Why Räikkönen is not making his 300th F1 start in Monaco

Fans Formula 1 know it, Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo) does not like the media and promotional circus surrounding his profession. The Finn, who reached the milestone of 300 career participations in the Principality of Monaco during this last weekend of May 2019, did not hide his indifference to the idea of ​​reaching this symbolic number. 

This is good, since in reality, the 2007 world champion will not make his 300th Grand Prix start on the Rock. It is indeed necessary to distinguish the terms “participations” and “departures”. The first designation becomes effective from a free practice session, while a start is only official after the lights go out on Sunday. 

As such, Kimi Räikkönen has 296 F1 starts and 299 participations (before the 2019 Monaco GP). The first failure of the Belgium in the summer of 2001. This case is quite tricky since the stoic driver competed well in the first kilometers of the event, until his transmission failed after four laps. 

Simultaneously, the red flag is waved following the accident between Eddie Irvine (Jaguar) and Luciano Burti (Cheers GP). The sporting regulations indicated that the four loops preceding the interruption had no value, and thata second start had to be given. The rookie's Sauber being out of service, he was unable to appear on the Spa-Francorchamps grid. 

The second example concerns the famous 2005 United States Grand Prix. Equipped with Michelin tires, Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren) was forced to enter the pits at the end of the formation lap, like all the drivers shod by the French manufacturer. 

Michelin était alors sous le feu des critiques après l’explosion inexpliquée d’un pneu sur la Toyota by Ralf Schumacher in free trials on the Indianapolis banking. To avoid putting its customers in any danger, Michelin tried to convince Bridgestone and the FIA ​​to install a chicane at the crash site, without success. The only solution was therefore not to run on Sunday afternoon.

Finally, the last Grand Prix where Kimi Räikkönen quickly hung up his helmet was Malaysia in 2017. This time, the reason is less original. The engineers Ferrari had detected an abnormal discharge of the battery on the starting grid, and were unable to repair the damage in time for him to start. 

More as for Fernando Alonso at the same period in 2018, these three little details were not kept by his employer, nor by the decision-makers of Formula 1…