Kimi Raikkonen is making his last appearance with Ferrari when he takes to the new Abu Dhabi circuit in the United Arab Emirates for the first time this weekend.
The race brings an end to a three-year relationship that brought Raikkonen and the team its first driver's and constructors' championships in 2007 since Michael Schumacher's reign.
"It's time for me to say good-bye to the guys at Ferrari after three years together," Raikkonen said. "I'm proud of the things we achieved, especially the Driver's Title in 2007 and the Constructors' title in the same year and in 2008."
Raikkonen won six races in 2007 and has won a total of nine races with the team. But, he struggled this year with Ferrari, as the team was behind several more dominant teams with the technology of their car.
Currently sitting sixth in the standings with one victory and 48 points so far this season, Raikkonen was released a year early from his contract with Ferrari to make room for a move by Fernando Alonso to the team.
He has voiced concern with the team's decision not to improve its car in the second half of the season and continued to remark on that fact as he issued his last Ferrari race preview.
"We'll try to conclude this difficult year with a good result, hoping that it will be enough to gain the third place in the Constructors' Championship, McLaren took over in Brazil," Raikkonen said. "It will be difficult, because the competition is very strong. Our direct competitors are still improving their car, while we have been using the same car since the race in Hungary at the end of July."
The Grand Prix of Hungary saw Raikkonen's teammate Felipe Massa suffer a bizarre skull injury that ruined the rest of his season.
Despite his protest about the lack of technical change, Raikkonen's sole victory this season came in this span of no new development and he scored 38 of his season's points since Hungary. He still has the opportunity to take over fifth in the standings, as he takes to the Formula One circuit in a prancing horse for the last time for one more shot at victory lane sporting red colors.
"This season the car wasn't as competitive as we wanted, but at least we managed to win one race and we gained a certain amount of points," Raikkonen said. "Let's hope we can conclude the season with something nice to be remembered."
The inaugural Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi takes the green flag at 8 a.m. (ET) Sunday morning.
