Raikkonen: ‘What Do I Have To Lose?’

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Kimi Raikkonen has nothing to lose. 

That was the clear message after his morning press conference inside the Watkins Glen International media center. 

Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula 1 champion, set sail for the first time in a NASCAR Cup Series car on Saturday at the 2.45-mile road course.

The driver of the No. 91 was adamant on his reasons for wanting to give NASCAR’s premiere series a shot, even if it’s his only opportunity. 

“There’s no plans for anything after this. Obviously, I want to have fun, but also do as well as we can,” Raikkonen said. “As I said, I think we’ve prepared as well as we could with how the rules are. Not just here in NASCAR, but where I come from. The testing is obviously a tricky part and if you haven’t done it, you don’t get many laps. But at least we did some and NASCAR gave us a little chance to try the car. We’ll see what comes out of it.

“But there’s no plans for the future. I want to have fun, but also do as well as we can.”

Aboard his No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Raikkonen held his own at The Glen, finishing 20th in practice and 27th in qualifying for Sunday’s race. 

Raikkonen admitted his uncertainty of how Sunday will go, however he’s focused forward in seeing how the race plays out. 

“It’s a new experience. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I think it’s just a nice challenge,” Raikkonen said. “Like we said already, we’ve had limited running of the car and we’ll have a very short practice here, so that will be tricky. It’ll be quite a challenge, but it’s also exciting. We’ll see where we stack up. There are very fast guys here that have been doing this for years, so it will be very hard. But we’ll see what we can do.”

For some, Raikkonen racing a one-off race in a different series doesn’t make sense. For Raikkonen, it was a simple decision. 

“I don’t see any risk — why not? What do I have to lose? If I do bad in a NASCAR race or bad in any race, I don’t care — I do it for myself,” Raikkonen said. “A good or bad end result, it could happen even if I did 20 races. They all could be bad for many different reasons.

“I don’t see any negative,” Raikkonen continued. “I think it’s great what Justin (Marks) and the team is doing giving a chance for all of us from Europe. It’s not as known. Obviously over the years, NASCAR is more known there, but I’m sure there are a lot of drivers that would like to have a chance to try it. It’s not very easy, so maybe it will open some doors in the future for more chances to try and get more Europeans into the sport.”

With the inception of Project91, it’s given Raikkonen and his family the opportunity to experience America.

He could immediately sense a shift between the NASCAR and Formula 1 garage area. 

“It’s a lot different than when I was here the last time,” Raikkonen said. “I like it, it’s very relaxed and completely different. I think the schedule is a lot different than it was last time. What happened to many sports after COVID was that they figured out that we really don’t need to spend as many days over the weekend at the track. Obviously, in hindsight, it would be better for me if we had more practice, but that’s how it is. 

“I really like it. It’s very relaxed. A nice, family atmosphere. It’s a lot more of a family atmosphere here than in F1, so I like it. So far, it’s been great.”