Kimi Räikkönen has emphasised that he will have “no issues” supporting Sebastian Vettel’s quest for the title, should his own championship ambitions become unreachable.
Räikkönen sits in fourth place in the standings, 68 points behind Ferrari team-mate Vettel, who has taken three wins and a further three podiums from the opening seven rounds.
Räikkönen retains hope that he can emerge in contention for the title but insists that he will back Vettel’s bid, should his own prospects become impossible.
“When I don’t have a chance mathematically anymore to fight for the championship, for sure I will help him,” Räikkönen said ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“I have no issues with that, I never had in the past.
“I think it’s just a very easy decision for all of us, at least in our team, and obviously the first thing is to try to make sure that we can be on the top with Ferrari. That’s the most important thing.
“And then obviously if Seb can win, then fine. If I don’t have any chance then that’s how it goes. The first thing is to work for Ferrari, to put them in the best possible position.”
Räikkönen expanded on his deficit to Vettel so far this season, commenting: “When you have bad races, you adapt, and obviously Seb has done very good races so far and has been strong everywhere.
“I was not starting very well the first races; I was not too bad, but I was not where I want to be.
“Here and there [we had] little problems, we have one DNF, the last race was not ideal.
“That’s how it goes, unfortunately. When your team-mate is on the podium more or less every time, [they get] a lot of points quickly. That’s racing.”
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