Formula 1: Kimi Raikkonen set to break record in 2020, and he doesn’t care
By Asher Fair
Kimi Raikkonen is set to break an all-time Formula 1 record in the 2020 season, in the 11th race of the season, to be exact, but he doesn’t care.
When the Austrian Grand Prix rolls around at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday, July 5, 2020, it is slated to mark the halfway mark of the 2020 Formula 1 season, the first season in Formula 1 history to feature 22 races.
This 71-lap race around the 10-turn, 2.683-mile (4.318-kilometer) Red Bull Ring road course in Spielberg, Styria, Austria is the 11th race on next year’s schedule, and it is also set to be the 323rd race of Kimi Raikkonen’s career.
Raikkonen has competed in Formula 1 since 2001, although he left after 2009 and did not return until 2012. He signed a two-year contract with Alfa Romeo Racing (formerly Sauber, the team for which he drove in his rookie 2001 season) in September of 2018 to drive for the team in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
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Provided the 40-year-old Finn honors that contract and competes in the 2020 season, he is slated to become Formula 1’s all-time most experienced driver, and he is set to do it in the Austrian Grand Prix.
Raikkonen entered the 2019 season having competed in 291 races, meaning that he was poised to break the all-time starts record simply by not retiring early.
He just passed Fernando Alonso for second place on the all-time list by making his 312th start in the 2019 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit, and he now trails only Rubens Barrichello on that list, and by just 10 starts. Barrichello competed in 322 races from 1993 to 2011.
But let’s not forget perhaps the most important detail, one that was brought up toward the beginning of the 2019 season when Raikkonen was discussing this possibility after signing his most recent contract.
He couldn’t possibly care any less.
Here is what Raikkonen had to say at the time, according to Motorsport Total.
"“I’ve never hunted any numbers. I do not care if it’s 20 or 20,000, it does not matter. And if I no longer feel that, then I stop.”"
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When Kimi Raikkonen eventually retires from Formula 1, in how many races will he have competed? Will what will likely become his record ever be broken by anybody else? Assuming he competes in every race next year, he would be the all-time recordholder by 12 races with 334 starts, and a new contract would allow him to potentially make that record insurmountable.