The rumor had been circulating since the beginning of the season, and it has now been confirmed by the main person concerned. Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen will retire from F1 at the end of this season. The Finn announced it on Wednesday evening in a post on Instagram, explaining his choice.<\/p>\n
He will end his career in the team where he started, at Alfa Romeo (formerly Sauber). The team boss, Fred Vasseur, wanted to pay tribute to his driver, whom he considers unique among all the others.<\/p>\n
\u00ab There are no two drivers like Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen. His presence, charisma, and unique attitude, combined with his innate skills, allowed this team to give him a chance in 2001. They have made him a legend of our sport. It was a pleasure to work with him over the years, and I believe I speak on behalf of everyone at Alfa Romeo Racing, from the workshop in Hinwil to the garage here in Zandvoort, when I say that a driver like Kimi has written some indelible pages in the history of our team and our sport.<\/p>\n
After a year with the Swiss team, R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen switched to McLaren before joining Ferrari and winning several podiums and victories, including a world title in 2007. He left F1 for two years before finally joining Lotus, with another stint at Ferrari. He returned to Alfa Romeo, the team where everything started for the Finnish driver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The boss of the Alfa Romeo team is full of praise for his driver. Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen will leave Formula 1 at the end of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":34010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[49,400,777],"class_list":["post-8017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-alfa-romeo-racing","tag-frederic-vasseur","tag-raikkonen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n