Sep.3 (GMM) Charles Leclerc is back on pole position for a plum Ferrari seat in 2019.
Before the death of president Sergio Marchionne, the young Monaco born driver looked set to be promoted by Ferrari from his current seat at Sauber.
But after Marchionne died, new Ferrari chief Louis Camilleri was believed to have preferred that Raikkonen stay after all.
However, it is believed Marchionne actually arranged a ‘pre-contract’ with Leclerc some months ago regarding 2019, and Camilleri is prepared to honour the deal made with the 20-year-old’s manager Nicolas Todt.
The information was reported by authoritative publications including Auto Motor und Sport, Blick and Kolner Express.
Camilleri said at Monza: “Nothing has been decided yet and there is no time window. The final decision will be made by Maurizio Arrivabene.”
It is believed Arrivabene would actually prefer to keep 38-year-old Raikkonen, while technical boss Mattia Binotto is championing Leclerc’s cause.
Asked on Sunday if he has ‘options’ for the future beyond Ferrari, Finn Raikkonen answered: “There’s always going to be options in life generally.
“It depends on what I want to do. It depends on a lot of things. So we’ll see in the future what will happen,” he added.