Raikkonen - "F1 has never been my life"

Kimi Raikkonen believes he is lucky that F1 was 'never my life' as the Finn prepares to prioritise his family during his retirement.

After 19 seasons of racing in Formula 1, Raikkonen announced on Wednesday that he will make his exit from the sport at the end of this year.

Despite starting more grands prix than any other driver, Raikkonen insists the sport was never his priority, a factor he feels will ease him into a less hectic schedule.

“There is always how the mind plays games and I might have been a long time here but in the end, luckily, I would say that F1 has never been my life," said the 41-year-old.

"Yeah, it takes a lot of our time from our lives but it has never been the main thing in my life.

“I always lived my life on the outside. I do normal things, so on that hand it is fine.”

Asked if leaving F1 for the second time had been a difficult decision to make, Raikkonen answered: “Not really. It wasn’t made yesterday.

"Obviously, I have experience of it, and it worked out okay that time."

Raikkonen's family plan

In stepping away from F1, Raikkonen hopes to spend more time with his family, including his wife Minttu and two children, Robin and Rianna.

Although not ruling out a racing return at some point, the Finn is focused on maintaining a clear schedule, with the "kid's schools and kindergartens" set to become a new daily routine.

“I don’t want to have some schedule put on [me] because obviously, the last 18-19 years in F1 since I started, I did rally for two years, there was always a schedule, always what is coming next, what is this date or that date," he explained.

“I don’t want that. That is for sure one of the big reasons why I want to do something else, so life doesn’t go because of the racing.

“Obviously there are other schedules…family, the kid’s schools and kindergartens and stuff.

“I don’t also want the family life to be dictated by when is the race or the test or whatever, the flight to the next work. I’m not in a rush so I’ve not even thought about it at all yet.

“I have known this situation for quite a while so there are always opportunities to do this or that but right now I’m not interested to even think about it.”

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