McLaren bids for Raikkonen

Raikkonen has been one of the revelations of the 2001 season and the young Finn has become hot property after rumours of being courted by 'big guns' McLaren and Ferrari.

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis has refused to give any indication as to his future driver line-up other than saying at the Hungarian Grand Prix that it would be 'something different'. David Coulthard has re-signed for next year, but his team mate for 2002 has yet to be announced.

In recent weeks team boss Peter Sauber was adamant that Raikkonen would be staying with his Swiss team, but he admitted last weekend that he is now open to discussion.

"Yes, McLaren is interested in Kimi," Sauber told Italian television channel RAIDUE. "There will be negotiations in the next few weeks. Kimi is the driver of the future and we will, for sure, take that into account."

According to this week's Autosport magazine, Dennis has put in an offer to secure Raikkonen as a test driver for next year, before stepping in to a race seat in 2003 for the first of six years.

That would leave Hakkinen alongside Coulthard for 2002, but would also keep Raikkonen on hand in case Mika lost interest halfway through the season. However, the young Finn is thought to be reluctant to spend a year testing and therefore may stay at Sauber in 2002, before switching to McLaren the following year.

Despite the fact that Sauber currently uses Ferrari customer engines, it is understood that the Italian team is unlikely to get first option on Raikkonen's services.