Toto Wolff says Raikkonen's Ferrari exit 'a blow' to F1

Kimi Raikkonen was subjected to a constant state of scrutiny ever since he rejoined Ferrari for a second stint, one that began in 2014 and came to an end with the conclusion of the 2018 Formula 1 season.

Truth be told, it wasn't that hard to understand why.

He struggled for the better part of 2014 and couldn't manage better than a P4 that he secured at the Belgian Grand Prix, his year ending on a low; Raikkonen scoring only 55 to Alonso's gathering of 161 in the duo's first and last year of pairing.

While he'd improve marginally in 2015 and 2016 would show us some impressive shades of pace, one would finally get to see the real fire in Formula 1's Iceman when he'd grab a pole at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, going as far as securing 7 podiums.

Finally, one would see the best Raikkonen had to offer in the 2018 season, with the Iceman finally collecting what was missing most from his resume ever since rejoining the Scuderia: a Grand Prix win.

It would come at the testing Circuit of the Americas.

But even before he'd win, he would have already indicated the sign of things to come by setting the record for the fastest lap in the history of the Grand Prix racing, going as far as 1:19:119 at Monza.

So it were efforts like these that helped Raikkonen settle the debate, arguably, once and for all, regarding his form and whether, at 39, he truly was worth his salt, a fact he proved by gathering 12 podiums from 21 races in 2018, which meant a podium more over Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.

Having said that, maybe the consistency demonstrated by Raikkonen in his final year at Ferrari convinced Toto Wolff, the Team Principal of Ferrari's biggest anti-thesis of 2018, Mercedes to share that the 'Kimster's' Ferrari exit is nothing shy than a 'blow' to F1.

So Toto Wolff's comments on Kimi Raikkonen- at the back of his exit from Ferrari- go on to show the regard the Austrian boss (of Formula 1's strongest team) has for one of the sport's most admired drivers.

Elaborating his point on Raikkonen, Wolff maintained that seeing Raikkonen compete but minus among the best machinery on the grid would be sad and like a 'blow' to Formula 1.

He was quoted as saying, "I think it changes a lot for F1 that Kimi is not in Ferrari anymore in a car that is able to win races."