“For Kimi, he loved being behind the wheel, everything else about F1 he hated. He couldn’t stand it – he just wanted to drive.”
The Finn only reached the Formula 1 summit once, that being in 2007 when he pipped Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to the Drivers’ title in a dramatic climax at Interlagos.
Apart from that it was something of a career stacked with unfulfilled potential, even though Raikkonen retired at the end of the 2021 season with 21 race victories and 103 podium finishes to his name. There would surely have been more of those had he not taken a two-year sabbatical in 2010 and 2011 to try his hand at rallying and a brief experience in NASCAR.
Priestley worked closely with Raikkonen during their time together at McLaren, but they were on opposite sides when the Woking-based team had Hamilton and Alonso gunning for glory in 2007 against their former driver turned rival who had left for Ferrari. Although that turned out to be Raikkonen’s year, Priestley says there could have been others in addition had there been greater application from a racer who was“Kimi was the fastest over a lap on his day,” former senior
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