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Sunday, November 24, 2024

Raikkonen: No complaints ahead of F1 retirement

Kimi Raikkonen said on Thursday he has "no complaints" about his time in Formula One after announcing he will retire from the sport at the end of the season.

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This weekend's Dutch Grand Prix will be the 345th race entry of the Finn's career, the highlight of which was winning the 2007 world championship for Ferrari.

"I had a good run, I'm happy with what I achieved," said Raikkonen.

"Obviously you want to win and it's not easy to win. I wanted to win a championship, I got close quite a few times and managed to win it with Ferrari, so happy that it happened, especially with them…

"I had fun and I did it my way, and I wouldn't change a single thing even if I could, because otherwise then maybe we wouldn't be sitting here today if you changed one thing along the way. No complaints—I cannot really complain."

The 41-year-old, who has won 21 races since his 2001 debut, has scored only two points this season for the struggling Alfa Romeo team.

His last victory came at the 2018 United States Grand Prix in the final year of his second stint at Ferrari.

Raikkonen, who previously raced in NASCAR and the world rally championship during a two-year hiatus from F1 in 2010-11, said he was yet to decide what his next move would be.

"No plans. I don't want to have some schedule put on, because obviously the last 18, 19 years in F1, since I started —I did rally in those two years—there was always a schedule, always what is coming next and what is this date and that date," he added. "So I don't want that."

Raikkonen, nicknamed 'The Iceman', insisted he does not think he will regret his decision to leave the sport.

"Will I miss the racing? I don't know. I've done it so long that I doubt that I'll start to miss it that much."

Media reports have linked his compatriot Valtteri Bottas with a move to replace him at Alfa Romeo, which would free up a seat alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for promising Williams driver George Russell. 

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