Kimi Brasil

Kimi Räikkönen claims that the 2012 season will be a continuation of his Formula 1 career from 2009, as opposed to a second stint. The Finn was dropped by Ferrari in favour of Fernando Alonso and has spent the past two years in both the World Rally Championship and NASCAR events.

The 2007 World Champion, whose last F1 victory came at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, rejoins the sport this year with Lotus – formerly know as Renault.

“I don’t think this is my second career,” Räikkönen said in Thursday’s opening FIA press conference of the year in Melbourne. “I’ve been racing all the time, just in a different thing. I’ve been racing at a few different teams and all the teams run a slightly different way, mainly because they are all different nationalities, but you always learn from all the people and all of the teams and I have good memories.”

With Lotus having lost four our of 12 days in pre-season testing, due to a major front suspension problem, Räikkönen was asked if his start to the season could compare with his McLaren and Ferrari struggles of 2004 and 2009, respectively.

“Usually you have a new car here every year, so it’s not a big surprise,” he continued. “I don’t know…it’s different tyres but the car felt very similar in the tests to what I remember in the past. You have DRS; it’s just a button that you push, it doesn’t really change the driving itself a lot. It doesn’t feel much different.”

This year, the Finn is partnered by Franco-Swiss Romain Grosjean, who also last competed in F1 three seasons ago and is now the current GP2 title holder.