Breaking news

Formula 1

Raikkonen: Decision to stay at Alfa "not difficult"

Kimi Raikkonen says his decision to extend his Formula 1 career with Alfa Romeo in 2021 was "not difficult."

Adam Cooper

Edited: Oct 30, 2020, 3:30 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, in a Press Conference

On Friday morning the Hinwil outfit announced that both Raikkonen and teammate Antonio Giovinazzi will stay on for a third season together.

In recent weeks the Finn has fielded regular questions about his future by insisting that he had yet to make his mind up, suggesting that the decision to stay was his to make, despite others – notably Sergio Perez – apparently being in contention for the seat.

"No, I don't think it was difficult," said Raikkonen. "But there's nothing to confirm before we sign the contract. We signed it yesterday, basically. You keep asking always about the future. But if we haven't signed anything, I wouldn't start lying.

"So I don't think it was difficult. Obviously there's many aspects from the team side, what they want to do, what I want to do, and obviously there's other things in our life that you need to look into also.

"But in the end it made sense from my side, and also for their side. And once we started to, let's say, talk about it, it wasn't such a long process. So that was quite straightforward."

Read Also:

Asked about his ambitions for 2021 Raikkonen said: "Hopefully do a lot better than this year. Obviously, as a team, none of us are happy where we are, but unfortunately this is the situation right now.

"And you know, the aim is to improve and be a lot better off. But there's no guarantee on anything. So we have to just do a better job overall. And hopefully, next year, we'll be a bit happier with things, and be where we expect to be."

Team boss Fred Vasseur did not deny that he had talked to other drivers.

"You are always in contact with everybody," said the Frenchman. "If a team principal is telling you that he's not in contact with the other drivers, he's bullshitting!

"Kimi is part of the team, we have a close relationship together. Even if the decision was not easy, it's always also in this kind of situation that we are building up something. And it was the normal way for us to continue together, and I'm very happy with the decision, and the future for the team."

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Perez 'cannot wait too long' for Red Bull decision

Next article Norris expands on Hamilton apology after "careless" comments

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

1 h

Franco Colapinto urges fans to stop the abuse: “You’re not helping me or my future”

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Indonesian GP

1 h

Gresini: New MotoGP rules won't increase gap between factory and satellite teams

Tristan McKee joins JR Motorsports in 2027 with future plans for full-time ride

NASCAR O'Reilly

NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly

Phoenix II

1 h

Tristan McKee joins JR Motorsports in 2027 with future plans for full-time ride

Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux

FIA F2

F2 FIA F2 2 h

Colton Herta eyes potential Indy 500 return and IMSA enduros as 2027 plans remain in flux

Feature

Discover prime content

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Laurent Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Christian Horner?

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts