Boullier on Raikkonen: time to move on

With so much talk about Kimi Raikkonen during the past two weeks, the third place in the Singapore Grand Prix shows he is a real professional.

He is here to race and will never give up, which is all the more impressive considering the discomfort he was in with his back. There is no doubt he will keep working hard in his final six races for our team.

Of course, I am disappointed that we cannot continue this incredible story with Kimi and Lotus into 2014 to build on the past two years, but unfortunately it is not possible. We could not deliver on time what he expected from us both technically and financially. Because of the timing, he was cornered and had to take a decision to go to Ferrari.

He wanted to stay here to enjoy his next two years in F1 but I completely understand his decision. After all, this is Ferrari he will be driving for.

But the most important thing for me is that there is life after Kimi for us. We are still working very hard to build towards what we want to achieve here, which is to get stronger technically and financially and continue to be a top team.

When it comes to drivers, we are not simply looking for a short-term replacement for Kimi. We are looking at where we are going to be in the next five years. We can afford to be patient, to ask the candidates to wait as we make our strategy for the coming years. And I hope not to have to take into account commercial considerations in making the driver choice because we have worked hard to build our financial strength and not have to rely on sponsorship from the driver.

With Kimi leaving the team, Romain Grosjean knows he has the possibility to build up the team more around himself. If you look at the past five races, he has done a great job. Everybody has noticed that, since Germany, he has clearly 'switched on'.

In every race, you can see the highs. Whether fighting for the podium or struggling, Romain has clearly been matching Kimi's performance.

Singapore podium shows Raikkonen is still committed, says Boullier © LAT

The Grosjean of the last two months is the one we all believed he would become and I hope he keeps improving. If he continues in this way, it means he is on it and delivering, which is positive for 2014.

My vision for the future of the team is positive. We need to finalise the finance deal with Infinity Racing and we are now 98 per cent done.

If we can go the last two per cent, this team is not only going to be financially secure, but one or two steps up in terms of revenue. This opens the door for us to rebuild the confidence of Enstone because we have had some difficult times in these last weeks.

The time is right for us to move into the second stage of the team project. The first was to build the team up to where we are now and to create the platform and the second is to improve on that.

Over the past three years, with all the stories about finances, there have been many misunderstandings from the outside about what Genii Capital wants to achieve with the team.

It's true we have had some hard times, but this deal is going to allow the team to become stronger. The next thing we need to do is make sure our engine partner, Renault, can work with us closely. On the technical side, it is true we have lost a few valuable people, but this it not a 'brain drain'. We never publicise the people we are hiring, after all!

For the short-term, the podium in Singapore builds confidence in our car. When you have two bad weekends, like we did in Montreal and Silverstone, or Spa and Monza, you can start to question yourself. But the Singapore performance is positive for the team and shows all the effort being put in.

We should be capable of fighting for the podium every weekend to the end of the season and we also have the long-wheelbase car for Korea. That will be a big help for 2014 as well.

The target is clear. We have a five-year plan and the agenda is to be a top team. Now that the situation with Kimi is resolved, we can still move on with this plan.