Kimi Raikkonen has dismissed claims that (technical director) James Allison's departure will compromise his championship hopes.

In the wake of the Englishman's surprise decision to leave the Enstone outfit mid-season many claim that the move will derail the Finn's hopes of a second title, not so insists The Iceman, nor will it affect his decision as to whether he remains with Lotus for a third season.

"Of course you want to have the best people around, but it will not make the decision for me whether I stay or not," he told reporters in Barcelona.

"You always want to keep good people but there is no way of me telling whether it will affect us in the future," he continued. "It has happened, and we live with it, hopefully this doesn't really change much.

"Obviously he has been a big part of the team for a long time but everyone is important," he added. "All of them do their work and without them the whole thing wouldn't run. For sure he's a good guy and it's a shame he leaves but that's life and we will see if it makes a difference or not. We'd rather keep him than he goes, but there are a lot of things that can happen in everybody's life. I don't know the reason. It is not my thing to comment. It's a shame but time will tell if it makes a difference."

Linked with a number of the leading teams, Allison, who is to be replaced at Lotus by Nick Chester, is widely believed to be heading to Maranello.

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