One reason for that is that Raikkonen doesn't want just a regular seat, but a winning one. And all positions already seem covered for the 2011 season, apart from Red Bull's Mark Webber (whose deal with the Milton Keynes team runs out at the end of 2010). However, Herbert opinionated that leaving F1 “in a sour way” will make it even tougher for the Finn to return to competitive racing in the series.
“Felipe was basically beating him all the time and we never seem to see the old Kimi anymore, the old spark of Kimi. (...) I don't know all the ins-and-outs of Ferrari itself, but we never saw that sparkle from him,” said Herbert in an interview with Crash.net Radio.
“At the end of the day, I think for Kimi to say he'll have a rallying year and then come back for 2011 is a bit tough, because he's left probably in a sour way,” added the former F1 racer.
In addition, Herbert argued that the young blood that now knocks at Formula One's doors year after year will give Raikkonen even more headaches in finding a job, as most of the youngsters currently competing in feeder series of F1 have the talent and motivation to convince the team bosses to give them a racing seat.
“To go out of it and then try and get back in again I think is a very hard thing, because there's always new blood about and coming up, and if that new blood does the right thing in GP2 for example, then they're going to be trying to get in. We've got young drivers that are already there trying to make their point, so it's a sticky position because the places that he might think are there may not be there.”
“He might come back and have to go to a lower team, which is not what he wants,” added Herbert.
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