Barcelona, 7th May 2009
At the Catalunya box, during the impatient preparations for the upcoming race weekend, we met Mark Arnall, Kimi Raikkonen’s personal trainer.
With him we discovered some very interesting facts about Kimi’s daily life and his physical preparation for the races.
Mark stays with Kimi during the test days, the GPs, but also in Switzerland and Finland, where Kimi spends most of his time when he’s not behind the F60’s wheel. “During a training day at home in the morning Kimi does some cardio fitness for one to three hours,” Mark told us. “Quite often he rides his mountain bike or does some exercises for his overall fitness. In the afternoon he likes to do some fun sport and often plays badminton, golf, ice hockey or goes jet skiing. This training helps him to strengthen his leg muscles and, in the case of jet skiing he improves balance, coordination and muscles in his upper body he needs for driving.” Mark is always very close to Kimi during when they plan the days and he has been doing this work for the last 13 years. How does Kimi’s diet look like? Does he eat anything particular? “Kimi is a very healthy eater, also because his wife Jenni likes healthy food. In the morning he has Finish porridge for breakfast, sometimes cheese, ham and eggs. He likes pasta, chicken and salads.” And during the Grand Prix weekends, how does a usual day look like for Kimi? “On the day of the qualifying he has breakfast at around 9:45am and then he’s off to the track. After the technical meeting he goes out for the third free practice session. There’s lunch at 12:30pm, followed by the qualifying and some technical briefings and meetings with the FIA. Sometimes he gets a back and neck massage, because these are the parts stressed most from driving. Or he does just some stretching and swims a bit. On the day of the race he arrives at the track at around 11:15am, takes part in the technical meetings, has lunch at 12:50pm and then, at 2pm, there’s the race. During the race Kimi drinks around half a litre of water.” After the race there‘s a special programme lasting for two days and then it’s back to the usual programme, waiting for the next race.
Kimi Raikkonen - At the Catalunya box
Raikkonen spoke about the upcoming race weekend:
“We’ve got some updates for Barcelona, especially as far as the aerodynamic is concerned. This weekend we’ll see if we managed to make a step ahead compared to our competitors. We know what we have to do to get back on top, but it takes some time.
It was a very difficult start to the season, that’s true, but we’re a team: you win and you loose together. We all want to win. I know that we will, but I don’t know when. This is racing, sometimes it happens that you get stuck in a difficult period. I’ve been in Formula One for years and I know that a year like this can happen: it’s difficult to win all the time. There were many rule changes and the big teams were in trouble, but they will get back on top. We have to be realistic: as far as the Championships are concerned the situation is difficult, but we’ll give it everything to catch up, to improve the car race after race. We have to start winning and then we’ll see what’s going to happen.”
