Kimi Raikkonen hopes he’ll stop being Ferrari’s most recent champion ‘in the near future’. Kimi hopes he'll stop being Ferrari's most recent champion 'in the near future'.

Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen admitted that he is surprised by the fact that he still remains the Maranello team’s most recent Formula 1 World Champion. Kimi won the Formula 1 title back in 2007 in his first season alongside Ferrari, after a dramatic last race of the season, beating the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by a single point to take his only Formula 1 championship.

The Finnish driver ended his career in 2021 after three years with Alfa Romeo, following his second period with Ferrari. Whilst Kimi Raikkonen is proud of what he has achieved in Formula 1, he does not feel that this performance changed his life, other than altering how others viewed him.

“Obviously it’s nice,” Kimi Raikkonen said, in his interview for the Beyond The Grid podcast. “It’s [one of the reasons] why all of us are here. Unfortunately, one wins every year, and [if you look at the] history, there’s a lot of the same people who seemed to be winning most of them. It’s something I always wanted to do, and I achieved it. Also with Ferrari, I think it was nice to win with them, definitely. But it looks better on paper than it makes any difference in my life, in many ways. People might look [at] you differently because you have won, rather than if you don’t. It doesn’t really make any sense.” – he explained.

Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma!

Kimi Raikkonen remaind with Ferrari for the 2008 campaign and left the Italian side after the 2009 championship in order to try a different racing experience. He them returned to Formula 1 by joining Lotus before being called by Scuderia Ferrari for his second stint, which took place between 2014 and 2018.

Unfortunately for the Maranello team, no other driver has been able to win the world Championship since Kimi Raikkonen’s 2007 achievemnt, and this is something of a surprise to the 42-year-old: “Yeah, but that’s just how it happened,” Kimi Raikkonen replied, when asked if he was surprised to be Ferrari’s most recent champion – “They’ve come close, sometimes. But when I left there in 2018, I said [that] I wish them all the best and hope they will change that soon, but it hasn’t happened yet. But, who knows, maybe next year [or] in the near future [it will change].” – the Finn concluded.