Raikkonen expects no change to Vettel relationship

Kimi Raikkonen does not expect his relationship with Sebastian Vettel to change despite the end of their four-year stint as Formula 1 teammates at Ferrari for 2019.

Vettel and Raikkonen have been friends throughout their time together in F1, but became Ferrari teammates in 2015 when Vettel joined the team.

Raikkonen made his final Ferrari appearance in Abu Dhabi last month ahead of a move to Sauber for 2019, with Charles Leclerc moving in the opposite direction as his replacement.

Despite no longer racing together next year, Raikkonen said he expects his friendship with Vettel to remain unchanged.

"I’m sure we’re going to see each other often," Raikkonen said.

"I don’t think it has changed from when we met for the first time to today, so I don’t see why it is going to change anywhere even though we’re not racing in the same team.

"We will stay friends, and I’m sure we’ll travel together sometimes and see each other."

Leclerc has been widely tipped to pose a stronger challenge than Raikkonen to Vettel at Ferrari, but the German driver expects the intra-team rivalry at Maranello to also go unchanged.

"[Leclerc's] a good kid. I don’t expect there is anything wrong on-track," Vettel said.

"I think we will be rivals as much as Kimi and myself are rivals. You always try to get first, and if you do that, you beat everybody else, also your teammate. We will see.

"We also know we want to bring Ferrari back to winning ways. For him it’s obviously a different point in his career compared to mine, but I think time will tell. From what I know now and how I know him now, he seems like a good guy."