Team boss says the former Lotus driver will get what he is owed in time.
Lotus admitted they owed money to driver Kimi Raikkonen after the former world champion said he quit the team for Ferrari because he hadn’t been paid.
Team principal Eric Boullier said it was true that Lotus were behind in their payments to Raikkonen, blaming “cash flow” — but he insisted they would settle up.
“The truth is that yes, we owe him money, that’s true. He’s going to be paid, that’s true too,” he said at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Boullier said Lotus had a similar problem last year with Raikkonen, who is reported to be owed multi-million dollar performance bonuses.
“If you want to have a little bit more of the story, last year in the same period it was the same story — we owed him some money but at the end of the year we paid it,” Boullier said.
“It’s just the way we manage our cash-flow, unfortunately we are not as rich as some other teams on the grid.”
Raikkonen and Lotus have been sparring over money for some months but on Thursday, he blamed the non-payments for his decision to move to Ferrari.
“The reason why I left the team was really on the money side,” Raikkonen said. “And with things like they are, I don’t have my salary.”
Several Formula One teams complain that the sport is too expensive, with Spain’s HRT the latest to go to the wall last season.
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