Kimi Raikkonen, the last man to win a championship with Ferrari, talks about the decline in his abilities with time passing by.
Kimi Raikkonen has served the motorsport community for two decades. In such an extensive period, most of his career has been spent in F1.
The Iceman has provided his services to one of the top teams. In the early 2000s, he was a driver to fear. In 2007, he finally got to win a championship and is the last man to do it for Ferrari.
However, Raikkonen, in the last phase of his career, declined. The 41-year-old man is aware of that and claims that time has undoubtedly made him slow.
“Obviously, I was a lot younger than I am now,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast. “20 years makes a difference in you for sure, I’m not as fast as I was when I was 25.”
Further, he was asked what instances made him think he was losing his edge. Raikkonen replied that he doesn’t have one specific example to recall that made him realize that he’s no more swift.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t feel it, but I’m sure something happens. It’s impossible that nothing happens, then there are obviously other reasons because every year [is a] different car, different tyres, this and that.
“In some years in those days [2005-2007], they could fit you a bit better for you at the beginning or later on in the season.”
Also read: Kimi Raikkonen reveals his favourite Formula 1 engine ever
When was the peak Kimi Raikkonen?
Raikkonen won his championship in 2007, and when asked whether that phase of him was his peak? The Finnish race driver replied that 2007 was a mix of everything.
Kimi Raikkonen’s Austria 2001
This was only his 6th F1 race despite that he finished a brilliant P4. Murray Walker’s commentary makes it even better 👌#F1 pic.twitter.com/jW7FGHRAkA
— Blitz (@Blitz88705680) December 25, 2021
“I was doing well in 2003,” he said. “Obviously, our car was probably not as quick as we would have made it. But [in] 2007, I don’t think we did too badly. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have won the championship!
“It took a while to get used to it [the Ferrari]. Especially the latter part of the year, we were very, very fast, especially in the race conditions.”
Also read: Kimi Raikkonen is surprised by the fact that he is Ferrari’s most recent F1 World Champion
