Kimi Raikkonen admits he was surprised by how similar the Sauber and Ferrari cars felt when he drove the C37 in Abu Dhabi.
The Finn made his first appearance with the Swiss team since 2001 at the tyre test following the season finale ahead of his return for 2019.
And given the Prancing Horse he has been driving throughout this year has held such a substantial pace advantage over the Sauber, Kimi was expecting to feel that difference around the Yas Marina Circuit.
“For me, it was important to try the car and see if there were big things we need to fix, but it was pretty straightforward,” he was quoted by PlanetF1.
“To be honest it wasn’t a lot [of] different feelings, I probably expected a bigger difference, but we were just testing tyres, didn’t do set-up work, we did laps to try to see what is what.
“I think as a first experience it was okay.”
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Some had wondered why the 2007 world champion didn’t simply retire when Ferrari chose Charles Leclerc to replace him next season, with the 2007 world champion citing a simple love for racing as his main reason.
And looking ahead at the potential of Sauber in 2019, Raikkonen sees plenty of reason for optimism.
“I am excited,” he said. “It’s different obviously [to Ferrari] but I’ve been in the team, there’s lots of different people now [compared to 2001].
“But I think they have all the tools, they have a great wind tunnel, they have everything to build a great car, have a Ferrari engine so we know what we’re going to get.
“I don’t see a reason why we couldn’t do a good job out of it. Where that takes us we’ll see next year.”
