It wouldn’t have escaped the notice of fans that in Hungary the Ferrari bosses were present to watch their man Vettel take victory in Hungary last weekend.
The team were said to have joked that it’s usually a bad omen if Marchionne and Co. arrive to watch a race as things will often go wrong but this time the stars aligned and Kimi was kept on a strategy that would ensure Vettel took the checkered flag. Raikkonen was pitted immediately after Vettel despite having pace to stay out on track but Ferrari were keen not to allow a possible ‘over-cut’ occur and the Finnish driver pass the championship leader out of the pits. Stark contrast to the Mercedes stance on team mate equality.
It should come as no surprise that Vettel will be driving for the red team in 2018 as Ferrari have openly admitted that ‘its up to Vettel’ to sign as the championship leader is out of contract at the end of the year. In turn, Vettel appears to be in the right team at the right time as 2017 is proving to the competition that Ferrari have finally got their act together.
“I made it very clear that if he wants to stay then we´ll just renew it. It´s up to him,” Marchionne told reporters before the race at Red Bull Ring in July and indeed it was rumoured that the Italian squad had offered an eye watering sum of money to keep Vettel at Maranello.
Sebastian wants Kimi next to him in 2018 and after achieving a 1 – 2 in Hungary with a compliant no.2 driver and in Raikkonen proven, it is understood within the paddock that we will see both drivers race for Ferrari next year. Indeed, according to the German paper BILD, Vettel is set to sign a new contract by Monza in September after the summer break.
Marchionne told Sky Sports reporters on Sunday that “Kimi and Sebastian fit together great. I think they want to stay, and we want to keep them. “.
With Ferrari producing a winning car and the technical people in place to keep it winning, there’s no reason for Vettel to leave and keeping Raikkonen for another year makes sense.
A lot of commentators have said that Raikkonen was key to this years driver market. Now that that seems settled, it will be interesting to see who, if anyone, actually moves.
It’s looking increasingly clear that Alonso is going to stay at McLaren and the only two seats of any value that will be available will be at Renault and Williams. Wehrlein out at Sauber replaced by Leclerc and maybe Kyvat out at Toro Rosso replaced by Gasly.
For once Kimi managed to outqualify and outscore the Mercedes duo. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened often thus no way Ferrari wins a constructors crown while he is their number two driver unless they produce a car with an F2004 like advantage. My thought was that this would be his final year and either move on to a lesser team or retire.
Shame as this pretty much ensures a pretty stale driver market for next season. Verstappen will remain at Red Bull and Alonso at McLaren Honda or possibly switch to Indy Car should the engines remain uncompetitive. More likely a Renault deal will be done thus Alonso stays and Honda marries or acquires Toro Rosso.
Ferrari want the drivers WC, if they also get the constructors WC fine, but its the drivers WC they want and Raikkonen is doing exactly what they want. And there’s no way Alonso goes to IndyCar – the Indy 500 maybe, but full time in Indy Car – never. Other than the 500 its a minor, some would say Mickey Mouse, series.
As for McLaren, I bet they stick with Honda. And Honda got burned once before owning a team, very unlikely they by Toro Rosso.
My brief is that they want the constructor’s championship first, but they will settle for the driver’s championship.
With this premises, there was no rational for artificially promoting Kimi.
If Toro Rosso got Honda engines to give Red Bull another option for the future, what happens if Honda gets their act together and TRH can beat RBR?
(Still think Williams should go for Honda.)
The same thing that happened in 2008, except it’d be Sainz doing the winning instead of Vettel
it’s amazing how Ferrari don’t care about WCC – the one which should be their main marketing asset
I don’t think Ferrari care as much about the WCC as its the teams that care about the WCC because of the FOM payments. Ferrari get their extra bonus Ferrari money so it doesn’t make as much difference if they are first or second as it does to other teams.
And as for the marketing, other than the hardcore fans, no one knows who won the WCC, its all about the WDC.
How do you rationalize Ferrari not caring about the WCC based on Hungary?
What has Hungary changed? Raikkonen should be at P2 constantly – not once or twice a year. I’ve been promised before every season since his return in 2014 that we are going to see real Kimi back. Ok – maybe in 2018 then? If Ferrari did care about WDC they would have hired at least somebody like Bottas – simple guy who just delivers when it’s needed