Kimi just turned up and did his – frequently devastating – stuff and the team sort of pulled what they needed from him. But that was okay, they felt. They could work with that – so long as he was delivering.

Kimi Raikkonen goes into his last race as a Ferrari driver, about to be paid to leave with one year of his contract still remaining. It's a situation that would have been virtually unthinkable when he joined just three years ago.

He was earmarked as Ferrari's future by Luca di Montezemolo even before Michael Schumacher had made up his mind about retirement. In late 2005 Schumacher was told that Raikkonen was on his way for '07 – and not on terms of being Schuey's support act, take it or leave it.

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