Kimi Opens Up The Bottle

You could tell the question came as a shock because Kimi Raikkonen’s pale face
flushed the same bright red as the sponsor’s backdrop to the stage he was
sitting on. Although it is well known that the Formula One world champion
likes to celebrate with a drink or two, the subject is normally broached
with subtlety. Not in Australia.

In the land of the barbecue and the “tinny”, where hard drinking is part of
the culture and where Raikkonen begins the defence of his title on Sunday,
the social problems caused by heavy drinking are being debated much as they
are in Britain. So Raikkonen got it straight up.

“Binge-drinking is a very topical issue at the moment in Australia,” a local
journalist told Raikkonen in Melbourne city centre. “You are renowned for
liking a drink. How do you manage that within the demands of being an F1
racing driver?”

The Finnish Ferrari star, who, along with 21 rivals, will be completing the
first official day of practice on the Albert Park street circuit today for
the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, could have disassociated himself from
the question, but he did nothing of the sort. “I live as I’ve always been
living,” he said. “Like any of my people, I like to go out. I don’t see any
problems with it.”

His questioner then said: “So how do you manage it? Do you abstain during the
race season and then hit it hard at the end?”

While Ferrari staff rolled their eyes in disbelief, the champion fought on. “I
do what I want,” he said. “I’m not responsible for telling people what I do
off the racing track. I don’t need to explain it. So far it seems to be
working pretty well, so there is no reason to change it.”

The Finn goes into the race as favourite to win the championship, with Lewis
Hamilton, the Briton, his principal rival, although Felipe Massa,
Raikkonen’s team-mate, cannot be discounted. Hamilton is the paradigm of the
modern, clean-living professional sportsman and it would be hard to imagine
him having to face questions about his drinking habits.

Okay so back the to racing, ITV-F1.com have got the rights to stream F1 on their website. This is great news for UK viewers and you can watch F1 get back to business in the first practise session here!

Screenshots of the ITV stream from Free Practise 1