Aside from his exceptional driving on track, Kimi Raikkonen was famous for his blunt replies to reporters during interviews.
Raikkonen is one of F1’s greatest ever. He was in the sport for a long time, having made his debut back in 2021 and retiring at the end of last year. In 2007, he became World Champion while driving for Ferrari. To this date, he remains the Italian outfit’s last Title winner.
In 2009, he left Ferrari and took a sabbatical from the sport for two seasons. In 2012, he returned with Lotus and spent two seasons with the outfit. During pre-season of the 2013 season, reporters were asking Raikkonen questions regarding how his car felt.
These questions came during pre-season testing, and even though the 42-year old is not a fan of answering to the media, he did so quite nicely. He explained as to what they tried out in brief, and how the car felt. The final straw however, was when someone asked him, “if your hunger for the second title the same as your hunger for a first.”
What followed was an elongated period of awkward silence, and an exasperated look in Raikkonen’s face.
Kimi Raikkonen walked away without answering the question
Raikkonen had a look of surprise on his face when the reporter asked him the question. He then let out a sarcastic chuckle, and walked away, implying that he won’t answer that question.
It’s one of the several incidents where Raikkonen has felt annoyed by the questions thrown at him. The Finn isn’t particularly fond of appearing in front of cameras, or performing media duties. Whenever he had to, he made sure that his answers were as direct and to-the-point as possible.
Raikkonen spent two years with Lotus before moving back to Ferrari in 2014. In 2012, he finished P3 in the Championship but the strong season couldn’t be repeated in 2013 as he finished fifth.
Raikkonen spent eight more seasons in F1 after leaving Lotus. He was with Ferrari till 2018, after which he drove for Hinwil based outfit Alfa Romeo for the last three seasons of his F1 career.
