Kimi Raikkonen spent the majority of his motorsport career in Formula 1. But while he has taken retirement from the apex motorsport series, he is plying his trade in NASCAR these days. Currently, the Finnish race driver is in the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) to make his Cup Series outing.
With his second appearance in the sport, he puts it in contrast to F1 and verdicts NASCAR is more interesting. Despite giving more than 300 starts in F1, he believes the low downforce stock cars in the United States give a better racing experience.
Furthermore, he adds that without the DRS, NASCAR gives a similar experience to erstwhile F1 days. Raikkonen also stated since the stock car series is not an open-wheel competition, a driver can risk touching his opponents and doesn’t usually risk a DNF, unlike F1.
“In NASCAR, you can have a bit closer racing. Obviously, the rules are different. They’re more open here,” said Raikkonen to Autosport. He further opines that NASCAR has more exciting race experience than his previous racing series.
Kimi Raikkonen marginally beats his fierce rival
This year, Raikkonen is not the only F1 title-winning star to feature in NASCAR. Jenson Button also listed himself for the race in COTA, and as per the reports, he is enjoying his stay.
Though, he revealed that he even struggled to start the car as he went back to racing after several years. Nevertheless, he had a decent outing and remained behind his former F1 rival Raikkonen by only three-hundredths of a second in the qualifying round.
Though the two were in different groups. Raikkonen finished P12 in his class, while Button finished P12. But the Iceman will start the race from P22 and Button at P24. Now it remains to be seen how the two drivers will fare during the race.
COTA for F1 and NASCAR is way different
While NASCAR is going on in COTA, it has been the regular host to F1 for over a decade now. Raikkonen even won a race here with Ferrari in 2018. However, he thinks that in both series, the track feels different.
In NASCAR, the bumps on the track are felt massively. But in an F1 car, those similar bumps aren’t felt at all because of more downforce in the latter.
He claims that driving a stock car in COTA is far trickier than an open-wheel car. He adds that it sounds stupid since it’s the same circuit, but minor technicalities change the entire experience.
