In many ways, when Kimi Raikkonen competes for one last time in Formula 1, it will almost feel like the end of an era. He may not be up with the best in the business in terms of results in recent times, but he can still hold his head high.
Interestingly, he is till date the last Ferrari driver to win a world championship. That surely counts for something!
Having been around in the sport for so long, it is natural that even someone who seems as frosty as The Iceman will make friends along the way. One such person, it seems, is Fernando Alonso.
The duo raced together back in 2014 as teammates and still share a healthy friendship.
Recently, on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Alonso spoke about Raikkonen and some of the conversations he has had with the fan-favourite.
It was certainly headline-grabbing stuff, as Alonso said that he had often discussed how ‘fake’ F1 is with Kimi.
“We live in a bubble, we don’t have a normal life. We travel in planes with all the comforts, we stay in five-star hotels, but on Sunday night we are ordinary people,” he said.
“Kimi and I have different ideas about F1 and we have often laughed about how fake F1 is sometimes.”
There are few people that Raikkonen seems to get along with in the world of F1. In front of the public eye, it seems like he shares an amicable relationship with his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi as well as former teammates Sebastian Vettel and Alonso.
Reminiscing the good times
Looking back at their time together in the sport, Alonso said that there was a lot of positivity for both of them to take, none more so than the fact that they are both former world champions.
“When you start in Formula 1, you don’t have a clear idea of what the future holds,” the Spaniard said.
“Kimi and I have had exciting seasons in Formula 1. We have both been world champions, something you can never be sure of when you come into this racing class. I’m very happy to have shared so many years with him.”
Raikkonen has such a distinguished and unique personality that he will possibly never be replaced in the sport. Let’s hope he puts on a show for his fans in his last two appearances!