Kimi Raikkonen appointed chief performance advisor in fresh post-F1 project

Sam Cooper
Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen has been appointed as a chief performance advisor.

Kimi Raikkonen has picked up a job as chief performance advisor of Chinese electric car brand Zeekr as he enjoys life after F1.

Aside from racing with his son, Raikkonen has not been seen much since retiring from F1 at the end of the 2021 season. A brief foray into the world of NASCAR has been his only racing venture to date but he has now picked up another role in the automotive industry.

While it is not behind the wheel, Raikkonen will be supplying his driving knowledge to Chinese electric car brand Zeekr to help improve their new car.

Kimi Raikkonen joins forces with Chinese electric car company

Raikkonen has been brought on board specifically to work on the Zeekr 001 FR which was announced in September this year. While not quite the speed he was used to in his F1 days, the car can still pack a punch with a 0-100 km/h time of 2.07 seconds and 1,248 hp.

Speaking after the announcement, Raikkonen said he loved his Chinese fans and promised some “fun stuff” to come out this Friday at the car’s launch event in Beijing.

With Zeekr being based in China, Raikkonen will presumably split his time between there and Italy after he moved his family to the European country to help with his son’s karting career.

Raikkonen’s son Robin is already a winner on the karting scene and has signed up for Italian outfit CRG KART, a team which has seen the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Nico Rosberg race for them in years gone by.

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To help his son’s career, La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the Raikkonen family has moved away from their former base in Switzerland to the Italian city of Como, described as a “logistically perfect area” for access to the international karting circuits of Northern Italy.

The report goes into further detail on the Raikkonen family’s new living arrangements as he has purchased two properties, a farmhouse called ‘Il Torchio’, as well as an apartment in central Como, where Raikkonen, his wife Minttu and three children Robin, Rianna and Grace, will live as renovations continue on the farmhouse.

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Kimi Raikkonen

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