Lotus expects Kimi Raikkonen to stay on in 2013 in spite of Ferrari rumours
Lotus expects Kimi Raikkonen to commit himself to another year with the team, despite the Finn being linked with Ferrari
It emerged over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend that Raikkonen is on the list of contenders at Ferrari if the team elects to replace Felipe Massa in 2013, despite a strained relationship between the 2007 world champion and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.
Neither Raikkonen nor Ferrari moved to totally dismiss the idea at the Hungaroring, but Lotus team principal Eric Boullier says he is not worried because he sees no better option for his driver than staying where he is.
"It is nice that Ferrari is in the newspapers, but I don't know that Kimi has plans to go back to Ferrari," explained Boullier, who saw Raikkonen challenge for victory at the Hungaroring.
When asked if he expected to keep both Raikkonen and team-mate Romain Grosjean next year, Boullier said: "Definitely. There is no reason for them to leave."
Ferrari insists it is still happy to bide its time over choosing its second driver for 2012, even though that may mean losing an outside chance it could have of luring Raikkonen away.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali said: "Kimi was a world champion with us and I saw the speculation in the media but nothing more than that.
"I can confirm what I said to you last week; basically we are not in a rush to make a decision or announce anything because we want to take our time.
"We are aligned with Felipe and we want to protect him, and it is important for this championship. So there is nothing new to report."
When asked to categorically rule out interest in either Raikkonen or Jenson Button, who was linked with the team in reports in the Italian media, Domenicali said: "There is no rush on our decision and no information I can give you now, but I think the drivers you mentioned have contracts with other teams and we are not in a rush."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
What Aston Martin’s curfew burn told us about its F1 upgrade trajectory
Newey: F1’s grid to close up even more before being ‘blown apart’ in 2026
The ironic reason Newey thinks Red Bull hasn't been caught in F1 yet
The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari
The many surprise driver cameos of the 2023 NASCAR Cup season
Raikkonen "got unlucky" with COTA chaos on NASCAR return
Hamilton needs talk with Wolff to prepare Ferrari F1 move
What's been going wrong for Leclerc in F1's tiny margins qualifying game
How Ferrari has kept itself in the F1 hunt despite no major upgrades
Porsche lodges appeal over da Costa's Misano Formula E disqualification
2024 MotoGP world championship standings after the Americas GP
What Aston Martin’s curfew burn told us about its F1 upgrade trajectory
Tank Slappers Podcast: MotoGP Americas GP review
What's been going wrong for Leclerc in F1's tiny margins qualifying game
What the Chinese GP's highlights reveal about its first F1 race for five years
The secrets of F1 turbocharging explained
Why Alpine’s rigorous training camp yields telling insights into its juniors
Subscribe and access Autosport.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.
Top Comments