THE ICEMAN GOETH

Don’t expect a fanfare in Abu Dhabi, or any grand curtain call designed to soak up two decades of accumulated Formula 1 glory. But do expect a small farewell party. It’s just that you won’t be invited.

Kimi Räikkönen, in a move which surprised almost nobody, finally announced his decision to retire at the beginning of September – although it’s something that he had settled on for nearly a year. And that’s why his announcement came almost as an afterthought, in the form of a somewhat laconic Instagram post that started off with: “This is it.”

Kimi likes to get to the point and not waste time with words, a trait he shares with many of his fellow countrymen. They have a saying in Finland that goes along the lines of “silence is gold, talking is silver”. And Kimi has always preferred gold.

But it’s not that Finns don’t like talking. Instead, it’s that they just don’t like small talk. When Kimi is actually in the mood to talk, there’s almost no stopping him. But he likes to talk only about things that are important or