Kimi Raikkonen doesn’t seem too concerned about the loss of Lotus technical director James Allison – who confirmed his resignation on Wednesday.
Allison has been a key player in the Enstone-based team’s recent success, and whilst Raikkonen isn’t sure of the impact his departure will have, he says it won’t influence his decision to stay at Lotus.
“I make my decision on what is best for me,” he said amid rumours he may join Red Bull in 2014.
“Of course you want to have the best people around, but it will not make the decision for me whether I stay or not.”
Raikkonen shifted some of the focus away from Allison, as he highlighed that it was just one engineer amongst a large team.
“It has happened, we live with it and hopefully this doesn’t really change much.
“Obviously he has been a big part of the team for a long time but everyone is important. All of them do their work and without them the whole thing wouldn’t run.
“For sure he’s a good guy and it’s a shame he leaves but that’s life and we will see if it makes a difference or not.”
Meanwhile, Allison’s destination remains a secret. However strong rumours suggest he may end up at either Ferrari or Mercedes – though the former seems more logical.
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso would certainly support the move, which would reunite the pair from their championship winning years at Renault.
“We would always welcome any extra help,” he said on Thursday in Spain.
“He [Allison] will choose what he prefers or maybe he will choose to stay at home [in England] – we don’t know. We just know the news from yesterday and we don’t have any more news,” he added.
“I worked with him pretty closely and I was world champion with him two times and then I came back to Renault in 2008 and 2009.
“In 2009 he was already technical director and we were not so successful. But we’ve seen the Lotus car in the last three years and it’s no secret that he is one of the top men here [in Formula One] and we will see what the future is for him.”
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