There are only six races left before Kimi Raikkonen’s legendary Formula 1 career comes to an end. But in true iceman fashion, the Finn says he can’t imagine replacing the thrill of Formula 1 when he retires.
Assuming he starts the remaining six races, Raikkonen will increase his record of the most started grands prix in F1 history to 349. After all that, you’d think that driving a Formula 1 car against 19 of its greatest fellow drivers in the world would be hard to beat. But Raikkonen wasn’t worried when asked how he would replace the adrenaline rush.
“I don’t think I have to replace it,” said Raikkonen. “It’s a perfectly normal thing that we do, at least for me. I’ve been doing this for many, many years, so in many ways it’s no different than driving a car.
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“Of course you feel the speed when you have some fights or go off in the wrong place, but I think there are a lot of other things I do that are much more frightening in many ways.”
Raikkonen had no problem replacing the thrill of Formula 1
When asked about the exciting things he could do outside of Formula 1, Raikkonen joked: “Of course it can sometimes be quite exciting at home with the kids, you never know!
“I try to ride motocross when I can, and more often there are more scared than here. [F1’s] a completely normal thing for us. Is it exciting What’s exciting? It feels normal to us to drive … When you have a long break and drive an F1 car for the first time, it feels fast, but then it kind of is [becomes] a perfectly normal thing. “
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Raikkonen’s previous 343 starts also brought the 2007 World Championship and 21 victories. The last of these came in 2018 at the Circuit of The Americas, which hosts Formula 1 races that weekend – and Raikkonen admitted that the Texan track held a special place in his affection.
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“I have fond memories of COTA,” said Raikkonen. “Of course it was where I got my last win, so it’s a nice thing to look back on.
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“But once I get into the car, it doesn’t matter. We know we have to do everything well if we want to take something out of the race, and that starts on Friday. We had two races [in Russia and Tukey] in which the conditions changed and we had to react to them, let’s see what the weekend in America has to offer and where we end up. “
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