Lotus are trying to convince Kimi Raikkonen he should stay on next season rather than move to Red Bull.
With Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber is, who left the Red Bull Formula One seat was empty candidata.
Team boss Eric Boullier told BBC Sport: 'In two consecutive years, we have closed the gap with Red Bull, he wanted to know whether we will continue to adhere to this.
"Our technology portfolio, we will discuss."
"Raikkonen is mature enough to decide for himself what is the right thing to do"
Boullier said he expected a decision "before August".
"He is mature enoguh to decide for himself what is the right thing he need to do,"
Boullier said. "There are some upsides to going to Red Bull and some downsides as well."
After nine of 19 games last seasons, the Finns are third in the standings, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and seven adrift behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso 41 points.
Moreover, Boullier has to convince Raikkonen that the loss of highly rated technical director James Allison will not harm the team's prospects. Allison is expected to join Ferrari.
Boullier also confirmed that the team has been late playing his wages, unpaid since the beginning of the industry source said Raikkonen.
"It was paid late. yes, "Boullier said. "But it has been paid. We have to if we want to keep him."
Asked if Raikkonen's salary was now up to date, Boullier replied: "YES".
Red Bull have said they will decide by the end of August whether Raiiknonen or Ricciardo would be a better choice to partner world champion Sebastian Vettel.
The other Red Bull junior driver at Toro Rosso, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, is out of contention.
Both choices have pros and cons for the teams.
Raikkonen, as world champion and winner of 20 grands prix is a known quantity, who is fast and consistent but may not be as engaged technically as Red Bull would like.
Ricardo has shown promise, qualifying some impressive performances, but in his craft, consistency and processing capabilities pressure and Vettel partner, and is expected to implement ion the field in front of a problem.
Raikkonen has to weight up the benefits of a potentially faster car against the prospect of taking on Vettel in the same team.
While Lotus want to keep Raikkonen, there are no doubts about the future of his team-mate, Franco-Swiss Romain Grosjean, who finished the strong third in Germany but has been inconsistent this year after a crash-strewn debut full season in 2012.
Grosjean's presence brought a guarantee from he French oil company Total,said to be worth around 5 million sponsorship.
German Hulkenberg, his Sauber relationship has deterriorated since he joined them this season, is keen to move to Lotus.
Williams driver Maldonado is also linked with the team, but Williams sources said his contract was no way out.
Maldonado is linked to the team's sponsorship deal with Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA, which is worth 30 million a year and runs until the end of 2015.
News from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/23238016
By. WK
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