"He should go back to reporting" - When Kimi Raikkonen lashed out at Paul di Resta during a race

Former Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen was once extremely angry with ex-Williams driver Paul di Resta at the 2017 F1 Hungarian GP. Di Resta held up Raikkonen as the Finnish driver was trying to stay ahead of his Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Back when both Vettel and Raikkonen drove for the Italian team, they were quite hungry to stay ahead of each other. The duo was essentially racing for the win in Hungary, as both Mercedes cars were not quick enough to overtake the Ferraris. After Vettel made his stop, Raikkonen managed to create a gap out in front that was big enough for a pit stop.

However, when he decided to come into the pits, Williams reserve driver Paul di Resta, who replaced Felipe Massa, accidentally held Kimi Raikkonen for a bit too long. Since every single millisecond counts in F1, the Ferrari driver angrily came on the radio and complained about the slower backmarker:

“What the f*** is this Williams doing? If he [Paul di Resta] can’t see me behind him then he should stick to the reporting stuff.”

Paul di Resta worked as a commentator and reporter for the sport whenever he was not needed by Williams for his reserve driver duties. Hence, Kimi Raikkonen made this comment in the heat of the moment.

His anger was justified as he was unable to stay ahead of his teammate after he completed his pitstop. Eventually, Sebastian Vettel won the 2017 F1 Hungarian GP, while Raikkonen finished second.

That F1 race was Di Resta's last. Although he was appointed a reserve driver for several years after that, he never got the chance to race in the sport.

---

F1 pundit places Kimi Raikkonen's peak performance amongst other great drivers in the current grid

F1 pundit Peter Windsor recently praised Kimi Raikkonen's performance when he was at his peak. He stated how, at his peak, Raikkonen was as good as Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc.

Windsor explained how the Finnish driver was able to manage a car brilliantly.

"Kimi at his peak was at Max, Lewis, Charles (level). He was absolutely able to manage the car in a number of ways with the variables in play, all the things that I've been talking about, he was that good," Windsor said on his YouTube channel.

"He went off the boil in terms of the size of the. ... if Kimi at his peak was operating on a sweet spot that big, Kimi by the end of his career was operating a sweet spot about that big, purely because I think physically I don't think he was the same driver," he added.

Kimi Raikkonen drove his last race in F1 at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. However, he, unfortunately, had to retire from the race because he went off the track and crashed.