If Kimi Raikkonen wants to continue driving in Formula 1 for Ferrari, he’s going to have to show that he deserves it. And that’s quoting chairman and chief executive Sergio Marchionne.
“We are under no illusion with Kimi, his stay depends on the way he races,” Marchionne told La Gazzetta dello Sport, according to Autosport, calling on the Finnish pilot to drive “like the world champion he is.”
Though highly rated for his driving skills, Raikkonen’s F1 career has been a bit of a roller-coaster. He hit the grid in 2001 with Sauber armed with little experience. He then switched to McLaren, finishing second in the standings the following year and again two years after that. He switched to Ferrari in 2007 and immediately won the world championship, but from there things have dropped off.
Despite his world title, Ferrari showed him the door after 2008, upon which Kimi left F1 and tried his hand at the World Rally Championship and in NASCAR. He returned in 2012 with Lotus, then back to Ferrari in 2014, and has been with the Italian team ever since. He hasn’t won a grand prix in the past three years now and has been consistently outscored by his teammates, first Fernando Alonso and now Sebastian Vettel – multiple world champions each.
The Scuderia is currently ranked second in the constructors’ standings for the second year running. Kimi sits in fourth place in the drivers’ standings, behind Vettel and the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. But on the one occasion when Mercedes didn’t win, it was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who took the checkered flag, not Ferrari.
The message Marchionne is putting out to Raikkonen is clear: either pick up the pace and start winning races, or else Ferrari will find another driver.
PHOTOS
