What has brought Kimi Raikkonen back to Formula 1? He says that after a couple of years in rallying he realized he missed the thrill of wheel-to-wheel racing. But it's unlikely to be as simple as that. After all, here's a guy who turned his back on the sport at the end of 2009 having failed to close a McLaren deal for '10 that would have allowed him to continue to win races.

At Lotus, it's been a case of “so far, so good,” as Raikkonen was immediately quick when strapped into a 2010-specification Renault at Valencia in January and in the new Lotus E20 in Barcelona in February, then overcame a difficult qualifying session to score points on his return to the sport in Australia last weekend.

Just as important, he impressed the team with his method. But then Lotus has taken a pragmatic approach to its new No. 1 driver. With only 12 days of preseason testing to divide up between Kimi and his teammate, fellow-F1 returnee Romain Grosjean, plus three days at Mugello in May, there is little test work to be done. Lotus recognizes – as McLaren did and Ferrari didn't – that to get the best out of Raikkonen, you need to give him space. Outside of grand prix weekends and tests, his time will largely be his own.

Comebacks rarely work in F1, but Raikkonen is young enough and good enough to make a success of this. Few doubt that he still has wins in him and a second championship is far from impossible.

Full Article: racer.com/racer-special-why-kimi-raikkonen-has-more-to-prove