Staff Reporter.
@F1.
Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen has announced that he will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season.
The 41-year-old Finn, who won the 2007 championship with Ferrari, currently races for Alfa Romeo.
“This is it. This will be my last season in Formula One. This is a decision I did during last winter,” he said on Instagram.
“Formula 1 might come to an end for me but there is a lot more in life that I want to experience and enjoy.”
Raikkonen began his career in 2001 and has started 341 Formula 1 grands prix – more than any other driver.
He has won 21 races and finished on the podium more than 100 times.
Raikkonen overhauled fractious McLaren team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at 2007’s season finale in Brazil, having been almost out of mathematical contention with two rounds to go.
Dropped by the Scuderia two years after his title win, Raikkonen left F1 for two years and competed in the World Rally Championship before returning for a second stint in the sport from 2012 with the then-Lotus team.
Raikkonen impressed on his return and in two seasons at the Enstone outfit won twice and finished on the podium 15 times. Rehired by Ferrari for 2014 to begin a second stint at Maranello of five seasons, the Finn generally played second fiddle to first Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel but won for a final time at the 2018 United States GP in Austin, aged 39.
He then went full circle by returning to the team he started with and at last October’s Eifel GP at the Nurburgring broke Rubens Barrichello’s record of 322 race starts. Raikkonen has now raced in 341 Grand Prix with 10 races still to go of what will now be his final season.