Scuderia Ferrari has confirmed that Kimi Raikkonen will spend a sixth year with the team in Formula 1 after opting to activate the option in his contract for 2016.
Raikkonen spent three years with Ferrari between 2007 and 2009, winning the F1 drivers’ championship in his first season with the Italian team.
The Finn returned to Maranello in 2014 after spending two years with Lotus F1 Team on a two-year deal that also gave the team an option for a third.
“Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has renewed its technical and racing agreement with Kimi Raikkonen,” a short statement from the team reads.
“The driver line-up next season will still consist of the Finnish driver and Sebastian Vettel.”
By retaining Raikkonen, Ferrari has sparked the dominoes that will see the driver market for the 2016 season fall into place over the coming months.
Bottas had been linked to the team despite having one year remaining on his contract with Williams, with Ferrari reportedly offering the British team a sizeable sum to secure the Finn’s services. Now, he is now set to see out his contract with the team in 2016.
Other drivers that will be affected include Nico Hulkenberg at Force India, who had been linked with a number of seats further up the field, and even Jenson Button, who is known to be at risk of losing his McLaren seat for next season.
This decision could even have far-reaching effects on Haas F1 Team when it joins the grid for 2016. Earlier this week, team principal Guenther Steiner said that he was waiting to see how the other drivers fell into place before making a call on a line-up; Raikkonen’s confirmation is likely to be the catalyst.
For Raikkonen, the announcement will also ease a great deal of pressure that had been upon his shoulders. The Finn called out reporters on speculation about his future earlier this year, but will now be able to focus on improving his on-track performances.
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
