Formula 1: Assessing Ferrari’s top 5 driver options for 2019
By Asher Fair
Kimi Raikkonen
While a lot of people believe that it is a done deal and Kimi Raikkonen will not be returning to Ferrari for the ninth season and sixth season in a row, Ferrari could very well end up giving him a fourth consecutive one-year deal.
After all, there were doubts that the 38-year-old Finn would even get a third consecutive one-year deal to remain with the team this season, yet that happened and here he is once again for his 16th season as a full-time Formula 1 driver, eighth season driving for Ferrari and fifth season in a row doing so.
Raikkonen is a team player, and Ferrari place a high value on that. Since the 2015 Formula 1 season when Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull Racing as a four-time champion to join Raikkonen at Ferrari, Vettel’s numbers are better than Raikkonen’s across the board. In fact, since returning to Ferrari in the 2014 season, Raikkonen has not won a race.
That said, Raikkonen is very consistent and typically brings the car home in one piece. He is the clear #2 driver at Ferrari behind Vettel, yet he still records solid finishes nearly every race and finds himself toward the top of the driver standings each season.
In fact, last season was Raikkonen’s best season driving for Ferrari since he finished in third place in the driver standings in the 2008 season. He finished in fourth in the standings last season with 205 points and seven podium finishes in 19 starts.
Sure, Raikkonen is 38 years old and there are younger drivers out there who Ferrari may want to replace him with. But if Ferrari’s situation as a whole isn’t broken, which it isn’t, should they really bother to try to fix it?