(Scuderia Ferrari SpA via Twitter)
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen has stated that he would welcome reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel to the Italian team if as expected he will be confirmed as a Ferrari driver alongside the Finn for next season with Fernando Alonso edging closer to a move to McLaren.
The four time world champion announced prior to today's qualifying session in Japan that he will be leaving Infiniti Red Bull Racing whilst the team confirmed that he will be replaced by Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat. When asked if he would be happy having Vettel joining him at Ferrari Raikkonen said:
'Yeah, for sure. Obviously I've never worked with him, we've been in different teams always but I know him probably best out of any of the others and we'll see what happens in the future. I read the same stuff and hear the same stuff so for me it's no issue.'
Speaking about his own situation at Ferrari, Raikkonen insisted that he is with the team to ensure that they are successful in the long term saying:
'I was here before, I won the championship, I won the constructors' championship twice. I went away, I came back only because I wanted to come back and not because of someone forcing me to be here.
It was my choice, if I wasn't in to the whole thing I wouldn't be sitting here. I can stop whenever I want. I can walk away today, or tomorrow or in ten years.'
Raikkonen has endured in a difficult return to Ferrari this season following two very successful season's with the Lotus F1 Team and feels that if Vettel does indeed join his at the Prancing Horse for next season he will be coming into a much stronger team. The Finn said:
'I have a big belief that we should be in a much, much better position at the start of next year. Obviously we will know more once we get the car on the circuit, but we made progress this year. If you compare where we started this has been pretty good progress.
We still have some difficulties to get where we want to be but I have pretty good belief that we can sort out those things for next year.'
Raikkonen is convinced that everything is in place for the team to move forward in the future and expects the team to be challenging or podium finishes and race victories once again next season.
Ferrari are in the middle of a transitional phase as the team have seen Stefano Domenicali leave along with Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemelo aswell as former Ferrari engine boss Luca Marmorini and with the expected departure of Fernando Alonso from the team at the end of the season the changes that have been and will continue to be put in place will take time to produce results.
The team have already seen a slight improvement in their on track performances. The Iceman himself commented this week saying that he feels that in recent race's he has managed to make improvements with the set up of his F14-T and that he hopes as a result of this he will start to have some strong results.
The Finn's Japanese Grand Prix weekend did not get off to a good start however as yesterday he suffered a technical glitch with his car while in this morning's Free Practice Three session he could only complete 5 laps as he the team opted for a precautionary power unit change ahead of qualifying.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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