Toyota have made Kimi Raikkonen an offer he can refuse.
The Japanese giants are desperate to sign a top-line driver to lead their Formula One attack in 2010.
Raikkonen is on the market after securing a £25million pay-off from Ferrari, who are replacing him with Fernando Alonso.
Toyota have offered a deal to the party-loving Finn, who is the highest-paid driver in F1. But it seems the 2007 world champion’s management are asking for more.
The team’s motorsport president John Howett said: “We don’t play too many games. We put on the table what we can afford and what we think is a serious offer in the current market.
“I genuinely think we could work well with Kimi and give him a car that’s quick.”
“We’ve had very good relationships with Scandinavian drivers in the past, when we won world rally championships with them.”
“Like Kimi, they enjoyed life but it worked very well. So we could cope with that as a team.” The Sun
The Cologne-based squad is chasing a big-name driver as it awaits the Japanese parent company’s decision on its Formula 1 future, and having missed out on the chance to sign Robert Kubica – who is bound for Renault in 2010 – has identified Raikkonen as its main target.
The 2007 world champion, who has agreed to leave Ferrari one year before the end of his contract to make way for Fernando Alonso, has also been strongly linked with a return to McLaren.
A return to McLaren is thought the most likely outcome for Raikkonen, but Howett hinted that Toyota would be more tolerant of the party-loving 30-year-old’s lifestyle than the straight-laced Woking team, which sometimes struggled to keep him on a tight rein during his last stint there. ITV
