Kimi Raikkonen has decided to stay in Formula 1 for another season and will remain at the Alfa Romeo team in 2021.
The 2007 world champion joined Alfa for 2019 on a two-year deal after losing his Ferrari drive.
Raikkonen is understood to have had an option on his side for a third season, which he had until the end of last month to activate.
Alfa boss Frederic Vasseur said in September that the team’s driver decisions were restricted until Raikkonen decided “what he wants to do and what we want to do with him”.
“If we are all interested in collaborating and the collaboration is good, it will make sense to continue,” said Vasseur.
Raikkonen, who turns 41 later this month, is believed to have informed Alfa of his decision to stay at the previous race in Russia two weeks ago.
He is therefore expected to be announced shortly, leaving Alfa to determine whether current incumbent Antonio Giovinazzi will remain Raikkonen’s team-mate or if Formula 2 championship leader Mick Schumacher will be awarded his F1 debut next year.
Schumacher, son of seven-time world champion Michael, is driving for Alfa in Friday’s first practice session at this weekend’s Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
Ferrari has control over the Alfa seat currently occupied by Giovinazzi. As Schumacher is a Ferrari Driver Academy protege, the decision on Raikkonen’s team-mate appears to be down to whether Ferrari believes Giovinazzi merits a third year in F1 after an underwhelming 2020, and Schumacher represents its alternative option if it does not.
The news of Raikkonen’s situation, first reported in Italy, comes ahead of his 323rd F1 start, which will give him the outright record for number of grands prix started having matched Rubens Barrichello two weeks ago in Russia.
Raikkonen’s experience has aided his contribution to the Sauber-run team’s efforts despite a difficult 2020 season.
Ferrari’s underpowered engine has left Alfa struggling at the back for most of the year although Raikkonen has spearheaded a mini-revival since Silverstone.
He has made it to Q2 on three occasions and scored his first points of the year at the Tuscan Grand Prix, where he finished ninth.
Raikkonen said Alfa was making progress “in the right direction little by little” and appears to have been convinced it is worth continuing for what will be a 19th season in F1.
“It’s all the areas, we all know the engine is not where we, or Ferrari want it to be,” he said at Sochi.
“But that’s out of anybody’s hands at the moment. We need to concentrate on the things that we can change, and obviously it comes to the chassis and the aero.
“The aero is always one of the most important parts of the F1 car. We’ve been improving it, but there’s still scope to improve.”
Addressing the media on Thursday at the Nurburgring, Raikkonen said he hadn’t yet signed any 2021 deal and denied having had a third-year option in his initial two-year contract.
“Nothing’s been decided so far. For sure it started that I didn’t have enough experience [to be in F1] and now I’m getting too old so they want to get rid of me. In the middle it worked ok, now it’s not great for some people anyhow. But we will see. Obviously we have [had] some talks with the team.
“I’ve never had an option in my contract so that should pretty much tell you that’s not true. I read so many things in the news over the years that I stopped reading them because 90% is far from the truth and 10% is something to do with it.
“I haven’t signed anything, I didn’t sign last week or a month ago or yesterday or today so we’ll see.|
