Will Kimi Raikkonen’s appetite have been sufficiently whetted by his first taste of the NASCAR Cup Series to come back for more? That’s the million dollar question.
Over the years, this writer has covered ex-Formula 1 stars Mika Hakkinen, Jean Alesi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and David Coulthard in the DTM and the likes of Nigel Mansell, Gianni Morbidelli, Derek Warwick and Johnny Herbert in the British Touring Car Championship. So why does a driver, who’s performed well and achieved great things at the very pinnacle of motorsport, feel the need to put a roof over their head?
From a primitive perspective, the loss of white-hot competition is surely a strong motivator in each case, as is a reduction of income (albeit let’s assume they not exactly living on the breadline) and an ego-driven requirement to remain in the limelight to display their talents.
And while spending more time with family after a demanding, time-consuming career is desirable, after a while it’s understandable that drivers relish the prospect of getting back to having some fun with some like-minded mates on the track. As much as racing drivers would like you to believe they’re multi-faceted, amazingly cultured individuals, experience suggests they’re not all quite as multi-dimensional as they’d wish you believe. But they absolutely crave competition, and once you’ve tasted a contest at the rarefied level then that tooth-and-claw battle is a tough one to walk away from completely.
When NASCAR Cup Series outfit Trackhouse Racing first launched its Project 91 initiative and its intentions to attract a top international star, Motorsport.com journalists picked out who they’d like to see in the hot seat. “Kimi Raikkonen has raced in NASCAR Trucks and Xfinity before, and he must be getting bored now,” I wrote. And lo, it came to pass.
Why NASCAR?
Prior to Watkins Glen on Sunday, Raikkonen hadn’t started a motor race since the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last of his 349 F1 starts. His glittering career is crowned by the 2007 world championship, along with 21 grand prix wins and over 100 F1 podiums.
In the 251 days since, a man who’s raced almost 100,000km in an F1 car hadn’t driven a racing car truly in anger until Sunday’s race at ‘The Glen’. It certainly was fun to see him back in action, and it seemed like personal enjoyment was his true driving force all weekend. After his couple of Truck and Xfinity Series starts during his hiatus…
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