Raikkonen may quit F1 within two years.

Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen has hinted he could walk away from the sport at the end of the 2009 season - when he will have barely reached 30 years old.

The Ferrari ace clinched the drivers' laurels last year, after beating the odds to overcome the dual McLaren threat of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at the very last hurdle in Brazil. It made up for the disappointments of the 2003 and 2005 campaigns - when he had twice finished runner-up in the final standings - and now he is suggesting he will likely never leave Ferrari, with his current three-year contract due to expire in two years' time.

"I see no reason to leave this team," the Finn told Spanish newspaper Marca at the Valencia test this week. "I have two years remaining on my contract, but in any case I believe that, whatever happens, this will be my last team.

"When I end my contract with Ferrari I will be 30 years old, and it will be the time to decide whether to keep going or not."

Whether Raikkonen does indeed hang up his F1 helmet or elects to remain at Maranello beyond 2009 is a decision he has yet to consider as he bids to defend his hard-won crown during the forthcoming campaign, but one pursuit he may look towards, he admitted, is rallying - one in which Finns from Juha Kankunnen to Tommi M?kinen and Marcus Gr?nholm have shone since practically the year dot.

"The one certainty is that one day I will feel the need to do something else," he affirmed. "I would do a few rallies maybe - I don't know. I will do what I want, basically, [but] for the moment I am here and I have no intention of changing that."