Formula 1: Has Kimi Raikkonen earned his final victory?

Kimi Raikkonen has not won a Formula 1 race since he won the 2013 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix. Will he ever change that?

Kimi Raikkonen is currently in his fifth season driving for Scuderia Ferrari since he returned to the team ahead of the 2014 Formula 1 season. He also drove for the team from the 2007 season through the 2009 season. In fact, he won his lone championship in the 2007 season.

However, the 38-year-old Finn has been unable to win a single race since he returned to the team more than four and a half years ago. In fact, he has not won a race since he won the 2013 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, to kick off his second and final season driving for Lotus.

Meanwhile, four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel, who signed with Ferrari to replace two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso ahead of the 2015 season, has already earned 13 victories driving for the team.

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This leads to one simple question: will Raikkonen ever win again?

Unfortunately for Raikkonen and for many Formula 1 fans, the odds of this have been decreasing after every race.

With Alfa Romeo Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc set to replace him at Ferrari next season and with Raikkonen set to return to Sauber, which is the team for which he drove at the beginning of his Formula 1 career back in the 2001 season, he will likely not have the opportunity to win a Formula 1 race once the 2018 season concludes. Plus, just four races remain on the 2018 schedule.

While it is not a secret that Raikkonen, whose win drought currently sits at 111 races, is Ferrari’s second driver behind Vettel, the fact that Vettel has been all but eliminated from winning this season’s championship should bode well for Raikkonen’s odds to win at least one of the four races left before the season ends.

However, this is not as clear-cut as it would seem to be.

Even though Vettel is clearly Ferrari’s prioritized driver, Raikkonen has managed to finish higher than him in seven of the 17 races that have been contested so far this season.

However, Raikkonen has not won any of these seven races. In these seven races, he has secured three second place finishes and four third place finishes. He has not finished in second behind Vettel in any race so far in 2018.

The final four races on the 2018 schedule are the United States Grand Prix, the Mexican Grand Prix, the Brazilian Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The 20-time Grand Prix winner has just two victories in these four races combined. He won the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, so even the success that he has had in these races has not come in recent seasons.

While literally every Formula 1 fan would like to see Raikkonen secure at least one more victory before he retires, don’t be surprised if the 2018 season ends up being yet another season during which he is unable to win a race, and don’t be surprised if he retires with 20 career victories to his name after his second stint driving for Sauber comes to a close.

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Will Kimi Raikkonen ever win another race in his Formula 1 career? If he does, that win will likely come over the course of the final four races of the 2018 season. Which of these four races do you believe he has the best chance to win?

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