Alfa Romeo Racing Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen has been around Formula One paddocks for a long time. To be precise, he has been in the sport ever since his debut back in 2001. Last month the veteran Finn broke Fernando Alonso’s record for the farthest distance ever raced in Formula One. On lap 37, the 2007 World Champion overtook Alonso’s record of 83,882km.
Since Kimi managed to finish the race in Spain, he was able to extend his advantage to 84,013km. With plenty more races left on the calendar, Kimi Raikkonen has every opportunity to extend his mileage even further. It is amazing that Kimi Raikkonen has amassed so much mileage, considering that he took a two-year-long break from F1. Kimi had actually taken a sabbatical at the end of the 2009 season and returned for the 2012 season.
It is also worth noting that Raikkonen has also completed the most laps out of anybody else. The race in Spain took him ahead of Michael Schumacher, who has 16,825 laps under his belt. However, knowing the kind of person that Kimi Raikkonen is, he would not care two hoots about any records. Instead, he would be solely focused on trying to lift the Alfa Romeo team from being at the bottom of the grid.
Now Kimi is ready for a new milestone: the Finn is set to surpass Rubens Barrichello’s record for most F1 starts in the next race. At the Russian GP Kimi will break Rubens Barrichello’s record of 323 races: Would you have believed it in Australia in 2001 if I had told you then: you will still be driving in 19 years?
“Certainly not. I’ve dropped out of Formula One once before. I never had long-term plans for the future, I always looked from year to year.”- the Finn admitted.
Kimi also holds two F1 records that will probably never be broken again. Most races between Grand Prix wins (113) and most race starts between pole positions (129)
Leave a Reply