And that will happen because of the fact that trusting a teammate 100 percent with pace notes will be tough to learn in his first season in the series. In addition, Raikkonen would tackle almost every race, except for Rally Finland, for the first time in career, which will make it difficult for him to pass the championship's front-runners in his maiden WRC campaign.
“Kimi is fast and with driving he doesn't have problems. But preparing to drive with pace notes is a difficult case for him. We WRC drivers have so much more experience, and almost all the rallies will be unknown to Kimi in advance. It's difficult to imagine that Kimi could succeed, at least in his first season,” said Hirvonen, according to Finnish website sportti.com.
Well, until then, it's yet uncertain whether Raikkonen will join the series or not, as the Finn is yet to announce anything officially for the 2010 season. As far as we're concerned, all we know for sure is that he'll take a sabbatical next year.
The latest rumors suggest he's in talks with two teams for a part-time schedule next year. One option would be joining Citroen World Rally Team via his sponsor Red Bull energy drink, the other would be agreeing on a one-year contract with former WRC champion Petter Solberg's team. Last week, the Norwegian told the media that he would offer a full-time drive to Raikkonen any minute, if he'll contact him for it.
As far as Raikkonen is concerned, the Finn clearly stated that he wants to come back to Formula One in 2011, so gathering the necessary information and experience on rallying throughout 2010 is unlikely to help him become a rally champion in 2011. It may, however, help him return to rallying at a later date, and become competitive in the series.
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