The 30-year-old has also been linked with both Toyota and Renault for next season - with the former openly admitting it would love to snap Raikkonen up - and now, most intriguingly of all, with Red Bull, where 2009 incumbents Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber ostensibly have firm agreements in-place for 2010.

However, according to German magazine Sport Bild, the salary requirements being made by Raikkonen's management team have caused McLaren to think again - with the 18-time grand prix-winner having received a substantial pay-off from Ferrari for terminating his ongoing contract a year early, and understood to be seeking in the region of EUR25 million for 2010, a sum the Woking-based outfit is unwilling to pay. Even prior to the announcement by Ferrari last week that finally confirmed the worst-kept secret in the F1 paddock - that Fernando Alonso will jump ship from Renault to the Scuderia next season on a three-year deal - it had been speculated that Raikkonen was in advanced talks with McLaren, with whom he competed in the top flight from 2002 until 2006, triumphing eight times along the way and only narrowly missing out on the drivers' crown in 20.

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