Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen have extended another a one year deal, the new contract expires next season. The Finnish racing driver will be replaced by other drivers in 2019 if he is still unable to regain the top spot next year, according to Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne.
Since returning to Scuderia in the 2014 season, Raikkonen has played for four years without a title and has been worked alongside Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.
Meanwhile, his team-mate Vettel has won eight races in the past three seasons, each season ahead of Raikkonen.
Speaking to media, Marchionne told the 38-year-old driver must recover the speed of the past if he wants a 2019 seat at Formula 1.
“My personal opinion is that if we find the key, Raikkonen drives like God. But we need to find it and when it’s all right,” Marchionne said.
“He needs more consistency in terms of performance, but it’s important to find the right key to make him driving in Monaco also on other circuits.
“Probably this is the last season to find the right key and we must do it. I think that would be a shame if he would leave F1 without showing his real potential.” Marchionne added.
“We looked at a few top-notch drivers: Leclerc, Verstappen and Antonio Giovinazzi who could move in the market forward. I’m still happy to have chosen Leclerc and I think if we cannot find the right key for Raikkonen, the choice will fall on a young driver.” Marchionne said.
Sebastian Vettel (left) finished second this season. (Source:wwwplanetf1.com)
Marchionne also said that four-time world champion Vettel has the responsibility to learn lessons from the 2017 title race with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. But he also denied Vettel’s anger, the scene of a collision between Baku and Hamilton was a German weakness.
“I don’t know if it’s a weakness problem or a character issue, and his way of expressing his anger is not, in my opinion, a weakness is problem too.” Marchionne said.
“Vettel is bit like kid from southern Italy, which he showed twice this year, he learned something from it, and I mean, we have an obligation to give the driver a race car to win. We didn’t succeed in 2016 but we had a great car in 2017. From now, Vettel has his own responsibility.” the Canadian-Italian added.
