Kimi Raikkonen is a Ferrari icon. Having made them win their last drivers’ championship in 2007, the Finnish race driver was a reliable lieutenant for the Prancing horses.
Raikkonen had represented Ferrari twice in his career. His second stint came in 2014 before he signed for Alfa Romeo in 2019 and eventually retired after the 2021 season.
The Iceman couldn’t achieve the aspirations of Ferrari beating Mercedes for the championship. But with Sebastian Vettel, they had a formidable partnership until he was replaced by the young and dynamic Charles Leclerc.
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Kimi Raikkonen was needed for another season
The recent article released by Formu1a.uno reveals that former Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene wanted Raikkonen to stay for another year.
The Italian was even ready to push Leclerc’s promotion to Ferrari for Raikkonen to continue in 2019. But in the end, Ferrari signed Leclerc, and by the end of his first year with the team, he was given the longest contract in the history of the F1 team.
Meanwhile, Arrivabene’s stint in Ferrari was short-lived after Leclerc arrived. He was removed as the team principal because he failed to win the 2018 championship despite having the fastest car for a considerable part of the season.
Ferrari laid a solid foundation with Charles Leclerc
Leclerc then had two season-long partnerships with Vettel. After that, Ferrari took a tough decision to part ways with the four-time world champion and replace him with Carlos Sainz, regarded highly by the outgoing team principal Mattia Binotto.
The decision to bring Sainz is proving right, as Ferrari currently has one of the strongest drivers pair in the paddock. The duo even fought for the championship in 2022 but quickly lost the contest against Red Bull.
Car reliability and questionable strategies are blamed for losing the title so easily. Binotto is paying the price for that, as he has already handed his resignation to Ferrari. Now, Ferrari has to find his replacement before the start of the new season.
Apart from that, Ferrari will also have to look for a technical director, as Binotto was handling both posts. It’s a really short window to find people for both posts as technical directors are forced to take a huge gardening leave once they leave their previous teams.
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