08/07/2016
NEWS STORY
Ahead of his 100th GP with the Scuderia, Ferrari has confirmed Kimi Raikkonen for 2017.
A brief statement issued ahead of this morning's opening session at Silverstone read:
"Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has renewed its technical and racing agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The driver line-up for the 2017 racing season will still consist of the Finnish driver and Sebastian Vettel."
Only yesterday, the Finn, who said Ferrari would be his last ever F1 team, insisted he remains as motivated as ever.
"I have always said that I would not be here if I didn't enjoy it or felt that I can't drive, or do it 100 percent," he told reporters. "That hasn't changed. If I wasn't motivated, I wouldn't be here wasting my own time or the team's time.
"I feel I drive as well as I've ever driven," he continued. "If I didn't feel like I'm driving well, I would be the first one to go away and not do it, but it's not that.
"I obviously enjoy it more when the results are better," he admitted, "but that doesn't mean that you drive better than you drove before. It's just that the whole package is better around you and we do a better job improving the package.
"This is my 100th race with Ferrari, it doesn't sound like a lot but it's quite a few years. This is the best team in F1, together we won a title in 2007, we had good years and some difficult ones. I'm really happy to be part of Ferrari, the atmosphere is fantastic, we are always pushing each other forward and hopefully we'll get the team back where it belongs.
"I always said that my last team would be Ferrari and it's still like that. What happens in the future I don't know, time will tell, but I usually don't make plans for a very long future."
Lo and behold, just 12 hours later...
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