Formula 1's Latest Rumours and Talk: Kimi Raikkonen, Stoffel Vandoorne, More
Ferrari will retain Kimi Raikkonen alongside Sebastian Vettel for the 2016 season. The team's announcement on Wednesday ended months of speculation over the Finn's Formula One future—but it'll all kick off again this time next year.
The likes of Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo may have missed out this time around, but Raikkonen's contract extension is for only one year. Every season in recent memory has seen months of rumour regarding the identity of the following year's Ferrari drivers—2016 will be no exception.
As Raikkonen celebrates keeping his seat, Fernando Alonso has revealed he wishes he'd left Ferrari sooner. The Spaniard feels he should have gone "years" earlier, once it became clear the Scuderia were not making any progress back toward the front of the field.
Elsewhere, Daniel Ricciardo is confident his excellent displays in 2014 will not be forgotten, Stoffel Vandoorne says taking the GP2 title would prove he is ready for F1 and Valtteri Bottas is focusing on his immediate future at Williams.
Read on for a full roundup of the top stories from the last few days.
Kimi Raikkonen Retained at Ferrari for 2016
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Ferrari have announced that Kimi Raikkonen will continue to race for them in 2016, ending months of speculation over his future.
Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo were among the names mentioned as possible replacements—and in late July, Corriere dello Sport (h/t Sky Sports) claimed a deal had been done for Bottas to replace his fellow Finn.
But such speculation can now be put to bed after the announcement on the Ferrari website on Wednesday. Raikkonen, who will continue to partner Sebastian Vettel at the Scuderia, 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.
"
Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene also weighed in, 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.
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Ferrari's decision to stick with Raikkonen despite his poor form over the last two years is not overly surprising. Underperforming No. 2 drivers do not appear to be a problem at Ferrari, as Felipe Massa's long tenure with the team proves.
The good relationship between Vettel and Raikkonen will, as Arrivabene said, also have been a factor—it would certainly be in Ferrari's interests to keep their No. 1 driver happy.
But the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson says money may have also played a part, reporting a rumour that the £10 million Williams were demanding to release Bottas from his contract was too high for Ferrari's liking.
No mention of 2017 was made in the announcement. Raikkonen will be 37 at the end of next season, and unless he suddenly starts beating Vettel, it's unlikely he will want to continue any further—even if Ferrari want him to.
So the likes of Bottas, Ricciardo, Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen—mentioned by many, including Autosport's Dieter Rencken, as a potential Raikkonen replacement—can look forward to another rumour-filled summer in 2016.
Daniel Ricciardo Confident the Formula 1 World Won't Forget Him
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Daniel Ricciardo feels his stock in the sport remains high despite a disappointing first half of the 2015 season.
His Red Bull team, struggling with their uncompetitive Renault engine, have been unable to stop rivals Ferrari and Williams leaping ahead in the running order. Ricciardo's third place at the Hungarian Grand Prix in late July was his first visit to the podium of the year; this time last season, he had two race wins and three further podium finishes to his name.
As Ricciardo has toiled, a new generation of rising stars, including Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen, have been receiving the plaudits—but the Australian insists those whose opinion matters will not forget his performances in 2014.
Speaking to Autosport, he said:
"I know last year wasn't a fluke. If I'd just won one race and only beat Seb a handful of times I'd say 'OK maybe I got lucky here and there'.
But the consistency of my performance last year has definitely given me all the confidence in myself that I need. In a way, the more recent your success is, the more people will remember it.
But what I did last year is still carrying me through this year, so even if this year goes bad I'm sure there would still be interest in me after this year. Maybe if next year is not great either, then maybe some people will start to forget.
That said, the people that understand the sport, pretty much all the big people in the sport, I'm sure they know a good driver when they see one. I proved that last year and that will at least carry me through for a few years and then by that stage I'm sure we'll have a competitive machine again.
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Ricciardo was tipped to struggle against Vettel when he was promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull for 2014, but he surprised the world by outqualifying his illustrious team-mate 12 times in 19 races. He finished ahead 11 times and was third in the drivers' championship on 238 points; Vettel was fifth with 167.
His performances earned him the Laureus award for Breakthrough of the Year and elevated him into—or at least, moved him close to—the select group of drivers considered the best on the grid.
Those who make the big decisions certainly won't forget how good he was—and still is.
But there's a very real danger that, if Ricciardo continues to struggle, they'll decide some of the new young pretenders look even better.
Stoffel Vandoorne: GP2 Title Would Mean I'm Ready for Formula 1
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McLaren-backed youngster Stoffel Vandoorne believes he will have proved he is ready for a promotion to Formula One if he wins the 2015 GP2 title.
With six of the 11 race meetings behind him, the Belgian has a commanding lead in the feeder series, with 194 points to his nearest rival's 109. He looks likely to wrap up the title with races to spare and told Sky Sports News HQ:
"Winning GP2 would prove I'm ready for Formula 1 and then we will see where I end up.
Nothing is decided for next year, I am still focusing very much on GP2 and trying to win that title. I do have regular talks with Ron [Dennis] and Eric [Boullier] about my future, but nothing is decided yet.
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Vandoorne is among the brightest prospects to have come through the junior ranks in the last decade. He won his first-ever GP2 race and finished second in the championship in his debut year.
His second season, 2015, has seen him dominate proceedings.
Recent history suggests the GP2 champion is far from guaranteed a step up to the big time—none of the last three title winners have yet made the step up, and realistically, none of them look likely to do so.
Davide Valsecchi, champion in 2012, only won the title at his fifth attempt after four relatively unsuccessful seasons. 2013 champ Fabio Leimer won in his fourth season, having won only two races in the previous three.
And Jolyon Palmer had never beaten a team-mate in the series before taking the crown at his fourth attempt in 2014.
But Vandoorne is a different prospect entirely. He showed enough quality in his first season of GP2 to prove he was ready to step up to F1; had McLaren possessed a Toro Rosso-style junior team, or even a strong link to a smaller outfit, he would certainly have done so.
He's now 23, relatively ancient for an F1 rookie in the modern era. He's already being wasted down in GP2—a race seat at the highest level is his only option for 2016.
Fernando Alonso Believes He Should Have Left Ferrari Sooner
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As Kimi Raikkonen celebrates hanging onto Ferrari his seat, his former team-mate Fernando Alonso has revealed he wishes he'd left the Scuderia sooner.
Asked by CNN's The Circuit whether he should have departed before the end of 2014, he replied:
"Probably, yes. The car was not competitive at all and things were getting more and more sad. So probably one or two years less was the best thing, but you know we tried to do our best and we fought until the end of every single race.
After five years in Ferrari, being second all the time, I think it was enough for me.
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He went on to indicate he was still content with the decision to move to McLaren, adding:
"I didn't want to give up and I wanted always to keep believing that it was possible and to keep the dream alive [at Ferrari].
Last year I realized that with the Mercedes domination it was not possible to win for Ferrari in the short term and a new project was the best idea. McLaren was a risky project because they were completely new, but we are one team—we win and we lose together.
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There's no saying where Alonso's career would be now had he left Ferrari at, let's say, the end of 2012.
Maybe he'd be in a Mercedes, closing in on his fourth world title. Or he might be staring enviously at the rear of a W06 from the cockpit of a Red Bull, a Williams or even a Lotus, dreaming of what might have been.
In the short term, his switch to Woking looks like a dreadful decision, but the 2015 Ferrari is no more a title-winning car than the 2015 McLaren.
Alonso wants to win championships—though one is clearly more competitive than the other, neither the SF15-T nor the MP4-30 would allow him to truly fight for the title on pace alone.
So he's unlikely to be regretting his decision just yet—but if Ferrari produce a world-beater for 2016, his tune might change.
Valtteri Bottas Discussing Future Options with Williams
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Valtteri Bottas will continue discussions over a longer-term deal with Williams now the Ferrari door has closed for the time being.
The Finn had been strongly tipped to replace countryman Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian team; however, the Scuderia announced on Wednesday that Raikkonen would be retained for 2016.
Bottas' attention must now turn to his immediate future at the Williams team. Speaking to Autosport, his manager Didier Coton said:
"Ferrari has made a decision, and that's fine, but for us it doesn't change things. Why would it?
I've said many times it was nothing to do with us because Maurizio [Arrivabene, Ferrari team principal] has been very clear in the past. He often said he wanted to assess the situation with Kimi, and when he had done that he would make a decision, and now he has made a decision.
From my side we have also been very clear that the team [Williams] has an option on Valtteri, which is no big secret. The discussions on that with Williams started a long time ago. We didn't wait for all these rumours to start doing our job.
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With Ferrari not an option for next season and the other top teams seemingly without a vacancy, staying at Williams is the best option for the highly rated Bottas.
But without manufacturer support or a huge injection of money from somewhere, the Grove-based team is not going to transform into a title-challenging outfit.
If he wants to fight for wins and championships, Bottas will have to move elsewhere, and that seat at Ferrari is almost certain to come up once again at the end of 2016.
He will not want to be in a situation where he would need to be bought out of a long-term deal—so unless cheap escape clauses are on the table, he's unlikely to want to tie himself down to Williams beyond the end of next season.
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