On the Brink of a Record, Kimi Raikkonen Reveals his Thoughts on the Feat

Kimi Raikkonen started his career with Sauber F1 in 2001. Raikkonen had a solid debut year, achieving four points-scoring finishes and eight finishes in the top eight. Completing the year with 9 points, Kimi Raikkonen, along with teammate Nick Heidfeld, helped Sauber to what was then its best result of fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Kimi Raikkonen was signed to Sauber for a full drive from near oblivion. He had performed some testing for Sauber in late 2000 after dominating the British Formula Renault series. So he impressed Peter Sauber and was given the full-time drive next to Nick Heidfeld. There were concerns that Raikkonen was inexperienced for F1. His super license granting was somewhat controversial during the offseason.

Kimi Raikkonen is the only driver to take a race win in the V10, V8 and the hybrid V6 engine eras. He won the 2007 Formula One World Championship in his first season at Ferrari F1. In addition to this, Kimi finished second overall in 2003 and 2005, and third in 2008, 2012 and 2018. He left Formula 1 after the 2009 season to race in the World Rally Championship in 2010 and 2011.

The Comeback King:

He returned to the sport in 2012 with Lotus F1. Kimi was able to win the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Lotus F1.  His most famous quote, “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.”  was uttered during the race

Raikkonen was then signed with Ferrari again in 2014 and raced with the team till 2018. He returned to a rebranded Sauber F1 which is now called Alfa Romeo F1 in 2019. Kimi Raikkonen had a great first half of the season, having scored 31 points before the summer break, which placed him eighth in the Drivers’ Championship after 12 races. He finished 12th in the Drivers’ Championship with 43 points, which is the best result for the Alfa Romeo F1 team since 2013.

Kimi Raikkonen in 2020 season:

At 40, Kimi Raikkonen is set to become the oldest driver on the grid. If all goes according to plan, this year the Iceman will also become the driver with the most race starts in the history of the sport. With 313 Grands Prix to his name, Kimi Raikkonen is ten races short of beating Rubens Barrichello’s 323 milestone number. Kimi Raikkonen who is known for his cold replies, admits he is not excited.

“On that, not [excited],” said Kimi to Formula1.com

“It gives me nothing, but I’m excited now to have another go and we can improve from this year and learn the lessons from what we’ve done wrong and what we’ve done good and get a bit closer to the front, but time will tell, it’s way too early. Once we start running the cars in the first race… we will get a good idea.”  He further added.

Lewis Hamilton who recently turned 35 jokingly said “I need to start paying Kimi to stay so I’m not the oldest! Luckily, I think he’s going to keep going.“