Alfa Romeo says the door is very much open for Kimi Raikkonen to continue at the team next season if there’s mutual interest.
The 2007 world champion is out of contract at the end of this year and Kimi, who turns 41 next month, has admitted that family may determine if he continues for a 19th Formula 1 campaign in 2021.
However, on Sunday at Mugello, Raikkonen proved there’s still plenty of life in him yet as he beat both works Ferraris to finish eighth, only to drop to ninth due to a five-second penalty.
“I got penalised when I went over the white line when I entered the pit lane,” he said. “But we still brought home two important points that’s the main thing.
“We kept fighting but obviously, we always hope for a bit more. I think we could have finished even higher with a cleaner afternoon, but hopefully, we will carry the performance to the next few events.”
Raikkonen’s start was compromised after being bumped by Pierre Gasly and then hitting the back of Max Verstappen on the run to Turn 2, ending the Dutchman’s race.
“It started very badly. I don’t know what happened,” Kimi admitted. “The car that hit us in the second corner was probably surprised by how much we had to slow down in Turn 2 and obviously I lost some parts and a front wing.
“Then there was the restart and the red flag and we had quite bad handling because we had no front end on the car and we kept adding and adding. We had a bad pit stop, then there was another red flag.
“We had decent speed when the car was somewhere where it should be but we had damage. Without it, I am sure the car would have been pretty quick.”
Last weekend’s race at Mugello saw Raikkonen’s career come full circle as it was at the Italian track where he first tested for the then-Sauber team almost exactly 20 years ago back in 2000.
But despite some talk of retirement, the noises over the Finn’s future was a little more positive towards him continuing.
“Yeah, sure. If we are all interested to collaborate and the collaboration is good, it will make sense to continue,” Alfa boss Fred Vasseur said.
“We 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.”
Another name mentioned as a possible alternative is the newly available Sergio Perez after his exit from Racing Point was announced last week.
“I think that Checo is interested in all the seats on the grid, available at least,” the Frenchman commented on if he was an option.
“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.”