It seems the constant rumors regarding Raikkonen's potential signing with Mercedes GP or McLaren Mercedes has plenty of truth into it, but it was the 2007 F1 champion who decided to turn the offers down. According to his manager Steve Robertson, Kimi wanted to try his luck in rallying really bad, and prove himself that he can be a serious contender in the WRC.
“Mercedes wanted to have Kimi. But by this time he had already decided to go to WRC. Kimi doesn't change his mind,” said Robertson, according to the Turun Sanomat newspaper.
McLaren Mercedes were linked with the best chance of signing the Finn, as even Lewis Hamilton's dad & manager reckoned that he would love to see his son go against the former Ferrari-an in the same team. Prior to the Jenson Button – McLaren announcement, Raikkonen visited the Woking headquarters and everyone believed a deal between those two parties was imminent.
As it later turned out, McLaren argues Kimi was asking an awful lot of money. Ferrari had already offered him a $10 million bonus in case he'll find another team and $17 million if he won't race in 2010 at all (in F1). So with this amount of money already in his pocket, it was the perfect opportunity to change the series and not suffer from it financially.
“Kimi was speaking about it with me already years ago. He always wanted to do rallies at world championship level,” confirmed his former team boss Stefano Domenicali, who was very opened to Raikkonen's rally outings back when he was driving for the Scuderia.
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