Villeneuve: Ferrari must keep Raikkonen

The next piece of the puzzle to fit is expected to be confirmation that Kimi Raikkonen will spend another year at Ferrari alongside Sebastian Vettel, a scenario that 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve is encouraging Maranello to maintain.

Meanwhile, time waits for nobody, in the F1 paddock a new generation of impressive young guns is emerging, one among them is Charles Leclerc who has made a strong case for himself to be considered for promotion to Ferrari amid an excellent rookie season with Sauber.

The Monegasque would be the first graduate to the Scuderia from the team's in-house Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA), thus some believe it is a toss-up between the two - Leclerc or Raikkonen - but the smart money is on the veteran Finn getting the nod because he ticks all the boxes, including a healthy relationship with Vettel and a strong ally in team chief Maurizio Arrivabene.

Villeneuve was asked during an interview on "Beyond the Grid" podcast if the Ferrari driver deserved another year with Reds, he replied, "Of course! Look how well he has been doing."

"He is third in the championship, his often quicker than Vettel and when he is not he is a tenth or so behind, he is paramount in the development of the car. The whole team works fantastically well now."

"Put a young cub next to Vettel, what will Vettel do? He will tr toy eat him alive, he will either destroy the young cub or it will end in tears and the team will end up going slower within two years."

Leclerc looks destined to be a Ferrari driver at some point in the future, but right now Villeneuve says the 20-year-old needs more grooming, "Charles is still making a few mistakes. It would be great for Leclerc, it would be amazing for him but it will be two years of Ferrari preparing him. Ferrari is like Mercedes, it is not a team to prepare drivers."

"It's a top team, top teams pay for the drivers when they are at their best and when they want them. That's why you have junior teams to prepare them."

Legend (or be it myth?) suggests that racing drivers slow down once they have kids, but according to Villeneuve quite the opposite is happening with the 38-year-old, "Kimi has been quite chatty now, he makes full phrases and they are coherent, so now I think you see more who he is now than in the past. He also is doing his best driving this way."

"I think having a kid some people will say you lose one second per kid, with Kimi it looks more like he has been gaining and his work is better having kids."

"Maybe it gave him a reason in life to do something positive, to become better at something, to show... I don't know but it seems to have tied the line."

"You never know what will affect you psychologically and sometimes in the most unlikely situations will have averse or a positive result. You never know how it will turn out," added Villeneuve.

Raikkonen was the last driver to win the world championship for Ferrari when he triumphed in 2007, He departed the team at the end of 2009 to be replaced by Fernando Alonso at Maranello.

He spent a couple of years in the wilderness before returning to F1 in 2012 with Lotus where he impressed enough for Ferrari to lure him back to the team for 2014, where he remains alongside Vettel.

Below podcast is a good hour or so of interview with Jacques worth listening to as one would expect of a non-conformist F1 world champion.