“Everything else he hated,” Ex-McLaren mechanic reveals the only thing Kimi Raikkonen wanted to do
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Kimi Raikkonen
Kimi Raikkonen, popularly known as ‘The Iceman’ is a very well known and respected figure in Formula 1. After retiring from the sport after what was 20 years, the Finn has left us with a bunch of records and iconic performances that have definitely sealed his place in the sport’s hall of fame. Although his former mechanic at McLaren had an interesting take to share with everyone directly solely at Kimi’s behaviour.
After Kimi Raikkonen won the drivers championship for Ferrari in 2007, the team hasn’t been able to win it since making him the team’s last champion so far. It just goes on to show that what the Finnish driver pulled off wasn’t as easy to do for drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and now Charles Leclerc. In his F1 career, Raikkonen has acquired a total of 21 race victories and 103 podium finishes.
Marc Priestly who was Kimi’s former mechanic at McLaren wen on to praise the driver for his achievements in the sport. Although he also went on to say that the Finn was only focused on what happened out on the track and had no interest in the other side of Forming 1. Marc further went on to give his take on Kimi Raikkonen and explained what could have been for the driver if he made a few changes.
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“Kimi was far from being the most complete Formula 1 driver,” Marc Priestly on Kimi Raikkonen’s antics in the sport
“Kimi was the fastest over a lap on his day. But Kimi was far from being the most complete Formula 1 driver. He won a World Championship, you can’t knock him, but he only won one. And I firmly believe – and he had no desire to do this – but if he’d applied himself like a Lewis Hamilton, he could have gone on to win many World Championships,” he said.
“He had that amount of talent, whereas Lewis does apply, still to this day, still looking for every marginal gain, every little advantage you can. I think Fernando is exactly the same. They went about it in different ways those two, but I think Fernando and Lewis were the two that try to encompass everything to be the whole best Formula 1 driver, not just the bit behind the wheel,” he continued.
“For Kimi, he loved being behind the wheel, everything else about Formula 1 he hated. He couldn’t stand it – he just wanted to drive,” he concluded.
Kimi Raikkonen was far from being the perfect F1 driver, yet he still managed to make a deep impact on the sport and ended up achieving a lot of success in almost two decades of racing with the circus. Now that he is not on the grid, his presence is missed. The Finnish driver had come to watch a race this season. Which one do you think it was?
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Varad Joshi
(940 Articles Published)