As Kimi Raikkonen walked out of the paddock on Sunday night in Abu Dhabi, it was very clear that he was done with Formula 1.
On Friday, Raikkonen had sat down with Motorsport.com for what was meant to be a quick interview. It overran by around 10 minutes, to the surprise of his Alfa Romeo PRs, as he got a lot of frustration about F1 off his chest. He called out “fake things” in the series and railed against “all kinds of bullshit that goes around” that he was gladly behind.
We knew it would be the last we saw of Kimi Raikkonen in F1. But would it be the last we saw of Kimi Raikkonen in motorsport altogether? “Very easily,” was his reply when that question was put to him. “If there’s something that makes sense, then why not do it? But for sure, I first need to have some time off.”
The time off Raikkonen craved will ultimately total nine months before he makes his return to competitive racing in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen at the end of August, as announced on Thursday.
Raikkonen will join up with Trackhouse Racing for the road course event at Watkins Glen, being the first signing for its ‘Project91’ initiative that looks to give major international racing drivers a taste of NASCAR. It won’t be Raikkonen’s first rodeo in NASCAR, having driven in one Xfinity Series and one Truck Series race back in 2011 during his time away from F1. But it will be the first chance to see what kind of competitor post-F1 Kimi is like.
Any deal for Raikkonen return to racing was always going to have to accommodate Raikkonen’s family-first life now. The fact this is a one-off race meant it “made sense for all of us as a family”, according to Raikkonen. But it also offered something very different that would not require tons of preparation or testing. The plan is to get at least one test in the next-gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 ahead of the race, as well as some simulator running, but it will generally offer Raikkonen the kind of raw racing experience he has always enjoyed…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Motorsport.com – NASCAR – Storiesā¦