Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen shared his thoughts on the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series debut in next weekend at Watkins Glen following his first test runs in the Next Gen car a few days ago.
First, Chevrolet put Kimi Raikkonen in the simulator along with Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez and, on Thursday, the 2007 Formula One World Champion with Ferrari got the chance to test one of the original Next Gen prototype cars at Virginia International Raceway, the race track located in Alton, Virginia, near Danville.
The professional stock car auto racing organization then posted a short video of Kimi Raikkonen giving his first impressions about this experience. The Finnish driver thanked NASCAR for permitting him to take part in the testing session and confirmed the team has done everything they could to get ready for his debut next weekend:
“Yeah, so far,” – the former Scuderia Ferrari driver replied, having been asked if the experience was as fun as he expected it to be – “So far, the team has done a great job; really nice people all around. It’s been fun today, being in the car — and I haven’t driven any race car since the last Formula 1 race — so it was fun, and hopefully we can get a…good result out of the race.” – Kimi Raikkonen added.
It will be a very interesting but also difficult challenge for the 2007 Formula 1 world champion, who will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut on a race track he has never competed at until now.
“I don’t have anything to compare [the car with] but I think it was nice to get some laps, even if it’s not exactly the same car that we’re going to race. It was very beneficial just to put laps and have some fun, to know what the car is somewhat doing, do longer runs to find out so I’m sure it’ll be easier to go into practice come the race [weekend]. Obviously I have a little experience with the Cup car from 2011. This car is a new generation car, it’s a lot nicer, I guess more or less what I expected. I tried the simulator so I had some idea, it’s OK, obviously the same things happen to it like a normal car, so when the tires get hot you’re sliding more.” – concluded Kimi Raikkonen, who has one Xfinity Series start and one Truck Series race under his belt more than ten years ago, during his sabbatical from Formula 1.
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