Raikkonen hailed for "outside the box" thinking ahead of NASCAR debut

NASCAR driver Daniel Suarez has been impressed by Kimi Raikkonen's "outside the box" thinking during preparations for his Cup Series debut.

The 2007 F1 world champion will take to the wheel of a TrackHouse Racing entry as part of the Project91 initiative that aims to increase the global reach of the US-based series.

Suarez will be Raikkonen's team-mate for the weekend and was at the Finn's test at Virginia in the week preceding his first start at Watkins Glen.

Whilst Raikkonen has tasted NASCAR before, it was in a lower-category Truck Series race on an oval, compared to the top-tier Cup Series event coming up on a road course.

Speaking to US-based media in the build-up to Raikkonen's debut, Suarez - who became the first Mexican-born driver to win a race in the Cup Series at Sonoma this year - said: "It has been a lot of fun to get to hang out with this kind of driver because in a way, I always learn and am very open-minded to learn from these kinds of people.

"There has been a lot of things [he wanted to know. He asked a lot of questions, he is very open-minded.

"I thought he was going to be quieter - a lot of people know him for being very quiet and the 'leave me alone' kind of thing, but he is not like that at all. I was very impressed with that."

On how Raikkonen has adapted, Suarez added: "He has been learning very quickly - he knows how to drive, he is a natural with that, but I was very curious to get to know his mindset, how he approached this. This is something different for him.

"He has been learning a lot, thinking outside the box and taking a lot of information from myself.

"It is a lot of fun to see him adapting in the simulator and in the real race car, even though it was only a couple of hours, but it was good to see that."