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Raikkonen unsure of impact of Allison departure

Kimi Raikkonen: "We will see if it has any effect on what the future will bring" © Sutton Images

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Kimi Raikkonen says he is unsure what impact James Allison's departure will have on Lotus but says it won't play a key role in his own future.

Lotus announced that Allison would be leaving the team and be replaced as technical director by Nick Chester on Wednesday, with Allison's ultimate destination not yet known. With such an influential figure leaving despite the team's recent success, Raikkonen said it remains to be seen whether it will affect the team or not.

"I don't know, time will tell," Raikkonen said. "I don't know the reasons behind it, it's not my thing to comment; you'll have to ask himself. I don't know what the reasons were.

"[I got to know him] a little bit obviously because we've been working in the same team but day-by-day we don't have much to do really and in he doesn't come to all the races. This is normal; I work with the engineers and obviously he hears all the things that we do. We will see in the future what happens."

However, Raikkonen said the change of technical director was not a cause of concern for him.

"Not really, we don't know if it's going to change anything or what's going to change. Obviously there had to be people who replace him already but we will see if it has any effect on what the future will bring but I really don't have any idea."

When asked if it would impact on his own future at the team, Raikkonen replied: "There are many things and I will purely make my decision on wherever I feel is the right place for me."

Pushed on whether Red Bull was an appealing destination for him with the way they treat their drivers, Raikkonen said he hadn't given any thought to other teams.

"I don't know what they do. I see the same things as you guys, I have no more knowledge on what other teams do and I have no interest to try to look in to it because I have my own work to do. Like I said, my decision will be purely on what I think is the best overall for me and we'll see what happens in the future.

"I have no idea what will happen and right now I don't really even put much thought in to it because we have only done four races. So it's an awful long season to go and it's a long time until the next year so for now we'll put the effort in for this race and this season and see in the future what happens."

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