Kimi Raikkonen says he made the decision to rejoin Ferrari next season after Lotus failed to pay his salary, with the Finn admitting he will still fulfil his driving duties over the final six races of his contract.
The 33-year-old Finn agreed last week to replace Felipe Massa as Fernando Alonso’s team-mate at Ferrari, setting up a formidable partnership of former world champions at the prestigious Italian outfit where he won the title in 2007.
He admitted that he liked to race, when asked why he was seeing out the last seven races of the season despite not being paid.
“That’s the only reason why I am here. It doesn’t matter which team it is but the reason I left Lotus was purely on the money side. It’s an unfortunate thing but I want to help the team as much as I can and as I just told you, I like to race,” said Raikkonen, who went on to suggest that had Lotus matched his demands he may not have left, but was happy with the decision now that it had been finalised.