Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene is refusing to bow to pressure to extend Kimi Raikkonen’s contract and is instead using it as a motivating tool for the Finnish driver.
Raikkonen’s contract expires at the end of the year but he has an option to continue into 2016 based on his performance. Speculation about his future stepped up a gear over the weekend as he arrived in Bahrain with three consecutive defeats to team-mate Sebastian Vettel, but on Sunday he arguably gave his best performance since returning to Ferrari last year.
Arrivabene said he was not ready to offer Raikkonen the contract just yet, but would instead dangle it over his driver as motivation to deliver more results.
“I’m happy with the drivers that we have, but this does not mean that I am going to sign with Kimi tomorrow,” Arrivabene said. “We are very clear, I repeat again: I said to Kimi, ‘Look, it depends on your performance’ and he has demonstrated that he’s a great driver.
“So if you ask me now, does he deserve to renew the option, now today I am going to say yes. But if I am going to say yes, I don’t want the driver to fall asleep. So I want to keep him up.
“Kimi is giving the best when he is a bit in trouble. This is a psychological approach. So the [contract] paper at the moment is white. Sometimes I have to offer the pen [to sign], then I take it back. And Kimi is going to the podium.”
Asked whether Lewis Hamilton, who has yet to sign for Mercedes for next year, is being considered as a possible replacement, Arrivabene said: “Does Lewis Hamilton call you? Because he never calls me.
“Every driver here in the paddock wants to drive for Ferrari, this is normal. Even the guys who were quite a lot of time world champion.”
| Source: espn.co.uk |
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 
Those who think Kimi “should” have won in Bahrain should re-think their position. Imagine yourself on the pit-wall and making decisions in real-time, its easy to have an opinion when everything is all set and done. The pit-wall people have computers that count in detail every scenario and chose one of those scenarios. Kimi was not pitted early because they were concerned that the soft tires wouldn’t give Kimi the same sort of speed/length on the primes. Allison said that Kimi wasn’t losing speed on the primes and was on course with the strategy they selected earlier.
Imagine where we would be if the team chose to go prime – prime, maybe we wouldn’t be talking of a second spot finish for the Iceman. I like Greenwood, cause he gives avoids unnecessary and over-reacting messages to Kimi
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I appreciate that Gio but I don’t need a computer to tell me Kimi is losing heck of a lot of time – everyone SAW it on track lol even that McLaren passed Kimi…
Kimi was disappointed not to win. He should be. I agree with him. Yes I know he said the team did the right strategy but pitting two laps earlier wouldn’t have changed the strategy, it would have just maximised it to the fullest which would’ve been a win.
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Reblogged this on Female-F1 and commented:
Interesting stuff from Kimi Raikkonen Space!
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I must agree with Evenstar Saima, he should have pitted earlier. However even Kimi didn’t want to switch to the Soft tires. He even asked over the radio during the race “why he is switching” I got the impression he felt more comfortable on the medium compounds, he was racing better on them then his first stint on the softs.
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