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It has been confirmed that Sebastian Vettel has extended his current contract with Ferrari by three years, signing the deal during this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. This follows the confirmation that Kimi Raikkonen will also remain at the Scuderia for 2018, meaning that the Italian team will run an unchanged driver lineup next season.
Vettel's original contract with Ferrari that he signed in 2015 was set to run out at the end of this season, which resulted in a flurry of rumours that linked the German F1 ace to a switch to Mercedes. While these rumours were rubbished by Lewis Hamilton, Niki Lauda did confirm that Vettel had been in talks with Mercedes, although Toto Wolff denied this.
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“We discussed it briefly once with him, but the more competitive Ferrari goes the less the reason he would want to leave,” said Lauda when talking to Sky Sports F1. “So therefore we stopped right away a couple of months ago. I think every driver, if he’s clever, talks to more than one team. Then when you negotiate you’re in a better position. That’s what he did.”
As Vettel is off the driver market for next season, it is likely that Mercedes will re-sign Valtteri Bottas for 2018, with the Finn currently on a one year contract that he signed at the start of this season to replace Nico Rosberg, who retired from the sport after winning the championship in 2016.
Chris Soulsby
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