Kimi Raikkonen has wrapped up a Red Bull-backed deal to drive in the World Rally Championship with the Citroen Junior World Rally team in 2010, kicking off renewed speculation that the Finn will return to the F1 grid with Red Bull Racing in 2011.
A switch to the WRC had been on the cards for some time, after Raikkonen decided to take a sabbatical from Formula One next season following the early termination of his Ferrari contract to make way for Fernando Alonso.
Raikkonen will race for the Red Bull-backed Citroen Junior squad alongside highly-rated rallying youngster Sebastien Ogier, and will be co-driven by fellow Finn Kaj Lindstrom.
So far, Raikkonen's rallying experience has been limited to a one-off outing in a Fiat Abarth in the Rally Finland last year, where he acquitted himself well speed-wise before crashing out on the second day of the rally.
But this deal will see the 2007 F1 champion take on 12 of the 13 rounds of the 2010 World Rally Championship, missing out on only the event in New Zealand, which the Junior team is not participating in for cost reasons. He will also get a drive in the Arctic Rally starting on 28th January in order to help him get used to the car.
Speaking at the announcement of his new deal Raikkonen thanked Red Bull for their help in giving him a chance to experience the WRC in a rally-winning car.
"I always wanted to compete in rally, especially in the World Rally Championship at some point in my career," Raikkonen mumbled, "Thanks to Red Bull, I have the opportunity to drive the best car of the series with the Citroen C4. This is a new but very exciting challenge."
The presence of the Red Bull sponsorship has heightened speculation that Raikkonen will return to F1 in 2011 with the Red Bull F1 team. Mark Webber is only contracted to the end of 2010, while Sebastian Vettel is a known target for the Mercedes GP team, so there may well be a seat available for him.
Futhermore, Raikkonen confirmed that his WRC deal was only for the one year right now, saying: "For the moment we have a one-year contract and we will see how it goes for the future, I am really looking forward to testing the car and taking the start of the first rally."
The Citroen WRC boss Olivier Quesnel also had words of praise for the fizzy pop merchants of Red Bull, saying that their increase in investment with the Citroen team allowed them to expand their talented driver pool, which also includes multiple WRC champion Sebastien Loeb.
"Red Bull's commitment and energy are a perfect fit for Citroen's ongoing thirst for victory," Quesnel boasted, "We will continue to count on Sébastien and Dani [Sordo, Loeb's team mate] to defend our world titles in 2010, and we will also be prolonging our association with Sebastien Ogier who showed outstanding potential this year.
"Last but not least, it is with immense joy that we welcome Kimi Raikkonen to our ranks. We are very proud that he has chosen Citroen.
"In addition to the confirmation of these four crews, we will hopefully be able to announce other programmes over the coming weeks."
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