Kimi Raikkonen has admitted Alfa Romeo’s level of competitiveness in 2021 will not impact whether🍃 he continues racing in Formula 1.

2021 is Raikkonen’s 19th season in F1 and the Finn h♐as 330 grand prix starts to his name - the most of anyo🦄ne in the history of the sport.

Alfa Romeo appears to have 𓂃made a step forward in terms of performance, ben♕efitting from the gains made by Ferrari with its power unit.

Raikkonen and teammate Antonio Giovinazzi narrowly missed out on the points at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prixꦦ, but the duওo were well clear of Williams and Haas - Alfa's main rivals in 2020.

“I doubt it’s going to make any difference in what will happen for next year,” Raikkonen said. “Obviously the better we can do, the more fun it is, not just f♋or us drivers but for the team and eveﷺrybody is happier the better we do. 

“The years when you’re not exactly where you want to be are always long years and it’s not as much fun and you can see that in everybody’s faces. Obviously, wherever we end up in the first race we’ll keep on working and trying to improve and hopefully we’ll be up there where we want to be, regularly challenging for the points. For su🥂re it's not going to be easy, everyone wants to be up there, so we just have to keep on working.”

Assessing the pဣerformance of the Alfa Romeo C41, Raikkonen believes it is a clear “step forward” on its predecessor. 

“Yes, for sure, we have a bit more horsepower and it’s definitely a step forward,” Raikkonen added. “In many ways you would expect all the manufacturers to be doing the same thing, depending on how much they improved or didn’t improve compared to last year. It’sꦍ a step in t🐲he right direction but it’s the same as with the car, you always want more, but it’s going in the right direction.”