- Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Lotus
Raikkonen threatens to skip final races
Kimi Raikkonen has threatened not to turn up to the final two races of the season if an agreement over his missing payments is not stuck to for the rest of the season.
Raikkonen did not show in the paddock on Thursday and said he only arrived on Friday when he reached an agreement with the team over his pay. He will take part in this weekend's race but said he would reconsider the final two grands prix of 2013 if the team does not stick to its side of the deal.
Asked if he would consider hold the threat over the team, he said: "Yeah, for sure. I enjoy racing and I enjoy driving but there's a big part of it that's business and sometimes when that's not dealt with like it should be we end up in unfortunate situations. You have to put the line somewhere and if it goes over that it is not really my fault anymore."
Tensions between team and driver peaked at last weekend's Indian Grand Prix when the pit wall used colourful language to tell him to move aside and let team-mate Romain Grosjean through. But Raikkonen claims the real issue is that he has not been paid all year.
"It's a small part of it and those things shouldn't happen, but unfortunately those things happened, but that's not really the issue," he said. "It's the other stuff and all the things together in the end. It's easy to say that's the reason, but it's not that.
"Everybody has their own view and own ideas of everything and sometimes it's not very nice when you hear that you don't have the interest of the team. Then you've been paid zero Euro the whole year so it kind of doesn't put you in the best place. But that's the way it goes and hopefully we've found an understanding on both sides as to how we should deal with the situation right now and fix the issues."
Lotus team principal said the issue was being discussed between Raikkonen and team owner Gerard Lopez.
"There are discussions between Gerard and Kimi and it obviously involves our parent company and shareholders," he said. "Kimi has some emotions, yes. He's not an Iceman like we all believe he is. He's a normal guy."
Raikkonen is due to leave Lotus for Ferrari at the end of the season.
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