Formula 1's Latest Rumours & Talk: Kimi Raikkonen Contract, Lewis Hamilton, More

Kimi Raikkonen may have returned to the podium for the first time for over 18 months in the Bahrain Grand Prix, but that will not be enough for the Finn to secure his Ferrari future.

The 2007 world champion endured the worst season of his Formula One career last season, failing to finish within the top-three in any of the 19 grands prix and finishing outside of the top-10 in the drivers' standings for the first time.

It is unsurprising, then, that new Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene wants to subject the Finnish driver to a thorough examination alongside Sebastian Vettel before deciding whether to continue with Raikkonen beyond 2015.

Should Ferrari, for whatever reason, part ways with Raikkonen, it is unclear whom the Prancing Horse would choose to partner Vettel.

Williams' Valtteri Bottas, Force India's Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo could all be in contention, but F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has indicated that he would like to see Lewis Hamilton, a Mercedes man since he joined McLaren as a youngster, behind the wheel of a scarlet-red car.

Meanwhile, Mercedes have revealed more details about the brake issues that almost saw Hamilton relinquish the win to Raikkonen in Bahrain, with the team confident the problems suffered by the reigning world champion and team-mate Nico Rosberg will not become a recurring theme.

Further back, Pastor Maldonado has been discussing his troubled start to the season at Lotus, revealing his thoughts on his bad reputation among the sport's onlookers, while Manor are celebrating after yet another decent result.

Here's this week's roundup.

Kimi Raikkonen may have sealed his first podium finish since October 2013 with second-place in the Bahrain Grand Prix, but Ferrari remain unwilling to offer the 2007 world champion a contract renewal at this stage of the season.

The two-year deal Raikkonen signed to rejoin Ferrari for 2014 is set to end at the close of the current campaign, but the Finn recently told the official F1 website that the team "have an option" to extend his contract for 2016.

His chances of remaining at Ferrari for another year received a major boost in Bahrain. After starting fourth, he perfected an alternative strategy to finish a close second to Lewis Hamilton, the runaway championship leader, and beat new team-mate Sebastian Vettel for the first time in 2015.

It was by far Raikkonen's best showing since he returned to Ferrari, and the result was extremely timely, with team principal Maurizio Arrivabene recently challenging his driver, as per the Daily Mail's Ian Parkes, to improve his performances.

But despite Raikkonen providing an instant reaction, Arrivabene is not yet ready to offer a contract extension, revealing his concerns that the Finn's focus could drop if he is given the security of a new deal.

According to Autosport's Ben Anderson and Lawrence Barretto, the Italian said:

Kimi is giving the best when he is a bit in trouble.

I'm happy with the drivers we have. This doesn't mean I am going to sign tomorrow with Kimi.

I said to Kimi, it depends on your performance. He has demonstrated he is a great driver.

If you're asking me if he deserves to renew the option now, I'm going to say yes.

But if I'm going to say yes, I do not want the driver to fall asleep.

Keeping the 35-year-old in limbo is arguably the safest option for Ferrari if the Prancing Horse are to avoid a repeat of 2009, when, according to Sky Sports' James Galloway, the team paid Raikkonen £20 million to vacate his seat for 2010.

Ever the opportunist, Bernie Ecclestone has revealed his desire to see Lewis Hamilton alongside Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari in 2016.

Since sealing his second world championship at the end of 2014, Hamilton has frequently reiterated his desire to stay at reigning world champions Mercedes, telling Sky Sports soon after last season's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix how a new deal was a "formality."

Almost five months on, however, a new contract is still yet to be signed, with Hamilton telling the Mirror's Byron Young over the Bahrain GP weekend how "loads of little small things" are delaying an agreement.

But F1 ringmaster Ecclestone has admitted he would be keen for the two leading drivers on the current grid to form an alliance at Ferrari, telling the Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy: "It would be great to see Lewis at Ferrari. Whether Sebastian would want that, I really don’t know. But if Lewis went there, it would be great for the sport—100 per cent."

Although Ferrari have made a considerable step forward this season, winning their first race in two years in Malaysia, Mercedes remain the team to beat—and the team to be at—having won all but four of the last 23 grands prix.

Ecclestone, when asked by Martin Brundle during Sky Sports' television coverage of the Bahrain GP, accepted Hamilton is "happy where he is," but McEvoy reports a paddock figure claimed Ferrari could offer Hamilton a deal to destabilise Mercedes as the fight for the 2015 crown intensifies.

It is not the first time Hamilton has been linked with a move to Ferrari, with the likes of Corriere dello Sport, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Autosprint (h/t Motorsport.com) reporting the British driver was spotted at the team's Maranello factory last summer.

Mercedes have explained the reasons behind the braking issues which threw their Bahrain Grand Prix into jeopardy.

In the latter stages of the Sakhir race, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were running first and second, respectively, when both cars developed brake problems.

As a result, Rosberg ran wide at Turn 1 on the penultimate lap, gifting Kimi Raikkonen the runner-up spot, while Hamilton was forced to ease his pace dramatically on the final lap to ensure he made it to the finish, crossing the line just 3.38 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, as per the official Formula One website. 

Mercedes were troubled by reliability issues throughout their title-winning campaign in 2014, but the team's pace advantage over the opposition meant the Silver Arrows' were never really penalised.

With Ferrari shadowing their every move in 2015, however, any technical problems will prove costly against the backdrop of an increasingly feisty championship battle, and there is little doubt Raikkonen would have won the Bahrain race had those brake issues appeared a lap previously.

Paddy Lowe, Mercedes' technical chief, explained that Rosberg's brakes had been an issue throughout the race, telling ESPN F1's Lawrence Edmondson:

We saw it in Nico's system all race from lap one but it finally went wrong on the third last lap, so that's why he went long because the brake-by-wire system converted from active to passive where it's no longer a powered system. Which is fine, you still have brakes, but it takes a bit of getting used to.

Lowe's colleague, Toto Wolff, told the same source the problem on Hamilton's car came as "a bit more of a surprise," but linked it to the reigning world champion's time spent behind lapped traffic and pre-qualifying setup changes, which carried the knock-on effect of increased brake temperatures.

After a slow start to the 2015 season, Lotus have scored points in the last two races with Romain Grosjean finishing seventh in China and Bahrain.

While Grosjean currently sits ninth in the drivers' championship after the first four grands prix of the year, the Frenchman's team-mate, Pastor Maldonado, is at the very bottom of the standings having failed to even reach the chequered flag so far this season.

Always regarded as one of the clumsiest drivers on the grid, the Venezuelan has plummeted to new lows this season, making contact with other cars in Australia, Malaysia, China and Bahrain before retiring from all four races.

The Chinese Grand Prix, in particular, was a horror show for Maldonado, who missed the pit-entry, spun on track and was hit by Jenson Button prior to suffering terminal brake problems at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Maldonado has scored only three points since the beginning of 2013, but believes his reputation as F1's crash kid means he is often subject to unfair criticism and treatment, highlighted by Button receiving a relatively lenient penalty for spinning the 30-year-old in China.

According to The Telegraph's Daniel Johnson, Maldonado said:

When Pastor crashes, it’s big news.

When the other people crash, there is no news. It’s like this. Normally in the past we saw even bigger penalties for these kind of things [the Button incident]. Similar situations. Especially with me. To find the limit, you need to cross the limit. I think I have the big balls to cross the limit every time. They were the good things in my career. I have been winning in everything in the past.

Maldonado will be hoping he can finally get off the mark in the Spanish Grand Prix, an event he won for Williams in 2012 after a straight fight with Fernando Alonso. However, the fact he scored more than half of his 49 career points that afternoon says it all.

A week after both Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi made it to the end of the Chinese Grand Prix, Manor Marussia secured their second double-finish of the 2015 season in Bahrain.

After both cars once again qualified at the very rear of the grid, Stevens, albeit two laps behind race winner Lewis Hamilton, ended the race in 16th position, while Merhi was lapped on three occasions en route to 17th.

Although the results, as has always been the case with Manor Marussia, might not be much to write home about, the team have made considerable progress since exiting administration in February and, indeed, the season-opening Australian Grand Prix weekend, where the team failed to take to the track.

After incurring the wrath of Bernie Ecclestone for their Albert Park no-show—the F1 supremo told Reuters' Alan Baldwin how he forced the team to pay for their own freight from Australia—Manor, running with a 2014-spec Ferrari power unit, have made steady improvements as each weekend has passed.

And following a Bahrain GP which came and went without his cars suffering failures of any kind, team principal John Booth has expressed his pride in his colleagues for weathering the early season storm, telling the outfit's official website:

After a really smooth weekend, another two-car finish is exactly how we wanted to close out the first round of long haul races. That achievement really cannot be underestimated. We head back to Europe feeling justifiably proud of how far we've come in such a short space of time, albeit we are very aware that the challenge kicks up a notch from here.

According to Sky Sports' Ted's Notebook roundup programme, the next round of 2015, the Spanish Grand Prix, could be a "watershed" moment, with Manor set for an overhaul—which could include a change of livery—over the three-week break as the team continue their rise from the ashes of the ill-fated Marussia F1 outfit.

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