On his last Grand Prix appearance as a Ferrari driver, Kimi Raikkonen was in the official FIA press conference on Thursday afternoon in Abu Dhabi. Naturally, the Finn’s future was what held the most interest for the journalists. “My situation is not any different than a few races ago. I don’t have a contract anymore with Ferrari. It is the last race and we try to make a good result and we will see what happens in the future,” he began. “Basically I have a few different options and we will see what is the best one overall and then make my decision. Rallying is definitely one option, but I mean it is not just Formula One and rallying. There are other things I could do and we will see what happens. It’s definitely going to be Formula One, but it would have to be in the contract that I’m allowed to do rallying. It’s not going to hurt you. Any kind of driving is always going to give you some experience, so I don’t see what’s the issue. It’s been working well this year, so as long as it doesn’t disturb what you’re doing in Formula One or whatever you do, I don’t see that there’s any problem."

Looking back at the second half of this season, Raikkonen was reasonably happy with what he and the team had achieved. “Our car is definitely not the fastest but we found a pretty good way of working with it and getting the best out of it. It has been more normal to drive than for a long time before. Once you get something that you have a good feeling with, then usually you get good results. The bigger teams or the better teams who have been faster this year should have done better; better cars should mean better results and better points overall in the last part, but they haven’t managed that and I think we did pretty well.”

With this race starting as the sun goes down, rather than running all of it at night, as in Singapore, the Scuderia Ferrari man was asked if he expected any visibility problems. “No I don’t think there will be any problems,” he maintained. “Of course, it might look a little bit different at some point when the sun disappears but the lights, at least in Singapore, were so good that you hardly see the difference between day and night. Here, it will be quite hot anyhow, so it should be OK.”

And finally, did Raikkonen have any advice for his successor at the Scuderia, Fernando Alonso, with whom he was sharing the platform in the conference. “I don’t think I need to tell him anything; for sure he will find out all he needs to know. He’s been in Formula One a long time and he’s not going to have any issues there. I think he’s probably been there before and met the people already, so there’s not much to say.”

The new circuit with its unusual pit lane exit that crosses the track through a tunnel was the first thing Giancarlo Fisichella was asked about when he had his usual Thursday media session at Ferrari’s hospitality. “I did a lap of the track on foot this morning with my engineers and from what I’ve seen on the simulator, the pit lane exit should be very interesting,” said the Scuderia Ferrari driver. “Actually, you pass the point where the pit lane speed limiter comes off before you tackle the tunnel, so we will have to wait and see tomorrow if it is tricky or not.”

At the last race, Fisischella admitted he was disappointed to have failed to score any points so far in his brief time in the cockpit of the F60, so his aim for this weekend is obvious. “I hope I am well prepared for the race, driving this track on the simulator, it went well and I hope I can get a good enough result to help Ferrari to get back to third place in the Constructors’ classification and I will give it my best shot.” Indeed, this is the Roman’s last race for the team, as next year’s driver line up has already been fixed as Massa-Alonso. “I think for me, this opportunity to race for Ferrari was a dream I’d had since I was a child and in the end it came true when I had given up hope that it would ever happen. So you should never say never! I am very happy with what I have done and I would not turn back the clock, even if I have struggled in these last few races with Ferrari, for the obvious reason that is not easy to get into a car you don’t know, which was made even more complex because of the use of KERS and the fact it handled very differently under braking. Recently, I was able to match Kimi’s pace in the race, so this weekend, I hope to have a better qualifying which would be the first step to getting some points.”

While it is his last race, Fisichella will still work for the Scuderia next year, but there is also a chance he might race in Grands Prix as well. “I have a contract with Ferrari for next year, but If there was an offer from another team, I would along with Ferrari, evaluate whether or not it would be feasible to be the third driver and race for another team in F1,” he explained. “At the moment, there is no decision but to be the third driver for a top team like Ferrari is already something to be very proud of. The atmosphere is fantastic here and I really feel at home.”