By Jonathan Noble
Wednesday, January 9th 2008, 12:58 GMT
Ferrari are happy to wait before they begin new contract talks with Kimi Raikkonen, as they instead prefer the Finn to concentrate for now on landing his second world title in 2008.
Raikkonen has a deal with Ferrari until the end of 2009 and, although the team admit to thinking about extending the contract beyond then, they have made it clear they are in no rush to begin talks.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali said at the Wrooom media event in Italy on Wednesday: "We have a contract for 2008 and 2009, and we are fully happy with how Kimi is driving and especially how he entered into the team.
"Nothing prevents us from also looking into the future and seeing Kimi as a driver who will go beyond his first formal contract, but we will tackle this at the right time. For now, Kimi must be focused on this year."
Although Ferrari found themselves at the centre of speculation linking them with Fernando Alonso last year, Domenicali has said that for now the team are not looking beyond current drivers Raikkonen and Felipe Massa for the future.
"Alonso and Ferrari?" he said. "Many speculations were made on the issue, but we have two good drivers and they are our official drivers.
"We have maximum trust in them and we are convinced they are the right drivers for our team. They have a way of relating between each other and with the team which is very professional and they are very fast.
"This (Alonso) is an issue which, for the time being, we are not going to consider. We will see what happens in the future."
Domenicali also confirmed that Raikkonen's status as world champion would not mean he would start the season as the team's number one driver.
"We have our drivers who start (the new season) on an equal basis," he said. "They are going to play it out with their own chances of victory, and there are no changes from this point of view. They are both on an equal basis."

Source: autosport