Raikkonen intends to put family first after F1 retirement

2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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Kimi Raikkonen says he doesn’t yet have plans to race in another series after announcing he will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season.

The 42-year-old, who made his Formula 1 debut 20 years ago, spent two years out of F1 in 2010 and 2011, during which time he competed in the World Rally Championship and NASCAR-sanctioned events. But Raikkonen intends to begin his retirement spending more time with his family including his wife and two children.

His decision to retire “wasn’t made yesterday”, said Raikkonen. “I have an experience on that, so it was working out okay at that time.”

“I’ve been a long time here,” he explained. “Luckily I would say that F1 it’s never been my life in a way – it takes a lot, lot of time from from our lives. But it’s never been, let’s say, the main thing in my life, I was living my life outside doing normal things and so on that hand it’s fun.”

Raikkonen said has not “no plans” to carry on racing elsewhere yet. “I don’t want to have some schedule put on because obviously the last 18, 19 years in F1 since I started and I did rally in those two years, there was always a schedule, always what is coming next and what is this date, on that date. So I don’t want that.

“That’s for sure one of the big reasons why I want to also do something else. The life doesn’t go because of the race or whatever it is, the work that is involved in F1. There’s other schedules – family, the kids’ schools and kindergartens and that stuff.

“But I also don’t want that the family life is dictated by when is the race or test or whatever, the flight to the next work. So I’m not in a rush, not even thought about it at all yet.”

He indicated his decision to retire was made some time earlier. “I’ve known this situation for quite a while. There’s always the opportunities to do this or do that. But right now I’m not interested to even think about.”

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2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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2 comments on “Raikkonen intends to put family first after F1 retirement”

  1. So, with Kimi out of F1 I won’t have to take out a Sky subscription…. What savings!

  2. Leave him alone. Kimi knows what he’s not thinking about. ;-)

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