Kimi Raikkonen shouldn’t worry about getting back into the swing of things, despite a two-year stint away from Formula 1, as Renault will utilise one of their demo cars to give the Finn extra time behind the wheel, team principal Eric Boullier confirmed.
With pre-season testing now reduced to just 15 days, or roughly seven days each driver, because of the return of in-season testing for 2012, Raikkonen would have had very little chance to get to grips with an F1 car, having admitted he’s never sat in on since he departed at the end of 2009.
The use of the two-year-old demo car will give the 32-year-old several extra days to familiarise himself with the controls, downforce, power and fitness required.
“In not so long we will have our simulator ready – this is good news for him and for us.
“I think that we will also be able to plan a couple of days with the demo car,” revealed the Frenchman.
Boullier also added that the return of Raikkonen would be a boost for not only Renault/Lotus, but for F1 as a whole.
It is good news for the sport and of course it is good news for the team,” he said. “Strategically, it is good to have a big name, a high class driver and Formula 1 World Champion to join us. He is committed to racing for us and he is definitely a very good character with the experience he has from driving for McLaren and Ferrari.
“Also, to have someone like Kimi signing with us shows that the package we have offered was good enough – we convinced Kimi to come back to Formula 1!”
