Raikkonen is Alfa Romeo’s first choice for 2021 F1 seat

Alfa Romeo chief Frederic Vasseur says his side will wait for Kimi Raikkonen to decide whether he wants to continue in F1 before looking to finalise its driver line-up for 2021.

Lewis Larkam

13 Sep 2020

Raikkonen is Alfa Romeo’s first choice for 2021 F1 seat

Alfa Romeo chief Frederic Vasseur says his side will wait for Kimi Raikkonen to decide whether he wants to continue in Formula 1 before looking to finalise its driver line-up for 2021.

Raikkonen is out of contract at the end of the season once his original two-year deal at Alfa Romeo expires and remains undecided whether he wants to extend his stint in F1 or not.

Alfa Romeo is a likely landing spot for a Ferrari Academy prospects should the Scuderia decide to promote one of its trio of Formula 2 frontrunners including Callum Ilott, Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman into F1 for next year.

Antonio Giovinazzi’s future is also uncertain but Vasseur said he is eager for the Hinwil-based outfit to continue with Raikkonen next season.

“You have some Ferrari drivers junior drivers, but you have Kimi first for us, to know what he wants to do and what we want to do with him and then we will see with the other ones,” Vasseur said ahead of the Tuscan Grand Prix.

Pressed whether Alfa Romeo will retain Raikkonen if the Finn wants to stay in F1, Vasseur replied: “Yeah, sure.

“If we are all interested to collaborate and the collaboration is good, it will make sense to continue.

“I won’t find someone more experienced than Kimi. It’s the advantage, that for sure the team-mate will be less experienced than Kimi.”

Sergio Perez is now a free agent for next year following the news that the Mexican will be replaced by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel at the Racing Point squad when it rebrands as Aston Martin next season.

Vasseur was coy on whether Alfa Romeo was interested in signing Perez, with the team also being linked to Nico Hulkenberg, who is also looking to secure a full-time return to the F1 grid following his brief comeback earlier this year.

“I think that Checo is interested in all the seats on the grid, available at least,” Vasseur explained.

“I won’t move, I told you last week or the week before, in the course of September we will have the discussion with our drivers about next year and then we will decide together what we have to do.

“For sure now we have plenty of drivers available on the list.”