Ferrari has confirmed that it has re-signed Kimi Raikkonen for the 2016 Formula One season. This comes on the back of speculation that Raikkonen would lose his Ferrari drive to fellow Finnish racer, Valtteri Bottas.
Discussing his extended contract, Raikkonen said “What can I say. For me, to be able to stay another year at Ferrari means that the dream goes on. The Scuderia is my family, as I always said, it’s here I want to end my career. I am more committed than ever and I want to say thank you to the people who gave me this chance. Also, a big thank you goes to all my Ferrari fans, for their continuous support”.
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivebene expanded on this by saying “We believe that extending Kimi’s contract into the next season will provide further stability to the team. This has been our guideline, also considering the very good relationship between Kimi and Seb. On our side, this shows our great confidence in him, and I expect this confidence to be well rewarded”.
This year, new Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has outperformed his Finnish teammate with two victories and a total of seven podium finishes under his belt. By comparison, Raikkonen has only scored one podium place.
