How ageless Raikkonen defied the risk of joining Alfa

Kimi Raikkonen's move from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo has probably worked better than most people had anticipated over the course of 2019. He reached the age of 40 last month and the Iceman shows no signs of slowing down just yet.

When it became clear last year that the Finnish veteran would finally be ousted from Maranello, making way for Charles Leclerc, many observers assumed that he would call it a day with no top seats available.

But Raikkonen had other ideas and he quickly put together a deal with Fred Vasseur to join Alfa. In doing so he was returning to the team with which he started his F1 career back in 2001, albeit one that's changed a great deal over the years - aside from the continued presence of long-time team manager Beat Zehnder, one of Raikkonen's closest friends.

The obvious question was: would he still be fully motivated when realistically Alfa could only target points, rather than podiums? As ever, Kimi has done his talking on the track, in the white heat of the fraught midfield battle.

Before the summer break, he had logged points in eight out of 12 races, losing a seventh place finish to post-race penalties for a clutch infringement on both cars at the German Grand Prix. The second half of the season began with great promise when he started sixth at Spa, only for his race to be ruined by first-lap contact with Max Verstappen.

After that, Alfa slipped towards the back of the midfield pack, and Raikkonen faced a frustrating points drought until he produced a feisty fourth in Brazil.

With just Abu Dhabi to go in 2019, he's amassed 43 points, way clear of team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi, who has scored 14. However, of late, the Italian has often crept ahead in qualifying.

Off-track, it's clear that Raikkonen's presence has provided a huge boost to a team that just a couple of years ago was at the back of the grid. The process has been helped by the fact that he lives close to its Hinwil factory and pays regular visits.

The person who really put their neck on the line by hiring Raikkonen was team principal Vasseur, who admits: "It was a risk. It was a risk for the team, it was a risk for Kimi. It was a risk for the team because he could have overestimated his motivation, and the fact [is] that to be on the second half of the grid is not an easy deal when you are used to fighting for podiums.

"I had a good feeling from the beginning. We clearly told him at the first meeting, 'You won't do the same results with us that you did in the past'. This had to be very clear. But we wanted to develop, we wanted to grow up, we wanted to improve, and we needed to have a driver who is a pillar of development.

"The deal was clear from the beginning. We never bullshitted Kimi and said we want to be world champions."

Raikkonen admits that after a strong start to the season, the past couple of months have been tough

And Vasseur insists that Raikkonen has contributed exactly what was expected of him, on and off the track.

"The overview of the season is he [has] scored the majority of the points of the team," he says. "He was a big asset to the development of the function of the car and its performance. He has had a huge input into the analysis of the performance, and he was very helpful all season.

"We're not asking the driver to set up the car, but to have a good analysis of the performance, where the potential is - which area of the car we have to improve. He's able to have a clear picture. Sometimes just after one lap he's able to give us the comments. So the motivation is still there. I can't compare what he did before when he was at Ferrari, but honestly for me, the commitment is more than OK."

Raikkonen admits that after a strong start to the season, the past couple of months have been tough. He endured a painful run of seven races with no points, with little going right until Interlagos.

"Obviously lately it has been pretty shitty, but that's how it is," he says, speaking in Brazil, just before he ended his drought. "We didn't do too bad in the first part of the year and we still had good speed in Spa, but obviously we couldn't get anything out of it as a team.

"In Monza we weren't as competitive as in Spa but we were still in the fight. After that it has been a bit more tricky in terms of pure speed compared to the others.

"Obviously I didn't expect a lot of things, because I didn't know the team. You can say I had been in the team before, but that was a long time ago and a lot of things have changed. I think if you take the last races, I wasn't expecting that [lack of points], but that's how racing goes - we just need to keep improving."

Raikkonen understands that moving to a smaller team was not the step that many anticipated after he drove for Ferrari, but claims he didn't have to adjust to a different way of working.

"No, honestly I found a very similar way in any team I've been in," he adds. "People always think things are different in bigger and smaller teams, but I think the work for the drivers doesn't really change.

"In some places you have more resources, but it's more behind the scenes and [that] helps find things faster because you just have more manpower. But apart from that, it's not really any different."

But does he not now have fewer distractions, such as sponsor commitments?

"I don't think it has been any different in many ways," he answers. "Yes, I have a bit less work outside of racing, but I think what happens during the weekend is not really any different. You end up racing in slightly different positions, but apart from that it's the same schedule. The way we work through practice is very similar to any other team I've been in in the past."

It's obvious that Raikkonen's view carries a lot of weight in the Alfa camp, but he denies that he's enjoyed any special status compared to his younger team-mate.

"I don't think there's any number one or two," he says. "I'm more experienced and that makes it more of a difference, but there's nothing odd going on. We race against each other but we obviously try not to crash into each other. We get the same chances and whoever makes the best out of it, fair enough."

"I don't feel proud, or that it's good or bad - I do F1 if I enjoy it" Kimi Raikkonen

Alfa has clearly lost some performance in recent months, with McLaren, Renault and Toro Rosso often showing more speed. The form book suggests that the team has fallen behind in the development race, but Raikkonen is not concerned about that fading momentum heading into next season.

"It's nothing to do with next year - next year is a new thing," he says. "I have zero worries on that. Obviously, we've not been good lately. We had a bad patch in the early part of the year and we managed to turn it around. For sure it's been more rough now, but that's how it goes. We just have to find the reasons and fix it.

"We'll have completely new cars and things might be completely different. So, I don't have worries on that at all.

"In theory a lot of good things are going on, and we'll see where we are next year when we run the car for the first time. We can do our best, but if the others do a better job, that's how it is."

Raikkonen reached that landmark 40th birthday in October. It's a rare achievement for a driver to still be active in F1 at that age in an era when teenagers routinely reach the top. However, he denies that age has any significance.

"Not in racing, for sure not, because in the end if I look a week before it's no different from this week," he explains. "In the end, it's a number, it's not like you suddenly get a year older in one day. I think in life generally, it sounds different, but that's about it."

But isn't he at least proud of sticking around for so long while remaining competitive?

"I don't feel proud, or that it's good or bad - I do it if I enjoy it," he says. "If I don't I have plenty of other things that I can do."

And one of those is focusing on his expanding family. The father-of-two Kimi of 2019 is a very different man compared to the carefree youngster who first appeared on the scene in 2001.

"I always cared about family and people that are close, but obviously now I have my own family, for sure it changes your life," he explains. "It's natural. If I live on my own it's just different. Obviously, I have more worries - that they all stay safe and everybody's healthy. Life has changed, but only positive changes."

Robin, his son, has already been logging some karting miles, although his father is taking things on that front a step at a time.

"I guess as a parent you always worry more, if they are going to get hurt," he says. "In the end they're tiny little human beings. You know the risk in many things and in many ways you can see what could go wrong. Maybe it would be easier if you had no idea, because when things go wrong it's going to hurt.

"He's asked to do it for a long time. I said, 'Maybe this summer', and then we went. I don't try to tell him to go this way or that way. We don't take times. It's, 'Drive as much as you want, if you don't like it, we go back home'. And that's it.

"I don't know how you could say if he's good or he's not when he's five years old. That's not important. He enjoys it. He wants to go often, but obviously I don't have time. It's a bit more tricky in Switzerland, but luckily we found a track that is very close to our home."

Vasseur has no concerns about Raikkonen's pace dropping off as he gets older

So, don't bet against the younger Raikkonen forging a career in motorsport. But what of his dad's future? At the moment, Kimi is committed only to the end of 2020, but that's no indication that he's already preparing to walk away, given that many other drivers on the grid have similar deals.

Does he have any doubts about continuing into the brave new world of 2021?

"I have a contract for next year, and I don't know what happens after that," he says. "Honestly, I never have thought so many years ahead. I've zero interest on whether it's 2021 or not. We'll try to finish this year well, figure things out and then start working for next year.

"I'm sure everybody's happy when things are going smoothly and you get results. It's part of racing - there's always races that go better or worse. That really doesn't dictate whether I suddenly hate or like driving or F1."

Giovinazzi has pushed Raikkonen hard in qualifying of late, but their team boss has no concerns about the latter's pace dropping off. This is inevitably the case with older drivers - just consider the way Nico Rosberg got the better of Michael Schumacher on pure pace.

"For sure at one stage it will be more difficult, when he will be 85!" jokes Vasseur. "You have other examples, but you can perhaps also compensate one tenth in quali by something else.

"Let's finish the season and then we will discuss the future - the view of the team and so on. His relationship with the team is good and straightforward, and it's easy to manage the situation.

"Perhaps the approach is different and the motivation is different than when he was 24. I think he still loves it, and racing is racing. But nobody can predict the future."