Kimi Raikkonen appears to have put an end to rumours that he is to quit Formula One at the end of the current season.
"I will make my decision when I am ready," says World Champion
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen appears to have put an end to rumours that he is to quit Formula One at the end of the current season.
Speculation has mounted recently that the World Champion will retire from Formula One at the end of the 2008 campaign.
It has coincided with the string of disappointing results the Finn has endured of late, with sixth place in Sunday's German Grand Prix seeing him drop to third place in the Drivers' Championship.
However, speaking to Spanish daily
El Mundo Raikkonen has revealed he is unwilling to leave Ferrari in the middle of a deal that runs until the end of next year.
Nevertheless, the 28-year-old refused to confirm his plans beyond 2009.
"I'm not in a hurry to decide what I am going to do in the future," Raikkonen said.
"I have a year left on my contract that I want to fulfil. Later, in 2010, I do not know if I will be in F1. We will see.
"It is not an easy decision. I have to evaluate many things, and I am not going to give any explanation to anybody.
"I will make my decision when I am ready. Ferrari are not pushing me on this."
Difficult
Raikkonen also labelled his weekend at the German Grand Prix as the most difficult he has endured so far this season.
Struggling to find the right set-up on his car, Raikkonen qualified and finished sixth, losing ground in the title race to Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa.
"It was certainly the most difficult weekend of the year: a horrible Friday, an even more complicated Saturday and a very bad Sunday," he told Ferrari's website.
"We never managed to find a good set up and the car had absolutely no stability. You need good grip to drive good lap times at Hockenheim, but the rear went all over the place for the whole race.
"It's true that we had some problems at the beginning of the season to set up the car as I wanted, but we never had problems like we had at Hockenheim."
Raikkonen also promised that both he and Ferrari will try to get to the bottom of their problems ahead of next weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.
"We have to check and analyse every single detail we've done during the preparations for Hockenheim and find out why we went so slowly, because there has to be something that didn't work properly," he continued.
"Sometimes these things happen, when you want to improve the car. I'm confident: we'll have a F2008 that can fight for the win again soon."
With Hamilton winning his second race in a row and Massa finishing third, Raikkonen has now dropped behind both in the title race.
"I'm seven points behind in the standings, as I was after the Canadian GP," he added.
"The situation is quite complicated, but nothing is lost: we have to stay calm and react the way we know how to."
