McLaren may opt to bring Kimi Raikkonen to the British team if Ferrari decides to promote Sauber’s Charles Leclerc to the race seat.
The Woking outfit is running several permutations to get ready with a good replacement in case Fernando Alonso decides to quit Formula 1 at the end of the season.
The lack of a competitive car has gotten Alonso worked up about his F1 races. After suffering from three consecutive retirements, the Spaniard may be finally ready to hang up his F1 boots and focus on his Triple Crown dream.
In case the British team cannot show any improvement in its reliability in the next few races, the two-time world champion may decide to quit after the current season.
According to a report by the Press Association, McLaren is seriously considering Raikkonen as a potential replacement for Alonso. Ferrari has shown a lot of interest in Leclerc’s development in the last few races. Many insiders believe the Italian outfit may break with its tradition and hand over their coveted race seat to the 20-year-old for 2019.
McLaren’s other driver Stoffel Vandoorne has been less than impressive in his first two seasons in F1 while the 18-year-old Lando Norris is breaking records all around and is ploughing through his F2 competition. Norris has already got three teams interested and McLaren may not able to hold on to him unless they give him a race seat.
In case Norris gets promoted, they would want to pair him with an experienced driver and the Iceman fits the bill perfectly. Since Raikkonen has a good history with McLaren and his salary of £10m-a-year is easily affordable, he seems like a good bet for the Woking outfit.
Sam Sampson