Raikkonen rushed off the track due to a brake failure in the car.
In Abu Dhabi's F1 finale, Hamilton and Verstappen's "one-circle fix" and hugely controversial safety car strategy took away almost all the attention, but before this mixed drama was staged, on the same track, an era quietly came to an end.
On lap 26, 42-year-old Finnish driver Raikkonen rushed off the track due to a car brake failure and hit the parapet on the sidelines; on lap 28, Raikkonen, unable to hold on, drove back to the pit and ended his race early, thus ending his 20-year F1 career.
After retiring from racing, Raikkonen just silently took off his helmet, he could finally truly enjoy the loneliness away from the hustle and bustle, and the moment he stepped out of the car, the poster behind him had only a few words - 2007, F1 World Champion.
Family portrait of Raikkonen.
Decommissioning ceremony from Ferrari
As the only post-70s driver currently on the F1 track, Raikkonen confirmed that he would retire at the end of the season long before the race.
To this end, the old club Ferrari Team held a brief farewell ceremony for him the day before the race, which was attended by Ferrari CEO Wigna and team leader Binotto.
Ferrari racing teams hold retirement farewell ceremonies for drivers from other teams, which is quite rare in F1 history. Raikkonen himself expressed his gratitude to his old club in Italian through personal social media: "Ferrari and Italy, the country, will always have a special place in my heart." ”
Indeed, Ferrari has an extraordinary significance for Raikkonen, where he won the only drivers' championship of his career here in 2007, and Ferrari is the only F1 team he has joined twice (2007, 2009, 2014-2019), but the reason why Raikkonen has been able to occupy a special place in the minds of the majority of fans is that it is not a championship that can be won.
The handsome Raikkonen attracted thousands of fans that year.
Cold rider, inclusive heart
Raikkonen could always be regarded as the most maverick in the paddock—he was taciturn, but his few words sounded tedious but full of meaning.
One of the most typical questions is "What does starting from fifth mean to you?", which he replied "means it's a fifth position." ”
He has also been asked by the media that many drivers have ritual movements related to their helmets before the race, do you have? Raikkonen said: "I will rub it so that I can see it more clearly." ”
What's even more iconic is that whenever you take the podium and spray champagne, the wine of victory is always left to yourself...
Raikkonen is not a repeating machine, he is used to looking at things from his own point of view, and when he feels that there is no wave in his heart, he will choose silence.
Raikkonen, cold to the end.
In Raikkonen's quote, there is a sentence that may make you feel funny - when Hamilton first lifted the championship, the excited lad told reporters, "It feels better than love." A reporter asked Raikkonen to express his opinion, and he replied: "Maybe Lewis is still a child." ”
Raikkonen cares more about his inner thoughts and does not deliberately curry favor with the outside world, and he himself has said: "I am not interested in what people think of me, and I am not Michael Schumacher." ”
Raikkonen lay on the edge of the track resting.
If Raikkonen's fledgling was more or less to conquer a large number of fans with a handsome face, and with the passage of time, the authenticity and arbitrariness in his bones have become more and more precious.
In fact, despite being called the "Iceman," everyone he worked with spoke highly of Raikkonen. Former Ferrari executive Camerelli said: "There are many people in this circle who have no one in sight, and Raikkonen has never been one of them. The physicalist Anore also emphasized: "He has an inclusive heart." ”
Team staff signed off on Raikkonen's retirement poster.
"I'm not going to play in F1 for numbers"
It sounds like Raikkonen is a far better person to get along with than he looks, of course, able to keep himself in the center of the eye, the low-key Raikkonen's performance on the track can not be avoided.
In 2001, the 22-year-old Raikkonen had just received an F1 super driver's licence just before the start of the race, finishing sixth in the first Australian Grand Prix, earning 1 point (only the top 6 drivers in the race at the time were eligible for points).
Raikkonen scored points in four races that season, finished eight times in the top eight and won nine points throughout the year, helping Sauber team achieve an all-time best – fourth for the team of the year.
He then switched to McLaren, and in 2003 and 2005 he finished second in the annual standings twice with a slight point difference, knowing that the champions at that time were Schumacher and Alonso, who were already the best drivers at that time in the eyes of many people.
In 2007, Raikkonen joined Ferrari racing, beating defending champions Alonso and rookie Hamilton to become champions of the year in their debut season at Ferrari... It was the pinnacle of Raikkonen's career, and in fact, he never reached that height again, but that didn't stop Raikkonen from running all the way.
With a career of successive careers in Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, Alfa Romeo, to some extent, his choice of team has affected his results, and if he had been more calculative, Raikkonen's achievements would undoubtedly be higher than they are now, but this does not seem to be something he cares about - countless interviews, he has said "I will not participate in F1 for numbers".
He only does what he feels meaningful, such as in 2012, when he used a helmet in Monaco that replicated the 1976 world champion James Hunt, and once won a Finnish snowmobile race under Hunter's pseudonym.
Raikkonen, eternal legend
From the beginning of the century to the present, Raikkonen's career trajectory has overturned the assumptions of many people, after all, in everyone's inherent judgment, a handsome and talented driver like him will either only play for the big team or retire from the rapids, and no one thought that he would run on this track for so long.
The only answer? I'm afraid he loves the sport more purely and more than anyone ever imagined.
Now that the "old driver" has finally arrived at the turn of the shift, under the light of Hamilton, Verstappen and other latecomers, Raikkonen is indeed not as eye-catching as it was then, but in the long history of F1, this driver who has only won the world championship once is destined to be more memorable than many people.
I believe that looking back on this era a few years later, Kimi Raikkonen will still be one of the most legendary drivers in these 20 years.