At Brazilian Grand Prix, Raikkonen declined on Thursday to commit to various scenarios posed by reporters, including racing for McLaren or Toyota, leaving Formula One for rally cars, or even following former F1 drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve into NASCAR.
"I have no plans," said the Finn, who won the 2007 F1 title at Interlagos.
"I do what I want with my life. I could race there (in NASCAR) if I wanted. But I'm not one of the biggest fans of NASCAR."
He will be replaced at Ferrari next year by Spain's Fernando Alonso, who is driving for Renault.
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CONSTRUCTORS' CHAMPIONSHIP: Jenson Button said the seemingly inevitable team championship for Brawn is "an amazing story and it is a Hollywood movie, for sure."
Button or teammate Rubens Barrichello need only muster one point in either Sao Paulo or the season-ending Abu Dhabi race for the team to clinch the season championship -- which would be the first by a team in its debut season.
Team Brawn came into existence last March, when Honda reached an agreement to pass ownership of its F1 team to Ross Brawn, a longtime figure in the series who has been a part of two championship teams.
"Ross has achieved so much in this sport, but to win a championship with his own team is far greater than what he's achieved in the past," Button said.
Barrichello said that while he and Button battle it out for the individual championship during the next two races, their coming together to nearly deliver Brawn the team title was a great achievement.
"We have this feeling that we've both worked for that, and it's what we're giving to the team and what the team gave us.
"We're working hard to beat each other, but it's comfortable for the fact that we both work very well together for the constructors' (title)," he said.
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RAINY RACE DAY?: A major downpour in Sao Paulo early Thursday could be a harbinger of the weather through the weekend at Interlagos.
Brazil's Rubens Barrichello, No. 2 in the championship behind his Brawn teammate Jenson Button, said rain during Sunday;s race could favor Sebastian Vettel of team Red Bull, who was third overall.
"I think the Red Bulls are quite fast on the wet (tracks) and we could be a little bit better on the dry," he said. "Having said that, it's all the same for everyone."
Button said the Sao Paulo weather was "really strange."
"Tuesday it was cold, yesterday it was really hot and today it's raining," he told reporters. "It's very up and down the conditions."
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TRASH TROPHY: The official trophies for the top three finishers in Brazil's Grand Prix are being made from plastic bottle caps collected and recycled during the racing weekend.
Brazilian petrochemicals maker Braskem has a laboratory on site where thousands of blue caps from plastic beverage bottles will be ground, melted into spaghetti-like threads, pressed into 60-centimeter(two-foot)-long blocks and finally machine-cut to shape.
The trophies were designed by famed Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. They will be blue and mounted on a wooden base.
The winner receives a 3.5-kilogram (eight-pound) trophy that is 50 centimeters (20 inches) tall, second place drops down to 40 centimeters (16 inches) and third gets a 30-centimeter (12-inch) prize.
"Formula One represents innovation and technology and is the perfect event to demonstrate the social value of recycling plastic," said Nicolai Duboc, a Braskem engineer in charge of the operation.
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TEAM LOTUS ON THE LOOSE: The Lotus F1 Racing team making its debut next year was on track to have a car ready by February.
This week saw the squad put a scale model through a wind-tunnel test.
Lotus was approved a month ago to compete in 2010.
Mike Gascoyne, the chief technical officer, said the wind-tunnel test was an "exciting" milestone, given the amount of work that has already happened on the more bureaucratic aspects of building the team, like getting finances arranged and management in place.
"Once our entry was confirmed in mid-September, we were able to accelerate our recruitment and car development process and this is really where we are at now," he said in a statement.
Gascoyne said private financing from Malaysia has been key to building the team, which is owned by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes, chief executive of low-cost airline AirAsia.
Technical partnerships are in place with Fondtech for car aerodynamics, gearbox specialists Xtrac and an engine supply agreement is finalized with Cosworth.
Despite the short amount of time Lotus will have to put a car together before the first race in Bahrain next March, Gascoyne was confident all will fall in place.
"There is no escaping the challenges that we face simply to get the car ready for the first race of next season, but I am confident that we are up to the task in hand," he said.
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FORCE INDIA MAKING CHANGES: Force India chairman Vijay Mallya confirmed that Otmar Szafnauer is joining the team as its new chief operating officer.
He will replace Simon Roberts at the end of this season. Roberts was in the spot on a one-year temporary loan from McLaren Applied Technologies as part of the teams' technical partnership.
Szafnauer, 45, was director of strategy and business planning for Honda's F1 team from 2006 to 2008 and operations director at British American Racing for three years beginning in 1998.
At Force India, he will oversee factory and trackside operations.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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