US GP win doesn’t change Raikkonen’s Ferrari exit feelings

Kimi Raikkonen says winning for the first time in almost a decade for Ferrari won’t alter his emotions leaving the Italian squad for Sauber at the end of this year.

The Finnish driver claimed his first F1 victory since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix when racing for Lotus – a stretch of 113 races – while his last win for Ferrari was at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.

The US GP triumph will give Raikkonen a successful end to his second stint at Ferrari, having failed to reach the top step since returning to the Scuderia in 2014, but the 2007 F1 world champion says it won’t alter his mindset as he prepares to switch to Sauber on a two-year deal.

“I think people don’t understand I’m actually very happy with where I’m going,” Raikkonen said about his Sauber switch. “I had my time with Ferrari, I won my championship with them, I won many races with them and for me, as a driver, I want different challenges, I want different things.

“I’m actually really happy to go there, it’s roughly 40 minutes from my home, my family will be happy and I’m happy to be with my family. I think it’s probably the best thing and I wasn’t at any point disappointed with the decision.

“The only thing that I was interested in was to know what was going to happen and the rest, I’ve been long enough in Formula One to know that things, it doesn’t matter if you have a contract or not, things happen for different reasons. The end result is that I’m very excited about.”

Raikkonen reunites with the team he made his F1 debut with back in 2001, while Charles Leclerc makes it a straight switch with the Finn as he moves to Ferrari for 2019.