Speculation over who will drive for Scuderia Ferrari next season is expected to come to an end at Monza next month, where the team is expected to confirm its driver lineup for next season during the Italian Grand Prix. And when it does, it looks like both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will be staying on board.
“They are great together so it would be a risk to change the game now,” Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne reportedly told the press in Hungary last weekend. “Let’s see if we can keep them for 2018. I think they want to stay. We should be able to announce our drivers at Monza. Nothing is signed yet but we are talking to the drivers and the agreement may be close.”
The sticking points are different for each of the two drivers – former world champions both. For Vettel, word has it that he had some manner of early agreement signed with Mercedes that precluded him from negotiating before the end of July. But with Ferrari’s performance improving, he’s at least as likely to stay in red as switch to silver.
Meanwhile, team principal Maurizio Arrivabene had expressed misgivings about Raikkonen’s willingness to take one for the team, but both Arrivabene and Marchionne were apparently impressed with Kimi’s spirit in Hungary. “Do not forget that he is the last Ferrari world champion and today he showed that,” Arrivabene said. “Only a champion like him could defend his teammate like a Viking, with no tricks and no deception.” Marchionne said that “he was great,” adding, “We are a single team at Maranello, all working together.”
If signed, 2018 would be Raikkonen’s fifth consecutive season with Ferrari, and his eighth overall, having previously driven for the team between 2007 (when he won the team’s last drivers’ championship) and 2009 (when he left to make room for Fernando Alonso). Nearing 38 years, Kimi’s now the oldest driver on the grid – eight years older than his four-time champ teammate Vettel.
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