Even though Sergio Marchionne said Kimi Raikkonen had to earn his place at Ferrari, it was his call that triggered the Italian car manufacturer to strike a new deal with the Finn.
Ferrari recently confirmed that its driver line-up for the 2017 racing season will still consist of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, putting an end to months of speculations regarding who will take the Iceman’s place at Scuderia.
As it turns out, Ferrari’s main concern over this season’s performance was the car, and never the drivers, as team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has revealed to Motorsport:
“We confirmed Kimi because first of all he deserves it. […] The interest of the team was not looking for another driver but concentrating on car development. We have two good drivers so that was not an issue for us, so we remove all the pressure from the shoulders of Kimi in taking this decision. That actually was confirmed in a phone call from the president, and a couple of hours [later] we are with Kimi. We turn the page and we look forward to work very hard where the problem is.”
More so as the chemistry between the two World-Champions driving for Ferrari isn’t as tense as their rivals’ (yes, we’re talking about Mercedes), as Arrivabene continued:
“We needed a kind of good atmosphere in the team and the drivers could help to keep this atmosphere and due to the fact that the team is still quite new and we need to keep the same commitment for everybody without inserting into the team elements that they can disturb or something new that could break this balance.”
Ferrari would’ve normally announced the new driver line-up in September, at Monza, but pressure from the media forced the Maranello-based team to act more promptly, putting an end to speculators and sending “a message of stability” within the team.
“He was asked to show his commitment, his results, so he deserved the confirmation for next year”, said Arrivabene.
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