Kimi Raikkonen will join Citroen's World Rally Championship team next season.
The 2007 Formula 1 world champion has hinted for many years that he was keen to pursue a career in rallying after F1, and when he announced last month that he would take a sabbatical following the breakdown of his talks with McLaren, the WRC was seen as his most likely destination.
"I always wanted to compete in rally, especially in the World Rally Championship, at some point in my career," said Raikkonen, who will be backed by Red Bull.
Speculation has suggested that Raikkonen could return to F1 with Red Bull after his first WRC season. He confirmed that his Citroen deal only covered 2010 at present.
Raikkonen will drive in Citroen's junior team alongside up-and-coming Frenchman Sebastien Ogier. They will have identical cars to those of factory drivers Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo.
Raikkonen and Ogier will contest 12 of next year's 13 WRC rounds, but will skip the New Zealand event due to the high costs involved in taking part.
Karl Berridge
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Re: Raikkonen's Citroen WRC deal
Well, he'll certainly have more time to party, won't he?, i could never get my head round what people saw in him, he's carisma-less, more frown muscles than smile ones, only produced the goods when he felt like it, or was kicked up the rear too do so!, i don't think F1 will be any worse off without him,Martin(Brundle)certainly won't be asking or saying F1 isn't fun without Kimi, will he?