Ferrari devise contingency plan to keep Raikkonen for 1 more year, reports Auto Bild

The Kimi Raikkonen-Ferrari saga has been the talk of the town ever since Kimi produced that historic lap at Monza to secure pole position.

With the Italian GP being Ferrari’s home race, there has been an air of expectancy around the paddock with respect to an announcement about the Ferrari lineup for 2019.

Leclerc to Ferrari rumours have been hanging around for quite sometime now and the recent reports state that Leclerc already had a pre-agreement with Ferrari, one that was signed during Sergio Marchionne’s time as Ferrari CEO.

Now, the current Ferrari management want to keep Raikkonen for one more year, considering his strong performances from this season.

However, the contract/agreement made between Leclerc, Sauber and Ferrari will need to be honoured and thus Ferrari find themselves in a massive fix.

The recent news from the paddock suggests that John Elkann, the Ferrari chairman has meet with Vassuer. And Ferrari’s lawyer has been in the paddock since Friday, an occurrence that happens only during contract negotiations.

Thus, it seems like Leclerc to Ferrari currently is a done deal with Raikkonen set to bow out.

John Elkann en Sauber por segunda vez, reunido con Vasseur. Y el abogado de la escudería que lleva aquí desde el viernes sólo aparece en la firma de contratos. Puedo decir que Charles Leclerc sabe dónde competirá la próxima temporada y está “contento no, extremadamente contento”.

— Noemí de Miguel (@Noemidemiguel) September 2, 2018

However, the new Ferrari management is devising a contingency strategy, one that could make Leclerc wait for another year, by compensating him for the same.

Räikkönen not yet completely out. Ferrari thinks about paying Leclerc a compensation to keep Kimi one more year… https://t.co/hoWr1dzZiv

— Bianca Garloff 🏁 (@bgarloff) September 2, 2018