Kimi Raikkonen Wants This F1 Track Back on the Calendar

Liberty Media have been busy planning for a bigger race calendar in Formula 1 from the next season. In favor of their planning, a lot of circuits have either made a debut or a comeback in this season. During the press conference at one such race weekend, Portugal Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen opened up that he would want to see the Donington Park Circuit back on the F1 calendar.

Kimi was asked about which circuit he would prefer to race around in the Formula 1 car. The Finn replied, “I like English tracks. So maybe Donington Park?”

One might wonder why Kimi loves the track so much. Donington Park Circuit is located in Leicestershire, England. The length of this circuit is just over 4kms with 12 turns, most of which are high-speed corners. The track also held a juicy main straight but was later shortened during the revamping period.

Donington Park hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix back in 1993 and has remained the only race till date to have been hosted by the Circuit. Later in 2010, the circuit almost hosted another F1 race. Unfortunately, the owners were struck with a financial crisis, due to which the race weekend was eventually shifted to Silverstone.

With the current F1 regulations, it would be interesting to watch these incredibly designed F1 cars zoom around the high-speed circuit. It is likely that the current generation cars will do a 1 minute or an even lesser lap time.

Donington Park also holds similar characteristics as the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal, over which the F1 drivers will be racing around this weekend.

Kimi Raikkonen reveals he has no knowledge of the Portimao circuit

Most of the teams will be entering this weekend with uncertainty prevailing over their head. Kimi mentioned that Alfa Romeo do not have the track on their simulator and only got to watch the safety car drive around the track.

Like Alfa Romeo, most of the other teams, too, will rely entirely on the practice sessions to get an idea of how their cars behave on this circuit.

The Algarve circuit is a very tricky one to drive on, especially with these high-speed F1 cars. There are massive elevation changes throughout the track which makes visibility nil at some places.

To add to the teams’ woes, the weather will play a huge role this weekend. Both Friday and Saturday are predicted to be completely dry. Sunday is the day the F1 teams will be watching out for, with rains predicted through the day, especially during the lights-off.

Hence, there is more than one headache heading towards the F1 teams that they need to be prepared for. From a fan’s perspective, could F1 be heading towards an unpredictable race similar to the Tuscan Grand Prix? Watch the race on Sunday to know.