Formula 1: Kimi Raikkonen as close to Sebastian Vettel at Alfa Romeo as at Ferrari

By Asher Fair | Apr 5, 2019

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 29: Kimi Raikkonen of Finland driving the (7) Alfa Romeo Racing C38 Ferrari (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /

Kimi Raikkonen is as close to Sebastian Vettel in the Formula 1 driver standings driving for Alfa Romeo Racing as he ever was driving for Scuderia Ferrari, and it wouldn’t be shocking if it stayed that way.

Scuderia Ferrari signed four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel to replace two-time champion Fernando Alonso as the teammate to 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen ahead of the 2015 season. Raikkonen ended up being replaced by Charles Leclerc ahead of the 2019 season.

In the four-year stint from the 2015 season through the 2018 season during which Vettel and Raikkonen were teammates, Vettel was clearly the prioritized driver of the Scuderia.

Overall, it would be unfair to say that the 31-year-old German was not better than the 39-year-old Finn as well, but the priority that the Italian team placed on him was a huge reason why he earned 13 victories and took 10 pole positions while Raikkonen earned only one victory and took only two pole positions during these four seasons.

More from Formula One

From the 2015 season through the 2018 season, Vettel and Raikkonen finished either one position or two positions away from one another in the driver standings, with Vettel finishing ahead of his teammate in each of these four seasons.

In the 2015 driver standings, Vettel finished in third place while Raikkonen finished in fourth. In the 2016 standings, Vettel finished in fourth while Raikkonen finished in sixth. Vettel finished in second in the 2017 standings while Raikkonen finished in fourth, and he finished in second with Raikkonen behind him in third in the 2018 standings.

After being replaced by Leclerc at Ferrari, Raikkonen landed at Alfa Romeo Sauber, the team for which Leclerc drove in the 2018 season. This past offseason, the team were renamed Alfa Romeo Racing.

As Sauber, the Swiss team had not finished in the top five in the constructor standings since the 2008 season when they finished in third place. None of their drivers had finished in the top six in the driver standings since the 2008 season when Nick Heidfeld finished in sixth.

Through the 2019 season’s first two races, Alfa Romeo Racing sit in fourth place in the constructor standings, and they trail only Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, the three teams that have combined to win each of the last 120 races going back to early in the 2013 season, in first, second and third, respectively.

Raikkonen currently sits in sixth place in the driver standings behind only five of the six Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing drivers after finishing in eighth place in the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, and seventh in the season’s second race, the Bahrain Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Vettel sits just one position ahead of Raikkonen in fifth after finishing these two races in fourth and fifth, respectively.

So despite the fact that he was Ferrari’s top driver for four consecutive seasons as Raikkonen’s teammate, Vettel, who still drives for the Prancing Horse, sits only one position ahead of Raikkonen in the driver standings even after Raikkonen made the switch to an inferior team.

It’s almost as though the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Of course, only two of the 21 races on this year’s schedule have been completed, and Vettel has earned 22 points so far this season while Raikkonen has only earned 10, but the irony of this statistic is off the charts, especially since Raikkonen actually does, in fact, look like the clear “best of the rest” driver at this point, meaning that there is a chance it actually might not change.

Another thing pointing to the idea that it may not change is the fact that Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly, the only one of the six Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing drivers who is not in the top six (or top five) in the driver standings, has struggled to open up his first season driving for the Milton Keynes-based team.

The 23-year-old Frenchman currently sits in 10th place in the driver standings with a top finish of eighth in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and there have already been rumors that he will be replaced before the 2019 season reaches its conclusion.

Next. Top 10 Formula 1 drivers of all-time. dark

When the 2019 Formula 1 season comes to an end, how far apart will former Ferrari teammates Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen be from each other in the driver standings? After finishing their four seasons as Ferrari teammates with Vettel either one or two positions ahead of Raikkonen, will this trend continue even with Raikkonen now driving for Alfa Romeo Racing?

Home/Formula One