Kimi Raikkonen has denied growing rumours that he will stay on at Alfa Romeo next year after a record-equalling Russian Grand Prix.
The 2007 world champion matched Rubens Barrichello for the most starts by a driver in Formula 1 with 322 and will match the Brazilian’s 326 entries at the next year in Germany.
But asked about the milestone, Raikkonen was typically unfussed.
“I think every record will end up being broken at some point in most of the sports,” he said via Motorsport Week.
“That’s how it has always happened. As I’ve said many times, it doesn’t mean anything for me, it doesn’t make any difference.
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“Maybe in the future, when I’ll look back at things, whatever the number will be, maybe I’ll look at it differently.
“Now, it’s just like any other race, I’ll try to make a good one out of it and see what comes out of it.”
A lot of the talk in Sochi, though, was about the 40-year-old’s future and claims he has signed a new one-year deal for 2021, likely as the teammate to Mick Schumacher.
“No, I haven’t signed a single contract,” he simply told reporters.
As for his race, Raikkonen didn’t have much to cheer as he came home in 14th after being passed by Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps.
“I think the car was behaving reasonably well, we lost some time at the pit-stop but that’s how we end up,” he reflected.
“We had good speed in the end but it’s hard to get past people. Anyhow, there were three cars in front of me and that still wouldn’t have been enough, the 10th place car was quite far away.”
