With Jenson Button now confirmed as the new driver at McLaren to race alongside Lewis Hamilton from the 2010 Formula One season, Kimi Raikkonen finds himself left out in the cold and forced to take a sabbatical from the pinnacle of Motorsports.

After agreeing to be let out of his contract a year early with Ferrari for a handsome sum of money, half of what he would have received if he had raced the season, Kimi was still looking for a drive in 2010, but insisted that it had to be with a team able to give him a race winning car. Also, he needed to ensure he would be given a hefty salary as if he did move to another team, the amount Ferrari had to pay him would diminish by several million dollars.

With the economic crunch the way it is, no one would meet Kimi’s demands and the only team still left open to him would be the 2009 champions, Brawn, or Mercedes as they are now known. However, they too are refusing to pay large amounts of cash for their drivers, they wouldn’t meet their champions pay demands after all, so it is highly doubtful that they would meet Kimi’s ludicrous 25 million asking price.

Therefore, Kimi’s manager has now revealed to the Finnish press that his man will not be racing in Formula One next season and will in fact be taking a sabbatical. At this stage it should only be for 2010, but that doesn’t mean he won’t get too involved in another form of racing, such as Rally, and decide not to return to the pinnacle of Motorsports at all.