Alonso in pursuit of Raikkonen record?

Kimi Raikkonen says goodbye to Formula 1. With his active participation in 19 seasons spread over 21 years, the Finn is the most experienced driver ever. He drove the most races, the most laps and the most kilometres in F1 races.

The man of few words said farewell to Formula 1 quietly, in his own style. No big party or emotional statement followed after his last race in Abu Dhabi 2021, where Max Verstappen won his first world title. Still, the Finn is a great figure in the sport. In 2007 he became world champion, he further finished second in the championship twice and third three times. When it comes to experience and race kilometres, The Iceman leads all lists.

Alonso in pursuit of Raikkonen record

In his 19 F1 seasons, Raikkonen has entered an F1 race 353 times. He failed to start three of those, which still puts him at the top of the list of the most started GP's ever; 350 to his name. Fernando Alonso is number two with 334 started GP's. This means that even after 2022 Alonso will have passed the number one. With a contract in 2023 it is likely that it will be exceptionally hard to beat Alonso in the future.

Raikkonen also drove the most F1 laps; 18,621 to be exact. All those laps accounted for the record of 92,636 race kilometres. In both statistics, Alonso is the number two. In terms of the number of race starts, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel as current drivers are closest to Raikkonen's record. Hamilton started 288 races and Vettel 279. They should be able to get past Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barichello in the next two seasons. The latter is the only one of the top six without a world title; he drove no less than 323 GP's.