The Finn, who became World Champion with Ferrari in 2007, hasn’t quite had things going his way in his second stint with the team.
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After two podiums and five retirements in 2015, Kimi Raikkonen is ready to move on to the next Formula One season with Ferrari.
This season has not particularly been great for Raikkonen, with the 36-year-old languishing in fifth in the Drivers’ standings.
Raikkonen was in danger of losing his seat with the Italian outfit but Ferrari have retained their faith in the Finn by extending his contract until the end of next season.
“I really like Abu Dhabi as a place”, said Bottas. “Maybe the lap times could have been a bit better on the single lap, but overall it was not too bad”. While the Ferrari has usually been second best to the Mercedes W06 at most venues so far this year, neither Ferrari driver could crack the top three during the FP2 session – the session most representative of conditions in qualifying and the race due to night falling.
Ferrari has generally been faster than Williams in races this season, and Bottas admitted staying ahead of Raikkonen might prove tricky.
Sebastian Vettel considers 2014 – called by many as his annus horibilis – as one of the most important seasons of his career as he and Ferrari prepare to challenge the all-conquering Mercedes in 2016.
And reflecting on his personal performance Vettel says there have been few low points for him in his first year at Ferrari but admits he was disappointed with one recent race in particular. Is it going to happen?
The Brazilian was in with a shout of winning in Abu Dhabi last season, and will be looking to end the year on a high even if moving up from his current sixth position in the championship looks unlikely. We hope so at least.
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“So we have to improve and I’m sure we can”. We have to wait until we put the cars on the circuit in a test and the first few races – then we really see where we are.
