‘I did it my way’ - Raikkonen on his 20-year F1 career and future plans

The 41-year-old Finn announced on Wednesday that he would be leaving at the end of the current campaign, bringing to a close a 20-year spell in the sport.

Raikkonen, who won the 2007 title with Ferrari, revealed he made the decision over the winter and said it was an easy call.

Speaking about his career ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, the Alfa Romeo driver said there is nothing he would change about his F1 tenure.

“I’ve been a long time here but, in the end, luckily Formula 1 has never been my life,” Raikkonen said.

“In a way, it takes a lot of time from my life, but it has never been, let’s say, the main thing in my life. I’ve always lived my life on the outside and do normal things. But on the other hand, it’s fun.

“I had a good run, I’m happy with what I achieved,” he continued. “Obviously you want to win but it’s not easy to win.

"I wanted to win a championship, I got close quite a few times and then managed to win it with Ferrari, So I’m especially happy to have won it with them.

“But, as for the rest - strength or not strength - I don’t care, I had fun and I did it my way.

“I wouldn’t change any single thing even if I could. Otherwise, maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here if I changed anything. No complaints, I cannot really complain.”

Asked if he considered retiring from F1 earlier in his career, the Finn joked: “The first plan was to always to be retired before I turned 30, but that didn’t work out!

“I can tell you for sure there were many, many years in which I was so close to stopping. It could have been in the middle of the year or at any day of the week!  

"It happened to be now, a long time after what was in my first plan. Obviously I was away for a couple of years, so, like I said before, without that for sure I wouldn’t be here today.

“I know how it is, obviously I was doing rallying at that time, it’s just quite nice to be putting it out, let’s put it this way.”

Raikkonen revealed he has no plans for the future other than spending time with his family, explaining he no longer wants to be tied down to a schedule.

“No, [I have] no plans,” he said. “I mean, I don’t want to have some schedule, for a long time.

“Obviously I’ve been 18 or 19 years in Formula 1 since I started, I did those two years in rallying and there was always a schedule, a “what is coming next on this date, on that date” and I don’t want that.

“That’s for sure one of the big reasons why I also to do something else. The life doesn’t go because of the racing, whatever it is outside Formula 1, there are other schedules, the family, the kids schools and kindergarten and that stuff.

“But also I don’t want the family life to be dictated by are the races, the test or whenever you fly to the next work.

“I’m not in a rush, I haven’t even thought about it yet. I’ve known this situation for quite a while, so there’s always opportunities to do this or to do that, but right now I’m not even interested in thinking about it.”

Asked if he expected to race competitively on a sporadic basis in the future, Raikkonen said: “If I would know right now, I would tell you, but like I said, I have zero plans.

“I’m not really planning to make any plans for right now. So like I said, I want to enjoy the time without the schedule. The schedule can be our family’s schedule, and I’m happy with that.

“I’m looking forward to it. Who knows, maybe there will be some racing, maybe not. I really don’t know.”