“There are many things that the team will announce soon, in the coming
weeks and the coming months,” he continued. “Let’s not forget that
the team’s current identity is only a couple of years old and it is clear
that we have made some strategic investments like the wind tunnel, like the
CFD pole and like the building of the simulator- it will be a state of the
art simulator.
“We are also in the process to reinforce our team with the recruitment
of some key people, some of them have already joined us and some are to be
announced soon but we can’t say too much at this stage as some of them are
currently on gardening leave.
“Next year, we will also have an upgrade of our facilities trackside, in
fact it is going to be a complete change with a new engineers truck, a new
infrastructure for the team garage, which of course will also have an impact
on our image and obviously Kimi joining us is a big step in reinforcing the
investment Genii Capital is putting in the team at every level.”
After announcing his comeback, Raikkonen was questioned about what had
motivated the move to which he replied: “When I did some Nascar races
this year I noticed that I was increasingly missing the racing side, to race
against each other, because in rallying you really race against the clock.
“And then I got the call from certain people in Formula One. All sorts
of things happened and we managed to have a nice conversation with Lotus
Renault GP and make a deal – I’m really very happy with that.
“There is always a lot of talk about motivation but nobody really knows
what I do or what I think apart from myself so I don’t really care about
what people say. But I’m happy to be coming back.
“I wouldn’t put my name onto a contract if I didn’t think I’d really
enjoy it – so it will be interesting and exciting to get back.”