Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez says Kimi Raikkonen wants to be in the team – Formula 1 news
Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez has discharged all the rumours regarding their driver, Kimi Raikkonen’s future and has said that the Finn wants to be in the team for the next season.
Raikkonen joined the Enstone based team this year after taking part in the World Rally Championship during the last couple of years. Furthermore, he has performed tremendously well in the season so far and has secured six podium finishes in the first 13
grands prix.
There have been a lot of speculations going on which are linking him with Ferrari for the next year, however, he himself has not said anything yet in this regard.
Moreover, Lopez has recently rejected all the reports on this matter and has expressed that the Finnish driver is with them right now. In addition, he said that they have a contract with the 32-year-old which depends on his performance.
“At least in the short term, Kimi is with us,” he said. “We have an agreement that is based on performance, and it has been fulfilled.”
Besides, he said that Raikkonen and his teammate, Romain Grosjean want to be in the team on which he was very delighted.
“Kimi wants to be here, as does Romain Grosjean,” the Luxembourgian entrepreneur insisted, “and we are happy with them too.”
Additionally, in response to the prevailing rumours which are linking the Iceman with McLaren and Ferrari, he said that these kinds of reports are often baseless.
“No,” he answered. “This is F1. Sometimes the rumours are true, sometimes someone has just come up with it, based on nothing.”
The 2007 world champion is presently standing at third position in the drivers’ championship with 141 points. Besides, he is ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing and is behind Lewis Hamilton of McLaren who took an amazing victory in the last race.
Over and above, he certainly stands amongst the potential candidates for this year’s championship title and has been considered as a major threat for the drivers in the front.
Let’s see how he shows up in the remaining seven races of the ongoing season.
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