Source: Ferrari Media

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Raikkonen actually very happy to swap Ferrari for Sauber

Raikkonen "actually very happy" to swap Ferrari for Sauber

22-10-2018 14:15
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen has revealed that he's very happy to make the switch from the Italian team to Sauber after this season, as he likes the fact that the headquarters of the Swiss is under an hour away from his house.

The Finn is fresh off the back of winning his first race in 113 entries, the longest gap between two wins in F1 history as his last win came in Australia back in 2013. 

He started behind Lewis Hamilton but after a lightning start he crept up on the inside of the Brit at the first turn, sneaking into P1. He pulled away from the pack on his softer tyres but eventually got overtaken again by Hamilton, who was on fresh soft tyres. 

However, the Brit proved to have pitted too soon and had to pit again, giving Raikkonen the opportunity to take back first place. After surviving pressure from Max Verstappen at the end of the race, the Ice Man won his 21st career win. Still, despite leaving Ferrari at the end of the year for Sauber, he doesn't feel like Ferrari made a bad call by replacing him.

"I think people don't understand I'm actually very happy where I'm going," he revealed to GPfans.

"I had my time with Ferrari, I won the championship with them.

"I won many races with them and for me, as a driver, I want different challenges, I want different things and I'm actually very happy to go there.

"It's roughly 40 minutes from my home. For sure my family will be happy, I'm happy to be with my family. I think it's probably the best thing.

"I wasn't really disappointed with the decision at any point. The only thing that I was interested in was to know what was going to happen and that's the only thing.

"The rest, I've been long enough in F1 to know that things… it doesn't matter if you have contracts or not, things happen for different reasons but I think the end result is that I'm very excited about it."