Raikkonen to miss final two races of 2013

Kimi Raikkonen will not race at the final two rounds of this season in the United States and Brazil, the Lotus team has confirmed. Raikkonen is set to undergo surgery on his back that will put him out of action for a few weeks.

Raikkonen has complained of back trouble for some time. He reportedly injured his back in a testing crash in 2001, and has apparently had problems ever since. Raikkonen’s back pain affected his race weekend in Singapore earlier this year, where it seemed possible that he would be unable to race. Raikkonen did race, although he struggled heavily in qualifying, and finished third in one of his more impressive drives of the season. Afterwards, he stated that he would likely seek treatment for his back after the end of the season. Based on these most recent developments, it seems that he is unable to put off treatment until the season is finished.

Before the most recent race, in Abu Dhabi, Raikkonen was embroiled in a dispute with Lotus over pay, and it was doubtful if he would race in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. But Raikkonen arrived and competed, and by the end of the weekend it seemed that he had come to an agreement with the team and would see out the rest of the season.

Whether or not Raikkonen and Lotus have in reality patched up their relationship is now irrelevant. His back surgery means Raikkonen’s time with Lotus is effectively over. It was announced some time ago that Raikkonen is to drive for Ferrari again from 2014, and this latest announcement means he has already driven his last race for Lotus.

The big question for Lotus now is: who will drive Raikkonen’s car in the final two races of the season? Davide Valsecchi is the team’s third driver this season, but he has not yet raced in Formula One. Valsecchi has driven this year’s Lotus on two occasions – once in pre-season testing and again at the Young Driver Test at Silverstone in July – but that is by no means ideal preparation for a race weekend. He has been present at the races this season in his role as reserve driver, and it looked possible for a while that he would race in Abu Dhabi before Raikkonen turned up.

In terms of team development, Valsecchi is the obvious choice. He is the team’s reserve driver, and they are presumably grooming him for a possible race drive in the future. If he is given the nod to race over the next two weeks, Valsecchi will have a chance to prove his worth to the team and justify the faith they have already shown in him.

Lotus are currently fourth in the Constructors’ Championship and aiming to catch Ferrari, who are 26 points ahead in third place. In order to do that, they need to score significant points at each of the two remaining races. While there’s no doubt that Grosjean is capable of two strong finishes, Valsecchi is an unknown quantity in Formula One. All drivers take some time to get used to racing in F1 machinery, and that suggests that Valsecchi might, through no fault of his own, struggle to produce performances that will help his team to third place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Therefore, Lotus might want to look to a more experienced driver as a safer option in terms of points scoring ability. In 2012, Lotus put Jérôme D’Ambrosio in Romain Grosjean’s car when Grosjean was banned for the Italian Grand Prix. D’Ambrosio did not score points on that occasion – he finished 13th – but he has 20 Grand Prix starts to his name, which is at least some experience.

There is the admittedly not very strong possibility that Lotus might try to lure Nico Hulkenberg away from Sauber for the final two races of the season. Hulkenberg has been linked with the team for a possible race drive in 2014. If that deal has in fact been done, it would make sense for Lotus to try to integrate Hulkenberg into the team as soon as possible. That would, of course, raise the issue of who would drive Hulkenberg’s Sauber in the final two rounds of the 2013 season.

Lotus have not as yet announced who the replacement driver will be. All they have said is, “The team will make an announcement about the replacement driver for the United States and Brazilian Grands Prix in due course.”