Injured Raikkonen confirms reason for Ericsson's Spa recall

Kimi Raikkonen has confirmed that he's suffered a leg injury over the summer break, which is the reason why Alfa Romeo's reserve driver Marcus Ericsson has been summoned to Spa-Francorchamps this weekend.

Ericsson's sudden absence from his scheduled IndyCar race in Portland on Sunday had sparked rumours that he might be taking over from Antonio Giovinazzi at the Belgian Grand Prix. But in fact it's Raikkonen who is the driver in doubt.

"I pulled a muscle and we will see how it is," Raikkonen told reporters in the Formula 1 paddock on Thursday morning. "In my head it should be fine but you never know.

Ericsson vacates IndyCar seat - heads to Spa with Alfa!

"We need to have some back-up plan," he continued when asked if this was the reason for Ericsson's change of plans. "There is a reason why every team has a third driver.

"It would be stupid not to have our third driver [here] in case I couldn’t be driving," he explained. "Then it is the worst case scenario!

"It is a normal story. It is a difficult situation for him also because he had a race, but that is how it is."

Ericsson's place in the the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car for Sunday's IndyCar race will be taken by former GP3 driver Conor Daly.

The 28-year-old Swede, who previously raced in F1 first for Caterham and subsequently Sauber between 2014 and 2018, is hoping to extend his contract to stay in the US open wheel championship beyond the end of his rookie season.

However a sudden absence such as this weekend will not help his cause.

As for Raikkonen, the Finn was reluctant to go into the details of how he had sustained his leg injury - although he gave enough information to tease us with what might have happened.

"Sport. It is dangerous. I always said it is more dangerous," he said. "Drinking is probably safer. Usually you don't get injured, you just get a hangover."

Confirmation then that kicking back during a summer break can end up causing more injuries than speeding round a circuit at nearly 200mph!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.