"There's a limit" - Kimi Raikkonen's scathing response to number of races in F1 2021 season

Kimi Raikkonen has lambasted the decision makers for the number of races in the 2021 F1 season. He spoke his mind at the driver's press conference ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The rampant increase in the number of races in the F1 calendar has been under the spotlight for a while. The likes of Michael Schumacher had a 17-race calendar in 2002, with the last race in October. Two decades later, 2022 will have a 23-race calendar, with the last race in December as the F1 season has stretched to seemingly unsustainable levels.

Raikkonen raised his concerns about the same. He said that the races might not be too stressful for the drivers, but it's the team members who suffer more.

Observing that there should be a limit on the number of races in the F1 calendar, Raikkonen said:

"As drivers, we don't really have a say on how many races there are, but I there is a limit just because I don't think as a driver it is that hard but especially for mechanics and the people that build everything and then take it down, it is a limit to how many times they can do that and right now certainly we're close to it."

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Kimi Raikkonen will be taking part in the penultimate F1 race of his career

Kimi Raikkonen will be calling time on his career at the end of the 2021 F1 season. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be the penultimate race for the Finnish driver.

He started his illustrious career in 2001, and won the world championship with Ferrari in 2007. More than a decade later, Raikkonen will be racing for the last time in F1, in a Sauber, the team with whom he started his Formula1 journey.