Ferrari Signed Vettel And Raikkonen For 2106 F1 Season

$FCAU

Ferrari announced late Wednesday that they will keep Kimi Raikkonen on Team Scuderia for the Y 2016 season, he will partner Sebastian Vettel, who signed a long-term deal with the Scuderia last year when he joined from Red Bull.

Mr. Raikkonen’s deal with Ferrari was due to expire at the end of this season.

Reports last month indicated he was perhaps to be replaced by Valtteri Bottas or Daniel Ricciardo.

Dogged by his poor performances in qualifying, Mr. Raikkonen has struggled to keep pace with Mr. Vettel this season, scoring just 76 pts compared to the 4X world champion’s 160 pts.

In a brief statement issued late Wednesday, Ferrari confirmed: “Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has renewed its technical and racing agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The driver line-up next season will still consist of the Finnish driver and Sebastian Vettel.”

Mr. Raikkonen added: “For me, to be able to stay another year at Ferrari means that the dream goes on. The Scuderia is my family, as I always said, it’s here I want to end my career. I am more committed than ever and I want to say thank you to the people who gave me this chance.”

The announcement is likely to have significant repercussions for the rest of the Y 2016 driver market, which has effectively been in lock-down while Ferrari deliberated over whether or not to keep the Y 2007 World Champion.

As both Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, are tied to what the team have described as multi-year deals, McLaren are likely to become the principal focus of paddock gossip in the coming weeks following Jenson Button’s recent reluctance to commit his future to the Team.

McLaren youngster Stoffel Vandoorne, currently leading the GP2 championship, is thought to be in pole position to replace Button if the Englishman departs.

Ferrari is a unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU), the luxury sports car manufactures is set to IPO on the NYSE in October of this year.

Formula One is back and this weekend’s Belgian GP is live on Sky Sports F1 .

Coverage on Sunday begins at 11.30a with the race underway at 1:00p.

Symbol	Last Trade	Date	Change	Open	High	Low	Volume
NYSE:FCAU	14.62	20 August 2015	-0.47	14.93	14.95	14.6	2,444,100

HeffX-LTN Analysis for FCAU:	Overall	Short	Intermediate	Long
HeffX-LTN Analysis for FCAU:	Neutral (-0.09)	Neutral (-0.06)	Bearish (-0.31)	Neutral (0.11)