When Kimi Raikkonen Bet His Ferrari Against Sebastian Vettel for a Game of Badminton

Former Ferrari teammates, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were not only ultra-competitive on the race track but also off it. They once got into a badminton contest that went a bit too far. Raikkonen told Vettel that if he lost, he would give the German one of his Ferraris.

Raikkonen’s former F1 performance coach Mark Arnall provided the details of the same in an interview with Marc Priestly on the Pitlane Life Lessons podcast. Arnall said,

“Kimi beat Seb and it got to a point when Seb did not want to give up. He wanted to keep playing and Kimi said to him, ‘I will give you my Ferrari if you win'”.

While the two kept playing, Vettel never managed to beat Raikkonen. As a result, the Finn kept his Ferrari. Arnall then added that the German did not give up on badminton after his loss to Raikkonen. He often took out to practice and improve his game, as he was seemingly not very good at it.

During the same interview, Arnall said, “These guys are so ultra-competitive that if they’re not good at something, they will go and practice like crazy until they get better”. He feels that most ordinary individuals tend to give up or lose interest when they find out they are not that good at something, but not F1 drivers.

This mindset of Vettel was also evident in his F1 career. Even though his stints at Ferrari and Aston Martin were not as successful as his dominant Red Bull days, Vettel always pushed for improving his performances.