never washed any dirty Ferrari laundry in public. Yes, he did have several unlucky situations but his fate was already signed and sealed mid season 2008 purely for business reasons. 2009 was essentially continuation of the 2008 theatrics until Massa’s accident. On another front, almost identical scenario (to Santander-Massa-Brasil situation) is in play for Perez in a Santander sponsored car (Ferrari or McLaren)   — Perez-Santander-Mexico, from the same playbook.

November 8 2012

-- Spanish sports newspaper Marca --

  Asked by the Spanish sports newspaper Marca to recall his memories of racing for F1′s most famous team Ferrari, Raikkonen answered: “Neither good nor bad.“

I won a title with them and had some good times. I am satisfied with the three years I spent there.

“I don’t miss anyone,” he admitted. “To me, leaving there (Ferrari) was a relief.“

The situation could have been better, but it’s the past and what is done cannot be reversed,” said Raikkonen.

“Things don’t last long if you’re working somewhere and the relations are not good.”

He explained that, in contrast, he enjoys working with Lotus.

“I felt good from the start,”said Raikkonen. “

People work hard and calmly, but they want to win and the sport and the technical sides come before the politics.” --

Source

.

December, 4 2012

--

Mercopress.com

--

  For Spain’s Santander bank Brazil is number one and ‘absolute preference’

Emilio Botin chairman of Santander Bank, the leading financial institution in Spain and among the top largest in the European Union said in Sao Paulo that Brazil is the “number one country in Latin America” and the absolute preference of his institution...

read full article

Footnotes:

1) As to how things evolved with the car I am not totally sure, but the person who had a front seat was Chris Dyer.  In the following quote, he is reflecting on 2008 season.

“We had a tough and hard season but Kimi did exactly the right thing within the team and everyone respected what he did and how he reacted to this situation. We had a fantastic car but unfortunately we made mistakes when thinking about what’s best for our driver (Raikkonen).”

I believe the "situation" he is talking about is the Ferrari corporate decision to support Massa – not exactly sure when, but possibly Sep 24. (Kimi was told that they have to let Massa contest the 2008 championship because they are stuck with this request from Santander).

I think

“we made mistakes when thinking about what’s best for our driver”

bit is referring to Michael Schumacher, because Michael wanted Massa to be the official feedback/debrief driver sometime around Monaco. I think all of Michael’s initiatives were well intentioned organizational efficiency related enhancements trying to help Ferrari without favoring any driver but because he was closer to Massa probably Massa benefited more from them.

The other issue was the infamous suspension change that was introduced mid-season, again by Michael's planning and directives.   It was a unilateral action by him as he was trying to improve the car.  

link

If you recall, recently Kimi said there was only one person at Ferrari he did not like… he did not name that person but I believe it is Michael, because Michael was officially in charge of the car. I think he was/is on good terms with Domenicali and Luca di Montezemolo (LdM) because he understood the Ferrari business situation that he could not control but Michael was in charge of something (the car itself) he has been used to controlling all his career. In any event, this area – Michael’s role — needs more research because it is mostly opinions. I suspect Dyer will talk or imply after his departure mid year.

2) Massa was at the right place, at the right time and with the right Sponsor, given his nationality.  In fact Botin personally made sure

Massa was taken care of

even before the 2010 Ferrari sponsorship started:

Massa-“I’m glad to get this support from Santander. Lately I met President Emilio Botin twice and he is absolutely excited about the potential of the Brazilian market…

Being Brazilian, going into the IPO Massa became the

brand ambassador for the bank

(read the last paragraph in the link relative to the date of the article. Alonso was supposed to be in the list but not Massa, on that date) sometime during the summer of 2009, well before Santander-Ferrari relationship kicked in on Jan 1, 2010 (Alonso had been the brand ambassador for Spain for a while). This was a direct Massa-Santander payroll relationship ~$5-7M per year.

Fast forward to Nov 2011,

Botin decided to personally fire him

because he was upset with Massa for the results of 2010/2011 seasons. To understand the importance of Latin America to Santander, just look at their annual reports. So, to those who have been wondering why Massa has been with Ferrari despite underperforming? Because his nationality has been more important than his performance. And remember this stuff was not supposed to take place prior to Jan 1, 2010.

Global recession further increased the importance of Brazil

for Santander as they are desparately looking for new markets to offset losses in Spain. Therefore, they couldn't afford to drop Massa despite his not so stellar performance between 2010-2012, so they had to renew his contract.

This area could use some more research – journos: talk to some ex employee perhaps…

Posted 10th September 2013 by wrcva canvass

[raichufan86]

So…there’s a evil group coming, and here’s a member of the gang, meet LDG and LDM (laser disc girl and laser disc minion) (on hold to think of stuff about them!)

About them: LDG: she’s a Best gamer in Hall of the Internet she got clones of herself in case she’s busy with some things. LDM: this minion is evil and worker version of LDG, she is made for things like terminating people, hacking into games, permanent deleting games cause anger and sadness upon gamers and stealing everyone’s account and blueprints and cash, there’s nothing to get them back but there’s one thing, you have to beat LDM

Fun fact: they are based off cassette girl and cassette goon

Fun fact: they were originally made by the neo bosses, but then A robot making guy named Dr multimakes stole their idea and blueprints for Their creation

[shes-an-oddbird]

Memories They Hold

Its been too long but I've done it, I haven't written anything since the season ended and I missed my FitzSimmons dearly. Thanks to the Friday Prompts I managed to get something out. So here it is in response to the prompt: Comfort for the engineering vs biochem challenge. Enjoy!

Summary: Before fleeing the base at the end of season four, the team gather some of their belongings. Jemma wants to pack as many of her and Fitz's keepsakes that she can reasonably manage but Fitz is hesitant to hang on to anything that brings back happy memories.

She can feel the exhaustion in the room, see it on all of their faces, but in that moment, she felt hopeful and aside from brief glimpses it’s the first time she has since discovering it wasn’t Fitz standing next to her in the lab but an LMD instead. Fitz, the real Fitz, is looking her in the eye and while she can see all the trauma and the pain, she can also see where Daisy’s speech has reached him and she’s so thankful that it has she can’t even think of an adequate expression of her gratitude.

So caught up in the moment, Jemma nearly misses it when Coulson starts speaking again.

“They’ll be here soon, might want to gather a few things, we probably won’t be coming back here.”

Jemma finally pulled her eyes away from Fitz to look around what used to be their lounge. Under the ruble, it was hard to see the room in which so many important memories had taken place. Her feet started to work on their own, leading her out into the hall and towards the bunks slowing as they passed the shattered windows of the lab.

She didn’t know which upset her more, seeing her lab, her second home, in shambles or it having to be used as a refuge for those who needed protection as it had been used in the framework.

A gentle hand touched her back and she turned to see May next to her. “I know you want to say goodbye but we don’t have much time.” She nodded and picked up her pace.

The others had gotten a good ways ahead of her and had already disappeared from the hallway into their rooms except for Fitz who stood outside their shared bunk. Tears started to well up her eyes. It might as well have been yesterday that they had to negotiate their way into shared living space. Just yesterday they shared a kiss on the floor.

“I don’t think its locked.” She stated.

Fitz’s eyes darted to hers and Jemma knew then that he couldn’t be left alone for long without back sliding. As she approached to open the door he averted his eyes back to the floor and backed away leaving a large gap of space between them. For a moment she wasn’t sure he would follow her in.

The room was a mess, structurally sound given the distance from the blast but covered in dust and debris from shockwave.

Their wonderful little room had faired quite well and encouraged her to take on an optimistic tone. “It could have been much worse I think, though it looks like Bridget didn’t survive the fall.” She said, inspecting the fallen device. “We wouldn’t be able to take it anyways unfortunately.” She looked back over her shoulder at him. He’d inched into the doorway and didn’t appear to care in the slightest about the television laying on the ground.

“Why don’t I pack us some clothes and you can gather some of our other things.” The suggestion deliberately referred to them together. A subtle way of telling him she wanted to stick together. She waited for him to nod in confirmation before grabbing both their go bags from the closet and determining what clothes would be needed.

Five minutes later when she had transferred their necessities over to the bags she returned to Fitz’s side. He had taken a seat at their desk with two boxes, one nearly full and the other with barely enough items to cover the bottom. Surprisingly it’s her box that’s on the verge of spilling over.

“Fitz you’ve hardly packed anything.” When she reaches past him to tip the box towards her for a better look he shoves the desk chair back, once more creating distance between them.

“I didn’t know what to pack.” He answered quietly.

“You’ve done a good job with mine I think.” Her favorite books, a notepad she jotted down ideas in, the jewelry box her grandmother had given to her; inside was the necklace he’d given her for their six-month anniversary, though he may not have known that. “What about our pictures?” She grabbed the selfie’s off the back of the desk and placed them gently in the box. “And you’ve got that sketch book in your night stand, the one you draw out ideas in, wouldn’t want to leave that behind.”

In his night stand she also finds the pictures of him and his mom, a gadget whose use she couldn’t determine, a few odds and ends and a post card from the hotel gift shop in Bucharest. She closes the top drawer and bends down to open the next one when suddenly Fitz is in front of her.

“Jemma stop, please just stop, I didn’t pack these things because-be-because I don’t-d-don’t-really need them.”

She instinctively holds the precious items to her chest.

“Why Fitz? You packed all the things so important to me.” She notices his eyes are fixed on that lower drawer and knows there’s something in there that he doesn’t want to see or doesn’t want her to see.

“It’s all just going to be taken away anyways.”

“Technically if it’s in our possession when we’re arrested they’ll have to give it back to us eventually, as long as it’s not evidence or dangerous, I doubt they’ll want to keep any of our things, bottle caps from our first beers we were legally allow to drink here in the states, baby photos, a copy of Popular Science what would they do with all that?”

“I just don’t want to bring any of it Jemma, I don’t deserve to have those memories anymore, they’re-they’re not.”

“They’re happy.” Jemma finishes. Fitz traces the grain of the wood in the night stand with his finger. “Fine.” Jemma took the items clutched in her hands and carried them over to the desk. She placed the items in the half empty box and looked around for other things to add.

“I don’t want them.” Fitz insisted. He tried to sound firm but it came out shaky still.

She spotted the poster from Fitz’s old room on the wall and quickly pulled it down. “I heard, I’m packing them for me.” She said, inspecting the back of the frame. It wouldn’t fit in the box as is, she’d just have to take the poster. “You haven’t got a screw driver in here have you.”

“Why would you pack them for you?” Fitz asked confused by her response.

“Of course you have,” she said with a smile and a shake of her head, that had been a silly question. She pulled open the top drawer of the desk and sure enough the bright green handle of a flat head screwdriver popped right out at her. He always overfilled his designated drawers.

She pried off the back, removed the poster and rolled it neatly into a tube.

“JEMMA!”

“WHAT!” She tossed down the screw driver.

Fitz’s shoulders sunk. “Why won’t you just leave them?”

“I’m packing them because they’re OUR memories Fitz.”

“But why would you want them, you should just toss it all, leave it here to be condemned with the rest of the damn building.”

“I won’t do that!”

“Why not?!”

“Because I don’t want to lose them, I don’t want to lose you!” Jemma shouted finally turning back on him. “I know right now you want nothing to do with them and that you think that you don’t deserve them but I know that we deserve them and I’m not going to let today be the reason that when we finally have our own place we don’t have any pictures for the wall, I’m not going to let today be the reason we don’t have a box of bottle caps and post cards to show our kids and tell them how we met or have your favorite book that your mum used to read to you to read to them.”

Fitz didn't say anything, just gaped at her.

“I know you think that we can’t have that anymore, I heard what you said to AIDA, that this-“ she gestured between them, “is dead, but it’s not.”

“Jemma-“

“Please let me finish Fitz.” She said taking a step closer to him. “I know that you’re going to need time to heal and truly I think I do too but we can do that together, even more I know we can’t do it if we’re apart-“

“Jemma-“

“We don’t have time to argue about this now Fitz, so I’m going to pack anything and everything I might ever want to see again and I want you to do the same.”

“JEMMA!”

“What?”

“You-you’ve thought about all that?”

“About what?”

“About a future and kids.”

“Oh,” Jemma paused in her frantic packing. How he didn’t know when she told him even long before they got together that she only ever saw him in her future. She was reminded of her brief conversation with his LDM and how Fitz had thought about proposing but didn’t know what she would say. “Yes of course I think about it, quite a bit actually.”

“Even after everything you saw me do.”

“Not you Fitz.”

“It was me.” He said sadly.

“Maybe in some other world than, but he’s not the one I want all that with, you are, kind, sweet, wonderful you.”

“I just-“

“I know you’re scared Fitz and it’s hard to discern one reality from the other but you would never hurt an innocent person.” She stepped forward to embrace him. He stiffened for a moment but loosened up after a minute or so, his arms came up to circle around her shoulders. “For the record Fitz,” she said angling her head up to look him in the eyes, “whenever you’re ready to ask, the answer is yes.”

He freezes up again and she tucks her face into his neck. After a moment she feels him press his lips to the top of her head. “What else do we need to pack?”

“I think I’ve nearly got it all.” Jemma said, pulling away. She gave the room another once over, there were a few Knick knacks on the dresser in the corner. She took a closer look, determining only the most recent letter from her parents made the cut. She turned around to see Fitz kicking shut the lower drawer of his bedside table. A few things were discarded on the bed but his hands were shoved into his pockets.

“I think we should check the kitchen to see if any of our mugs made it through the fray.”

“I’m not sure they’ll serve tea in prison.”

“I’ll have to start a riot.” A small smile peaked its way onto Fitz’s face and Jemma felt one creeping onto her own. Fitz scooped up his box and made to pick up hers as well but she beat him to it. “I’ve got it, you’ll need to grab your go bag as well.” Jemma moved to the bed to collect her own. Her eyes lingered briefly on the pile Fitz had dumped out from the drawer to make sure he hadn’t left something he might one day regret. Nothing stood out but she noticed a sketchbook under the pile.

“You should take that with you, it’s got some great ideas in it.”

“What-oh-yeah I guess, I could always pick one up later.”

“Well you don’t want to lose all that work you’ve already started, you’ve got some room there.”

Fitz picked up the hardcover sketchbook, looked it over and slid it into the box. “After you.”