WHAT IT’S LIKE TO INTERVIEW RAIKKONEN DURING A PANDEMIC
We all know how the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way we work – and motorsport journalism is no different. For months after the aborted Australian
Grand Prix, interviews with Formula 1 personnel were limited to phone and video calls, with face-to-face interaction banned even when racing resumed at the new season opener in Austria.
That changed from the Belgian GP, when the strict Covid-secure protocols enacted by the FIA and F1 altered fractionally to include a ‘mixed-zone’ meeting area
(strictly by appointment only, with masks mandatory at all times, in a room away from the paddock). And it just so happened that Autosport’s first ‘normal’ interview was with Kimi Raikkonen – famously frustrated by the media… Here’s how we got on.
After having to call for assistance in getting into the Monza meeting room due to encountering an unexpectedly heavy door that we embarrassingly think is locked (the alternative entry is indeed locked, hence our panic), we arrive at the designated table just seconds before Raikkonen and Alfa Romeo’s press officer turn up.
Keeping a watching brief on Raikkonen’s right hand – we’ve learned from The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen by Kari Hotakainen that if he uses it to scratch his neck it’s a sign “the boy’s pissed off” – we dive into our first question. It’s high-risk: does he even care about the record?
He doesn’t, but our gambit appears to pay off. Kimi is far more forthcoming than in the larger press conferences (traditional or Zoom-based in 2020) and we get him laughing before the end, when he acknowledges he’ll never return to F1 in a TV role. He talks at length – admittedly his mask makes our transcribing task even harder than normal, with his habit of tailing off answers at the end – and, although he’s slightly light on specifics (with more than 300 race starts in the books, who can blame him?), he goes the extra mile.
We’ve raised a laugh from the Iceman and the right hand has stayed away from his neck. Interview over – after which we’re the ones to inform him it’s the Nurburgring where he’ll break Rubens Barrichello’s record.
“Oh, so it’s the Nurburgring? Well, if we start all the races…”
“WE GET A LAUGH WHEN HE ACKNOWLEDGES HE’LL NEVER RETURN TO F1 IN A TV ROLE”