Raikkonen on his life in and out of F1
Kimi Raikkonen was predictably underwhelmed when he became F1’s most experienced driver at the recent Eifel Grand Prix, but that could be part of the secret of his success, as he tells Autosport
Does Kimi Raikkonen care about any of the above?
OF COURSE HE DOESN’T. Raikkonen, the Iceman, has made a career out of not caring. It’s his niche, what makes him a cult hero (a status perhaps aided by his world title triumph being 13 years ago). He’s a driver who says what he thinks, if anything, and doesn’t care if anyone is listening.
But this is the thing – Raikkonen has just become F1’s most experienced driver of all time. Even if motorsport wasn’t naturally geared towards statistical salivation, the list of names to have held that accolade is impressive (see panel, p25). To name but a few: Juan Manuel Fangio, Graham Hill… now Raikkonen.
Ahead of him clinching the record for world championship grand prix starts, Autosport got the chance to speak to Raikkonen in a rare (thanks to 2020’s restrictive unpleasantness) face-to-face interview. After establishing that he firmly, and unsurprisingly, doesn’t care about taking the mantle of F1’s most experienced from Rubens Barrichello (“No, not really, ”is his response to our opening question. “if somebody would ask me the number, I have no idea – I’ve never really looked how many races I’ve done or how many others have done”) and that again, he’s “not really” bothered by how he’s remembered, we ask Raikkonen to take us back 19 years.
At the 2001 Australian Grand Prix, Raikkonen, then aged 21, graduated straight to F1 as reigning Formula Renault UK champion, after just two years of car racing. In Melbourne that year, as Michael Schumacher won for Ferrari, Raikkonen raced to seventh at the flag from 13th on the grid in his first race for Sauber. He was upgraded to sixth and a debut point when BAR’S Oliver Panis was handed a post-race penalty for overtaking under yellow flags.
“It was nice, ”he recalls. “there was a lot of talk about my superlicence or whatever it was [called] at that time. I always assumed you got it and then you have it, but then there was some [problem, with people saying:], ‘oh yeah, you have for two races or three races and this and that. ’but I didn’t care, basically.
“Going to Australia the first time – everything is new and testing is a different story but it was OK. I enjoyed it and I think we could have done better even [in the race], but we were happy to get the point in the first race. After that you kind of relax and all this nonsense stuff kind of stopped.”
Since his successful F1 debut, Raikkonen has gone on to start 322 more races, take those 21 wins, secure 82 further podiums and score 18 poles. He’s raced for four more teams (Mclaren, Ferrari twice, Lotus and his current Alfa Romeo squad) and of course triumphed for the Prancing Horse in that sensational title battle against warring Mclaren rivals Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in 2007.
There were also two years spent rallying and sampling NASCAR after being paid out of his Ferrari contract for 2010, before his successful F1 comeback with Lotus in 2012.
In all that time, F1 has changed. In terms of major regulation changes, there was 2005’s one-tyre rule (one of Raikkonen’s two