Kimi Raikkonen says he never had plans to return to Formula 1 after leaving the sport in 2009, before announcing a comeback with Lotus in 2012.
The Finn, who spent Monday testing a two-year-old Renault R30 around the Valencia track, has warned his fans that it will take a few races for him “to get used to it” again.
“It was nice to get back in the car,” Raikkonen told SkySports. “It was quite a few years since I have driven, of course it takes a little while to get used to it.
“The main driving, braking, turning, that doesn’t take many laps. But of course to start learning about the car and team and tyres, that will take time.”
The 32-year-old left F1 in 2009 after spending his final few years at Ferrari. His two year absence was spent competing in the WRC which he had hoped to make a career of, admitting he never had any plans to return to F1.
“Not really,” he replied when the question was put to him. “I didn’t have any plans for the future.
“There were different choices to do this year and I really wanted to do racing. We did some NASCAR stuff last year and I enjoyed it a lot, racing against other people.
“That is where I decided to do racing, and [if you are] doing racing, F1 is the highest level and probably where most people want to be. I found a good chance to come back and race with Lotus.”
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