Kimi Raikkonen is set to race in his last at the Abu Dhabi GP later this week. In his Press conference, Raikonnen joked that it was not the first time that he was leaving the team, and that it was not a new thing for him. Raikkonen had spent eight seasons with the team from Maranello and still remains their last world champion when he won it back in 2007.

“Obviously, I had this leaving them once already so it’s not a new thing. I’m not sad because I don’t see why we need to be sad. We will stay as friends. We’re going to see a lot of us anyhow in the paddock so not an awful lot changes,” Raikkonen said at the press conference at the Yas Marina Circuit on Thursday.

“We’ll both go for new things and I think it’s exciting but we’ve had good times with the team, great people. We’ve had some difficult times, but that’s part of business and I think that’s how it should go: sometimes it needs to be a bit hard”, said Kimi Raikkonen.

“No, obviously I won the championship with them, as a driver”,  he continued. “We twice won the team (championship) so I’m very happy to be part of it because there’s not many people who have done it. We will happily go different ways. We’re not that far away from each other and we will keep doing what we do,” he added.

However the “Iceman” showed why he is called that, by cracking another emotionless joke, when asked about a podium finish. “I don’t think it’s changing my world any way. If I end up third, I think we need to go wherever the prize giving is so it’s a negative thing in the end, you know, more travelling but we’ll see.”

Raikonnen said he was excited for a new chapter in his life with Sauber. “Obviously it’s a different challenge. If you ask many people there are lots of different opinions how it’s going to go but we’ll find out next year and we’ll do our best. I think we have a good change to do some great things,” said Kimi Raikkonen.