Hamilton would like Räikkönen to join Vettel at Red Bull

Since the announcement of Mark Webber’s departure to Endurance racing, the question of his successor alongside Sebastian Vettel has stirred the paddock, as well as bookmakers where Kimi Räikkönen leads over Daniel Ricciardo and quite significantly over Jean-Eric Vergne. Red Bull’s interest in the 2007 world champion is not recent and is even less of a secret in the world of Formula 1.

Everyone talks about it more or less freely, starting with Lewis Hamilton who would like to see Kimi Räikkönen go head-to-head with Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull: “It would be really cool to see Kimi in a Red Bull,” he confides in the columns of the Sun. “He would make life hard for Seb. Kimi is an incredible driver, everyone knows that, so with an even better car [than the Lotus], it would be interesting to see what he could do with it.”

The 2008 world champion thus joins Johnny Herbert, who considered the Finn his favorite for the Red Bull seat. The former Jaguar driver believed, particularly before the British Grand Prix, that Sebastian Vettel could emerge stronger from a confrontation with him, even in case of defeat: « Kimi seems to be the right person for Red Bull because he’s a world champion, even though having two world champions in one team might not be a good thing. Sebastian has never been pushed to his limits, and Kimi would be a good test. It would only affect him if he gets beaten, and he’s certainly not happy when he loses, but we’ve seen Mark beat him a few times, and he came out stronger. »