Raikkonen Nearly Joined Force India for 2012 Return

Otmar Szafnauer says Force India came close to signing Kimi Raikkonen for his 2012 Formula 1 comeback before the Finn chose Lotus instead, a move he believes reflected the stronger sporting case on offer from Enstone.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, the former Force India boss said the team made its push during the Brazil season finale, when he arranged a meeting with Raikkonen at the Hyatt in Morumbi, São Paulo. The discussion took place in the hotel’s Japanese restaurant, where Szafnauer tried to sell Force India’s project to the 2007 world champion.

"Before Kimi went to Lotus, we were very close to signing him," Szafnauer said. He described the meeting as an unusual one even by F1 standards, because Raikkonen was not accompanied by a manager or the kind of formal representation usually involved in talks with a driver of that stature.

Instead, Szafnauer said Raikkonen handled things himself and arrived with "two of his buddies," whom he believed were the founders of Angry Birds. "There wasn't a manager. It was just the friends and Kimi," he said.

That gave the talks an offbeat feel, but Szafnauer made clear they were serious. According to his account, Raikkonen was open enough to keep the conversation going and told him they could speak again after the season. The discussions then spilled over into Red Bull’s end-of-year party, where Szafnauer said Raikkonen told him: "Right, let's go talk at the Red Bull party."

Even then, Force India could not turn interest into a deal. Szafnauer said the problem was not one single sticking point so much as the broader competitive picture facing Raikkonen as he weighed his return.

"As it turned out, I couldn't convince him to come to Force India. It was a bit of everything," Szafnauer said. "You have to convince drivers too that the future looks rosier than the other offers that they have. And to be fair to him, he went to Lotus at a time where they won more races than we did. So they were better."

That verdict was backed up by what followed. Raikkonen’s return with Lotus became one of the strongest comeback campaigns of the era, with the Finn scoring 390 points across two seasons, taking 13 podiums and winning the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.

For Force India, Szafnauer’s account underlines just how ambitious the team’s target had been. Landing a former world champion would have marked a major step for a midfield operation trying to persuade elite drivers that its future could outshine more established rivals. In the end, Raikkonen chose the team with the better recent record, and Lotus was the one that turned his comeback into immediate results.