(Frederic Le Floc'h DPPI for Renault Sport F1)
The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom reports that Infiniti Red Bull Racing's quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel who announced over the weekend that he will leave the team at the end of the season will join Ferrari next season on a three year deal.
The paper reports that the German, who has endured an extremely difficult 2014 campaign will join Kimi Raikkonen at the Italian team next season replacing Fernando Alonso who looks set to join McLaren will receive a reported £50 million a year in what if true would make the German the highest paid Formula One driver in history.
The paper also reports that Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci was not directly involved in negotiating a deal with Vettel and it was in fact in coming Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne
The German has no manager handling his Formula One affairs having a been a part of the Red Bull driver set up for the last 15 years and spending the last six season's with the Red Bull Racing team having driven with the Toro Rosso team in 2008 when he took his maiden F1 victory at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.
The German made his Grand Prix debut with the BMW team at the 2007 United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where filled in for the injured Robert Kubica.
Ferrari have not yet confirmed that Vettel will join the them next season but it is believed that the situation will be resolved in the coming weeks after Sky Sports F1 reported over the course of the Japanese Grand Prix that Alonso set the wheels in motion for Vettel to announce he was leaving Red Bull as the broadcaster reported that Alonso and Ferrari had terminated their partnership.
The Mail On Sunday also reports that current championship leader Lewis Hamilton has agreed in principal to extend his stay at Mercedes until the end of the 2017 season. The 2008 champion has a deal in place until the end of next season however Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff stated recently that the Brackley based outfit wouldn't discuss a new contract with Hamilton until this year's championship fight between him and team mate Nico Rosberg has been resolved.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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