Kimi Raikkonen Knew In March 2021 That He Was Retiring From F1

Legendary F1 driver and the 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen who recently retired from the sport already knew at the start of the season that he would be retiring from the sport. While many had speculated that Raikkonen could be retiring at the end of the season, he only announced his retirement on 1st September via an Instagram post. Many people since 2017 had speculated that the Finn could retire but he continued to race for five more years where he won his last race for Ferrari in 2018 winning the US GP and then making the move to Alfa Romeo. 

In a video recorded before the beginning of the season for the F1 YouTube channel where drivers were making predictions for the season, he wrote on a card that "My favourite race will be Abu Dhabi because it is my race in F1," he wrote. This was of course only revealed recently when the video was shared and he wrote on a card that was kept a secret. 

Raikkonen knew about his retirement in March itself

The 42-year-old became one of the oldest drivers to race in F1, with him being the oldest on the current grid and him having the world record for most F1 starts - 349. He would've crossed the 350 starts mark had he not missed the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix thanks to COVID19. Raikkonen is being replaced by fellow Finn, Valtteri Bottas who joins Alfa Romeo from Mercedes. His teammate, Antonio Giovinazzi is also leaving F1 and is being replaced by the first Chinese driver in F1 - Guanyu Zhou. 

To date Raikkonen remains the last man to win a world title with Ferrari when he won his 1st and only world title in 2007. He was the man who replaced Michael Schumacher in the iconic Italian team.