Raikkonen Refuses To Entertain Questions About His Future, Rubbishes McLaren Links

Kimi Raikkonen refused to entertain questions regarding his Formula 1 future during Thursday’s press conference ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Finn, who is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of the current campaign, is yet to be offered a new deal by the Italian outfit with reports suggesting that he could be on the way out of the team.

Charles Leclerc, who is part of the Ferrari young driver program, has impressed in his debut season in F1 with the Alfa Romeo Sauber Team and rumors in the paddock suggest that the Scuderia are considering promoting him to the works team in place of the Finn.

But Raikkonen remained unconcerned when questioned about his future and simply said “We’ll see” as it is not the first time he is faced with the situation. He signed a one-year extension to remain with Ferrari in August last year and a decision for 2019 is unlikely to be made in the near future.

The 38-year-old admits that he would like to finish his F1 career with the most prestigious team in the sport, but is aware that the decision is not in his hands as the final call remains with Ferrari.

“Same as always, every year. We’ll see,” Raikkonen said during the press-conference on Thursday refusing to discuss his F1 future. “I don’t know really. I said, I think it was 2007 already, that I would finish Ferrari and obviously at some point it didn’t look like that and now it looks like that again. You never know what comes after and this and that, but we will see."

“As always a lot of talk and I’m not really happy to comment on those. We’ll see at some point what happens, including me. Let’s wait and see,” the 2007 F1 Drivers’ champion said.

Raikkonen got another option recently in the event that Ferrari decide to release him, with reports suggesting McLaren are interested in re-signing their former driver if Fernando Alonso leaves them at the end of the 2018 season.

The Finn was asked if his management team had held talks with the Woking-based team, but he brushed it off suggesting that there was nothing to it at the moment. He branded talks regarding his future as “nonsense”.

“I spoke to them, for sure, but in the past a lot obviously when I used to be there. Like I said, I have zero interest to get involved in all the nonsense, in my view,” Raikkonen said about the links to McLaren. “You would like to know, would you? You can take it as you want. I don’t think you anyhow ask our opinions about a lot of stuff you guys write, so, it goes either way, you can put yes or no. You usually write what you decide yourself, whether it’s true or not!”

Raikkonen also refused to give a timeline with regard to when his future could be decided after Daniel Ricciardo, who is also nearing the end of his contract revealed that a decision on his future could be finalized before the summer break in August.

“No, I think I’ve been there so many times so… For sure, before next year I will know. It’s a pretty normal situation on my side,” he added.