Raikkonen Says 'Pointless' To Talk About Vettel's Mistakes, Happy To Join Sauber

Kimi Raikkonen said it was pointless to talk about the mistakes Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel has committed during his F1 Drivers’ championship battle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari’s German driver went toe-to-toe with Hamilton for the Drivers’ championship in the first half of the season but since he crashed out of the lead at the German Grand Prix he has won just one race in the last eight.

It was the first high profile error of the season and he has since committed numerous errors that have seen Hamilton take an insurmountable 70 point lead by winning six of the last eight races.

Vettel’s mistakes included first lap collisions with Hamilton and Red Bull Racing duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo in Italy, Japan and the United States respectively. However, his teammate Raikkonen believes it is futile to point toward his mistakes as in hindsight it is always easy to say one should have approached the race differently.

“I don't know if he made a lot of mistakes,” Raikkonen said in Austin last weekend, as quoted on Yahoo 7. “Germany he went off, but then it was pretty tricky conditions.”

“I don't know if that really dictates what happened in the end result. It’s hard to say. There are always people trying to point the finger here and there or [say] 'This is why he didn’t win'.

“You know, if you want to point the finger on someone, there are millions of things that you can [say], 'ah, he should have done this like that and the end result would be different’,” the 2007 F1 world champion explained. “But afterwards it is very easy to always say that. You take 10 years backwards you can point, 'oh, you should have done that differently and you would have won'. It’s pointless.”

Raikkonen also spoke about his impending move to the Sauber F1 team in 2019. The Finn was informed during the Italian Grand Prix by Ferrari that Charles Leclerc will be taking his race seat at the Italian team from the 2019 season onwards.

Many believed Raikkonen will hang up his helmet after 16 seasons in the sport, but he surprised everyone by signing a two-year deal with Sauber. It is a step back after challenging for podium finishes with Ferrari, but the Finn made it clear he is very happy to be joining the team with whom he started his F1 career in 2003.

I think people don't understand I'm actually very happy where I'm going," Raikkonen said, as per Sky Sports. "I had my time with Ferrari, I won the championship with them. I won many races with them and for me, as a driver, I want different challenges, I want different things and I'm actually very happy to go there."