Kimi Raikkonen, a former teammate of Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, has said the Italian media can sometimes be harsh on Ferrari drivers, but ultimately racing for the team is no different to any other Formula 1 outfit.
“I never found it any different than any other team,” Raikkonen said in an interview with F1.com about his time at Ferrari.
“If you read all the newspapers, maybe you feel a bit more bad, but I never looked at those things.
“Sometimes you have a bad time, and the Italians can be harsh on you on the media side, but that’s how it is.
“All the media, they’re very easy to write things when you don’t do well and then if you do well, the next day suddenly you’re the best friend of them, but that’s how it works in this business,” he added, pointing to Vettel being voted Driver of the Day at the Spanish GP after a difficult start to the season.
“I’m sure he’s not very happy at how things are going but then that’s how it is. I don’t see that it’s very different [at Ferrari] than any other place.
“Ferrari is Ferrari and people are looking at those things, especially the Italians, but I doubt that it will affect how he does his job there or anything else.
“I think he’s been in the sport long enough to know that sometimes it’s like that, and he just needs to find a way to turn it around.”
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Raikkonen won the 2007 F1 Championship in his first season with Ferrari and spent several years with the Italian team over two stints.
He currently drives for Alfa Romeo alongside Antonio Giovinazzi.
After six rounds of the delayed 2020 season, Vettel is eleventh in the drivers’ standings, on just 16 points.
The German will leave Ferrari at the end of the season, and he has been strongly linked with a move to Racing Point.
If reports from Italy prove to be accurate, Vettel will sign a $15 million contract with the team at the upcoming Belgian GP.
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