Image from www.sport360.com
By Aidan Mouellic, Contributor
The 2012 Formula One racing season is well underway with Adu Dhabi being host to the most recent grand prix on the third of November. The 18th race of the season was held at the glorious Yas Marina circuit, a $1.3 billion racetrack located in the desert. Finnish racer Kimi Raikkonen, who drives for the Lotus-Renault team, came out on top to win the race with Ferrari’s Spaniard Fernando Alonso in second spot and current Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing in third.
Kimi Raikkonen brought his typical, ‘I would rather be doing something else,’ attitude to the race and managed to belittle his team managers during the race who communicate to him via two-way radio. While getting a time-split from a team member in the pits, Kimi fired back, “Just leave me alone I know what I’m doing.” Later on in the race when he received a radio message from a mechanic in the pits telling Kimi to conserve his tires, Kimi responded over the radio with this quip, “Yes, yes, yes, I’m doing it all the time, just leave me alone, you don’t have to remind me every second.” No word on whether or not Raikkonen took his crew out to celebrate his win after the race.
After the race, while being interviewed on the podium and asked to describe his emotions after winning his first Formula One race in four years, Kimi responded by saying he did not have many emotions after his recent victory. When asked why he had so few emotions he blamed the fans for, “Giving me shit because I didn’t smile enough the last time.” This is not the first time Kimi Raikkonen has caused controversy in the Formula One world: before his very first race in F1 his team had trouble finding him and when they finally did 30 minutes before the race, he was asleep in his trailer. Earlier in his career, he even stated on television that he had missed a podium presentation by soccer legend Pele, because he was busy “having a shit.”
The 2012 Formula One season is almost over, with only two more races left. The next race will be held on November 18 in Austin, Texas with the final race of the season on November 25 in Säo Paulo, Brazil. Kimi Raikkonen is out of the race with only 198 points to his name and only two races to go—mathematically, he is no longer eligible. The 2012 Formula One world champion will be either Fernando Alonso or Sebastien Vettel. Vettel, the German driver for Red Bull, is leading the championship standings with 255 points, 10 more points than Alonso. There is a lot on the line the next two races for these two leading drivers and their respected teams.
