When Kimi Raikkonen decided to leave F1 for WRC many would have thought of it as a temporary move. However in the French sports newspaper L’Equipe, Raikkonen is quoted as saying he may never return to F1
Kimi Raikkonen left F1 with one year pending in his contract after it was announced that Fernando Alonso would be driving for Ferrari. Raikkonen would have considered other F1 teams including his former team McLaren before moving to WRC with Citroen . While there were rumours of Kimi Raikkonen coming back to F1 notably with Red Bull since they are one of his team sponsors in WRC and probably Renault since there is no indication of a contract yet for the second seat at Renault, it seems like Raikkonen might want to continue with rallying and other challenges. In his debut year in the WRC Kimi Raikkonen has registered a best result of 5th overall in the Rally of Turkey and also won the last stage in the Rallye Deutschland.
One of the reasons for Raikkonen's non commitment to his future F1 plans could also be due to the lack of openings with the top teams. The driver market would really open out during the 2012 season with most of the driver contracts in the top teams ending by the end of 2012. Maybe a new challenge in F1 would get Raikkonen to reconsider F1.
