Although he's again an F1 regular, Kimi Raikkonen is not ready to forego World Rally Championship ambitions. The Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen is hoping to return to the WRC for his home round of the series, Rally Finland, in August.
Raikkonen departed the WRC last season, having spent two years driving a factory-specification Citroen. The Jyvaskyla-based Rally Finland is the event Raikkonen has most experience, having competed there for the last three years. His best result was ninth last time out.
The event runs the week after the Hungarian GP at the start of the Formula 1 season's summer break. Lotus, however, is likely to be reluctant to let Raikkonen compete there, having lost its star driver Robert Kubica when he crashed a Skoda Fabia S2000 ahead of the start of the 2011 season.
"I'd like to do Rally Finland this season as it fits with the calendar, but you'll have to ask the team if it fits in my contract," Raikkonen said.
Raikkonen, whose best WRC result was a fifth place in Turkey in 2010, admitted the WRC was tougher than he expected, but said he still wants to try again.
"I knew [rallying] was tough as I'd done some before, but it's different at the highest level," he added. "I knew it wouldn't be easy. Of course, I wanted to do better. But I'm not finished. I want to go back, whether for my career or after I don't know.
"Formula 1 and rallying are two completely different sports. In rallying everything is different. OK, you have the pace notes but you don't know for sure what's around the next corner."