Seat Fitting at Sauber Sparks Raikkonen Rumours

Kimi Raikkonen has recently had his first seat fitting at Alfa Romeo-Sauber. This has prompted speculation that he could test for the team later this year.

The Finn lives not too far away from Sauber’s Hinwil base, so it made perfect sense for the 2007 world champion to get an early visit prior to the intense end-of-season flyaway schedule.

And with Sauber and Ferrari enjoying a close technical collaboration, there was little concern about potential team secrets passing to the smaller outfit.

Sources have revealed that Raikkonen went to the factory on Friday for meetings with senior staff, and create a seat-fitting mould that can then be used around him in the cockpit of the C38-Ferrari.

Having a seat ready at Sauber also opens up the possibility of Raikkonen potentially testing Sauber’s 2018 car later this year at a tyre test.

Last week, Raikkonen sat out Pirelli’s Paul Ricard test with Ferrari in favour of the incoming Charles Leclerc.

It is possible, therefore, that Raikkonen could get the favour returned during a Pirelli tyre test that Sauber will be doing in Mexico after next month’s grand prix.

Raikkonen stunned many when he opted to stay on in F1, albeit with the Sauber team. Most experts expected Raikkonen to retire at the end of the season. But now, he will continue for another 2 seasons in Formula One.

The Finn will be the only driver of the early 2000s era remaining in Formula One. Both he and Fernando Alonso debuted at the same time in 2001. But now, Alonso will be stepping away from the sport and exploring other endeavours.

Coming back to the subject of Raikkonen, Sauber’s social media received an unexpected boost when the announcement was made. Incidentally, when he made his Formula One debut, it was with Sauber itself.

Team principal, Frederic Vasseur said,  “The reaction in the factory was huge.

“It’s a huge push to consider that someone like Kimi could join the project, that he trusts the team, he trusts everybody in the team.

“It’s giving you self-confidence – ‘The guy in front of me, who is a World Champion, is considering that I can do a good job, so full push.’

“I was in the design office when we issued internally the email saying that Kimi will join and the reaction was, ‘Wow!’”