Raikkonen's retirement to start F1 transfers: 'All eyes on Mercedes now'

On Wednesday night, Kimi Raikkonen announced that he will retire from Formula 1 after a record number of Grands Prix this season. The Finn, currently driving for Alfa Romeo, has thus left an empty seat at the Swiss team under the Italian name. According to Ted Kravitz, this is the start of a number of big transfers in F1.

"He finally decided to call it a day at the end of the year. We're not surprised, we saw it coming at the age of 41. We are sad to see him go because he is a character, and a world champion. It's sad, it's the end of an era," he explained in his preview for Sky Sports.

"That's the first domino in a series of dominos that need to fall that ends up with George Russell being Lewis Hamilton's teammate at Mercedes next year. Because that goes, it means Bottas can be announced as Kimi Raikkonen's replacement. We don't know if that's going to be announced today or tomorrow or indeed in Monza. It's such an open secret in the paddock, they've got to get it out at some point". Bottas himself already let it be known that he has no news to report this week, which means a number of announcements are likely to be made in Monza.

"When Bottas is announced as Raikkonen's replacement, then Russell can be announced as Bottas' replacement partnering Hamilton at Mercedes. What about Russell's seat at Williams? The hot tip is Alex Albon is going to Williams", the analyst concluded.