Kimi Raikkonen in the Sauber? Why not? / Formula 1 SPEEDWEEK

Formula One

By Adam Cooper – 20.07.2018 20:15

Kimi Räikkönen was recently able to rejoice through the paddock, returning to this racing team where he won his first GP Career started – too Sauber. The director of the team, Fred Vasser, says, "Why not?"

In the autumn of his career, Kimi Raikkonen is a coveted man. Sebastian Vettel makes himself strong at Ferrari for the fact that the Finn receives a new contract for one year. McLaren puts himself in a position to bring back Kimi – in the event that Fernando Alonso is tired of Formula 1. Nobody can imagine a driving duo from Lando Norris and Stoffel Vandoorne. Then he circulated: If Ferrari brings the young Megane Charles Leclerc to Maranello, he comes to the place of change; Leclerc from Sauber to Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen from Ferrari to Sauber. Kimi himself has changed for a long time: "The team knows what I want." It's obvious that the 2007 World Champion would prefer to sit in a Ferrari next season than in a Sauber. But what does Sauber's team leader, Fred Vasseur, say about all this?

Asked about Vasseur to know if a world champion in a team was going to raise his expectations, the Frenchman smiled: "It would be a real luxury problem.I always said – I want to have the best drivers possible in the car I prefer, I have a champion in the car as a failure.For me, only the performance of the race team is important. "

The fact that Kimi began his career with the Swiss team is not important to Vasseur. "This should not matter in the choice of driver. In addition, my relationship with pilots who have already piloted in lower categories for us, should not count. "

The logical successor of Charles Leclerc from Ferrari's point of view, the other young driver, the Italian Antonio Giovinazzi .The third Ferrari man was sitting here in Hockenheim in free training Friday at the Sauber Vasseur continues: "It's nice to see how Antonio involves it. Of course, he is on our list. We will do more first training together, so that we can learn more about his abilities. We did the same thing with Charles Leclerc last year, which I think is a good start for a partnership. "

There is talk of Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne, thanks to the close alliance between the Fiat group and Sauber having his say on one of the two places." Vasseur relativises this: "We are going negotiate with Ferrari. It is not anyone who is entitled to anything. It is a discussion. This is not like there was a list for one car and another for the second. For the Alfa Romeo partner, the focus is on performance. And we can do it better if we use the best duo of drivers possible.