Kimi Raikkonen says the commercial work for F1 drivers was same in 2020 as before despite the COVID-19 restrictions, just the mode was different.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Raikkonen did not feel much change in the commercial aspect of F1 in 2020, from the previous seasons, despite the COVID-19 restrictions, as the teams and drivers had to switch to a new medium to connect with the sponsors and the fans.
Just how they connected with fans in the lockdown, F1 teams quickly adopted to the digital forum, not just for sponsor or client work but also undertook fan forums. “For sure, we have had those ones also, the other stuff, at least in a different way,” said Raikkonen to media including F1, Motorsport Network, Racefans.net, BBC and more.
“So unfortunately it’s not just about racing but it’s just been different. I think every day life has been different for everybody and how the racing has worked out has been different, but I don’t think that we’ve done much less things than we’ve done other years. It’s just a different way,” summed up Raikkonen, as he added on about 17 races in 24 weeks.
With the 2020 F1 season starting in the first week of July, they were forced to cramp in triple-header weekends to cover as many rounds. It so happened that they held 17 races in the space of 24 weeks, until mid-December, which was mentally stressing for most.
“I don’t feel that it was much different then we are used to,” said Raikkonen. “I mean maybe we have more races in a shorter time but obviously most of them were in Europe and then it works out much better. But yeah, I don’t think it’s been a very normal year for anybody.
“I mean even outside of racing it’s been completely different than everybody’s used to and we’ll see how it goes from here and what happens next year and this and that. But that’s how it is and we don’t chose where we go and where do we race, so whatever we get, we’re gonna go and do our best,” summed up Raikkonen.
Here’s Kimi Raikkonen on 2020 season
Here’s our tier system of driver performance
Here’s the drivers’ Top 10 of F1 2020
Here’s F1 stats difference from 2019 to 2020
