Red Bull held talks with Raikkonen: 'He is an icon of this sport'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
After 19 seasons in the sport, Kimi Raikkonen's Formula 1 career will come to an end at the end of this season. The Finn can look back on a great career in which he drove for both McLaren and Lotus, and won the world title with Ferrari in 2007. He ends his career at Alfa Romeo, where he also started his career in 2001 when it was still Sauber.
Talks with Red Bull
The Finn never turned out for Red Bull Racing, but if Christian Horner is to be believed, there was certainly interest in Raikkonen coming to drive for Red Bull. "We had some conversations with Kimi when it came to who would be the replacement for Mark Webber," Horner admitted to Motorsport.com.
Webber left the team at the end of 2013, so the search for a new teammate for Sebastian Vettel was on. In the end, the choice fell on Daniel Ricciardo. The Finn himself was back in Formula 1 after a two-year absence and drove for Lotus in 2012 and 2013. He chose Ferrari where he got Vettel as a teammate a year later.
Icon of the sport
The talks between Red Bull and Raikkonen did not come out of the blue at the time. Red Bull were already a sponsor of Sauber when the Finn drove there, and in 2010 and 2011 Raikkonen was active in the World Rally Championship with Red Bull's support. "So we had some talks, but in the end it came to nothing," said Horner who also points to the Finn's fine career. "He is an icon of this sport. It's more about what he doesn't express than what he does say with him, but I think he's going to be greatly missed. He's had a phenomenal career and is still competitive even in his 40s."