Raikkonen: Pressure at Ferrari and Alfa Romeo no different

Kimi Raikkonen says the pressure for results inside Ferrari and Alfa Romeo isn’t any different as he applies the same expectations on himself regardless of targets.

The experienced Finnish driver, who made his 315^th Formula 1 Grand Prix start in Abu Dhabi to go outright second on the all-time race starts list, has completed his first year back at the Swiss team having started his F1 career at Sauber back in 2001.

Having joined Alfa Romeo at the start of 2019 off the back of five consecutive years at Ferrari, Raikkonen feels the pressure to perform at each team isn’t any different despite the varying targets with the Scuderia fighting for world titles while his new team looking to climb up the midfield order. Raikkonen finished this season 12^th place in the F1 drivers’ standings with Alfa Romeo in eighth place in the constructors’ world championship.

“I don’t think the pressure was any different,” Raikkonen said. “Obviously we want to do well and like I said, it’s a shame we’ve kind of fallen down as a team but as a driver, I think everyone puts a lot of pressure on themselves and in the end the work that we do over the race weekend is not really any different whichever team you’re in. The meetings are very similar between teams, the driving is there and the racing.”

But away from F1, Raikkonen says he has enjoyed a greater freedom since joining Alfa Romeo with more time to spend with his young family and fewer sponsor commitments.

“Outside of racing it has been less busy so that’s nice part of it plus obviously the team is very close to where I live so I don’t need to travel to different countries, in many ways it helps, I have a bit more time to stay with the family. It’s a nice thing,” he said.

With 315 F1 starts to his name, Raikkonen will take the record for most starts in F1 from Rubens Barrichello (326) 12 races into the 2020 season.