F1 star delivers savage response after champions' meeting snub

Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel at the Bahrain GP in 2015 — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 star delivers savage response after champions' meeting snub

Kimi Raikkonen was not invited

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Wednesday 27 August 2025 14:58

2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen has delivered a hilarious putdown, after not receiving an invitation to a meeting between some of the sport's greatest champions.

F1 detailed the extraordinary meeting with a picture posted on Instagram taken from the Goodwood Festival of Speed last month, where Mika Hakkinen, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Sir Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Jacques Villeneuve could all be seen sat around a table chatting.

But Raikkonen didn't seem best pleased by his lack of an invitation, commenting dryly: "Thanks for the invite." The Finn's comment has gained almost 32,000 likes on the platform.

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Some fans kindly pointed to the fact that Raikkonen may not be old enough yet to be considered for an invitation among some of these champions from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

Raikkonen's title came in 2007 during Lewis Hamilton's rookie season in the sport, with the Ferrari driver taking advantage of McLaren's inability to back a horse out of Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by sweeping through to win the title by a single point.

Kimi Raikkonen won the 2007 world championship

Raikkonen's F1 career

While Raikkonen's career achievements may not stack up well compared to the likes of Prost, Stewart and Fittipaldi around the table, he does have the same amount of F1 world championships as Andretti, Mansell and Villeneuve.

Raikkonen's career spanned between 2001-2021 bar a couple of seasons off midway through his career as he instead took to the World Rally Championship.

When Raikkonen returned in 2012, he opted to take a seat with Lotus, where he added two race wins to his career tally across two seasons, before an opportunity to return to Ferrari surfaced in 2014.

Overall, Raikkonen finished his F1 career with 21 race victories and a whopping 103 podiums, also racking up 18 pole positions in the sport.

After three seasons hovering around the midfield with the Alfa Romeo team (now Sauber), Raikkonen officially called time on his career in 2021.

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