Kimi Raikkonen has already shown that the nickname ‘Iceman’ did not mean a lack of humor. In 2016, the then Ferrari driver played a prank on Maurizio Arrivabene, the Scuderia boss at the time, which made the manager believe that a serious problem had arisen.
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Arrivabene said he was at home, in Maranello, at the end of a long day, when he received a message from Raikkonen. The image showed the Finn’s leg in a cast and was accompanied by just one word, which increased the concern even more. The manager even thought about how he would communicate the situation to the then Ferrari president, Sergio Marchionne.
“I was about to pick up the phone to call him and say: ‘We have a big mess here,’ when Kimi called me. ‘It was a joke’,” said Arrivabene. According to the former head of the Italian team, the scare was immediate before the revelation that nothing had happened.
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Raikkonen confirmed the story and explained that, at that time, he was working with a company that manufactured orthoses. He took advantage of the situation to deliberately produce the misleading photograph: “I took a photo and obviously did it on purpose. I had fun with it,” said the former driver and 2007 Formula 1 champion. Arrivabene, on the other hand, made it clear that he did not share the fun.
In another recent statement, Raikkonen also highlighted Max Verstappen as the best driver on the current F1 grid, regardless of the car’s performance. The Finn recalled that he witnessed the Dutchman’s arrival in the category during his second stint at Ferrari and pointed to Verstappen’s victory at the 2016 Spanish GP, just ahead of him, as the moment he realized the emergence of an exceptional talent.
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