Back in June, Sergio Marchionne said that if Kimi Raikkonen wants to continue driving in Formula 1 for Ferrari, he’ll have to show that he deserves the spot.
“We are under no illusion with Kimi, his stay depends on the way he races”, Marchionne said at the time to Gazzetta dello Sport. Well, it seems that the Finnish driver must have done something right, because Scuderia Ferrari just announced that it has renewed its technical and racing agreement with Raikkonen.
It’s official then that the driver line-up for the 2017 racing season will still consist of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. The announcement ends months of speculation over who will replace the Iceman at Ferrari.
The new contract marks the 6th year Kimi will drive for the Italian team, as he raced at Ferrari from 2007 to 2009, prior to his hiatus from Formula 1, becoming World Champion in his first year with the Scuderia.
According to Motorsport, Kimi says he is as capable and competitive as ever, even though his performance throughout the 2016 season was decent, scoring four podiums:
“If I wasn’t motivated, I wouldn’t be here wasting my own time or the team’s time. I’ve always said, nearly 10 years ago, that my last team would be Ferrari and it’s still like that. What happens in the future I don’t know. Time will tell, but I usually don’t make plans for a very long future”, said the Finn.
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