A Prime Gear chief ‘misplaced it’ with the F1 world champion after he refused to finish extra laps throughout a wet day of filming.
Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus celebrates on the rostrum after profitable the Abu Dhabi GP. (Picture: Getty Pictures)
Former Prime Gear government producer Andy Wilman has lifted the lid on his backstage encounter with Kimi Raikkonen previous to the 2007 world champion’s comeback to Method One with Lotus. The episode occurred between Raikkonen’s departure from Ferrari on the conclusion of the 2009 season and his F1 return in 2012.
The long-lasting Finn occupied his hiatus from F1 by racing within the World Rally Championship and making a number of outings within the NASCAR Truck Sequence. Previous to his F1 comeback with Lotus, Raikkonen featured on Prime Gear, collaborating in a chat with Jeremy Clarkson earlier than setting a time within the moderately priced automotive. When questioned about his return, the Finn responded in attribute fashion: “Very regular. Automobiles are the identical, persons are the identical. Identical story.”
Nonetheless, when it got here to recording his laps, the phase took a flip for the more severe. Sharing the story on the Midweek F1 podcast, Wilman recalled: “Raikkonen got here on the present. So everyone seems to be doing their lap. His was a moist day. And we have been like, ‘Oh, he is not going to do it’. He is like, ‘Okay’. However he’ll give it some, as a result of it is Kimi.
“It was when he got here again with Lotus. And we have been all like, ‘Oh, we’re not worthy. You are right here. You are right here!’ I went all the way down to see the man with the timer, Nick Dalton, who had the be careful. I used to be like, ‘How’s he doing? How’s he doing?’ He went, ‘Not nice.’
“So he goes into his motorhome, and he is like, ‘I’ve performed sufficient laps now’. He wasn’t unfriendly, however he is similar to, ‘It is a wet day’. I am going into the motorhome after him. He is within the, like, Lazy Boy chair, and it is heat, and he is totally kind of stretched out, like Joey from Mates.”
“I went, ‘Kimi, you already know, it is drying out now. I can not inform you your time, however it wasn’t good. We all know you could possibly go quicker.’ And he went, ‘No, I can not’. And we have been like, ‘No, Kimi, it truly is dry now’, and I stated, ‘For those who look out of the window, you will see it is positively getting drier’.
Kimi Raikkonen at Monza this yr. (Picture: Getty Pictures)
“And he, with massively dangerous grace, upped himself to the window, and he went, ‘No, it is not’. I misplaced it with him a bit, and b******ed him, like, ‘There’s so many individuals right here ready to see you make a comeback, and that’ll be on you if you happen to do not do one thing!'”
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“Then I believed, ‘What have I performed?’ After which he acquired out, and he went and did a pair extra laps and went a bit quicker. However that was the day I informed Kimi off.”
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