Korean GP: Kimi Raikkonen has no doubt he will be fit to race
Kimi Raikkonen says he would not have turned up to the Korean Grand Prix if he had any fear that his back issues would prevent him from racing
A flare-up of back pain from an old injury interfered with Raikkonen's Singapore GP a fortnight ago.
Although Raikkonen acknowledged that he could not properly assess his condition until he drove in Friday practice, he said he had arrived at Yeongam certain he would start the grand prix.
"I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be racing," he said.
"It would be a bit pointless to come here if I didn't think that I would race.
"Obviously tomorrow we'll see. Right now it's OK. It's always difficult to say until you drive, but I think it should be fine.
"Once we try it tomorrow, I'll know more. Like I said already at the last race, this wasn't the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last time.
"It's something that I've been dealing with for a long time."
Lotus prepared reserve driver Davide Valsecchi as a potential stand-in for Raikkonen when the issue became troublesome during the Singapore weekend, and the Finn was only able to qualify 13th.
He recovered for race day and charged to third place.
Raikkonen did not think the problem would require any special attention before he returns to Ferrari for the 2014 Formula 1 season.
"I've been OK every year I've been racing," he said.
"Sometimes I have to deal with the pain.
"Obviously every year you get older and your system has more issues but I'm sure you can deal with these things."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
F1 teams and Pirelli had no warning of “painted” Shanghai track surface
FIA still chasing answers over bizarre Shanghai F1 grass fires
Why F1 2026 worst case fears could be key to new rules success
The contrasting fortunes of F1's big-name moves to Ferrari
The many surprise driver cameos of the 2023 NASCAR Cup season
Raikkonen "got unlucky" with COTA chaos on NASCAR return
Friday favourite: Why Herbert prefers a car he had to wrestle above his F1 winners
New Time Attack competition for 1990s F1 cars launched by AGS successor
Red Bull in no rush to finalise 2025 F1 line-up
Oliveira reckons MotoGP “looks too easy” on TV now
The short-term pain that hides a very real Williams improvement
How a Shanghai to Sheffield journey paved the way for China’s F1 hero
Why F1 2026 worst case fears could be key to new rules success
How the F1 driver market situation sits for each team with 2025 openings
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments