Whether this is just seeking publicity and sympathy by creating a mystique, or a genuine time-out to decide on his F1 future, remains to be seen. The general feeling is he will return even more determined to get the eighth title that was his in Abu Dhabi until Nicholas Latifi's crash five laps from the end brought the safety car out, and when Masi allowed the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap themselves, it gave Verstappen one lap to overtake Hamilton, which he did, because his tyres were fresher.
Latifi, who clearly didn't deliberately crash his Williams car to aid Verstappen, nonetheless received death threats and hate mail for his part in the fiasco. Misguided pro-Hamilton fans thought it was their right to demonstrate their disgust in that way
Raikkonen probably didn't care who won the title battle but such was the drama and subsequent furore surrounding the Hamilton v Verstappen show, there was little or no media interest in the fact that Raikkonen, the oldest driver in F1 with a record 349 starts, had driven his last race. But the fans noticed, as they voted him driver of the day even though it was a DNF, such is the understated popularity of the quiet one whose nickname of the "Iceman" is emblazoned on his race helmet.
The Finnish driver entered F1 in 2001, driving for the Sauber team in his 21st year.
His path to F1 resembled a shortcut. Although he started Kart racing at age 10, his first race in karts outside Finland did not happen until he was 15. He raced in Formula Renault in 2000, winning seven of 10 races, and caught the eye of Peter Sauber who gave him an F1 test. When he was half a second quicker than team driver Pedro Diniz, Sauber knew he had a star in the making, and signed him up for the 2001 season.
Max Mosley, the FIA President, was one of several critics who felt Kimi was too inexperienced to be given an F1 Super Licence, having had only 23 races at the time. When Verstappen joined F1 in 2015, aged 17, there was even more concern about his inexperience, as well as his age. So much so that the FIA thereafter mandated a driver
cannot race in F1 until they are 18. History has proved the critics of both Raikkonen and Verstappen got it wrong.
In his first race in Melbourne, Australia, Raikkonen finished sixth, scoring one point. Nowadays sixth place is worth six points. He finished the season 10th on the driver's list, which impressed Ron Dennis, who signed him up for his McLaren team. His first podium with third place in Australia for the start of the 2002 season followed, and he bookended that result with third in the last race in Japan, to finish sixth overall for the season.
He started 2003 with another third place in Australia, and a week later won his first grand prix, the Malaysian GP. He was on his way to becoming an F1 superstar, and although he didn't win again that season, he did finish second to Michael Schumacher in the driver's championship.
In the 2004 season, unreliability problems hit Raikkonen and McLaren, including DNFs in the first three grand prix. 2005 was much better, with seven wins, but the championship went to Fernando Alonso, in the Renault. Alonso had started F1 at the same time as Raikkonen, except Alonso was in the Minardi, the slowest car on the track. After becoming a Renault test driver in 2002, Alonso won his first grand prix in Hungary in 2003, becoming at the time at age 21, the youngest grand winner, a record Verstappen now holds after winning on debut with Red Bull in Spain in 2016 when aged 18 years 228 days.
Raikkonen joined Ferrari in 2007 and won six races and also the world championship, beating McLaren drivers Hamilton and Alonso by a point.
That remains the last time a Ferrari driver has won the championship. In 2010, he left F1 to try rallying and even a little bit of Nascar, but he returned in 2012 as a Lotus driver and in the Abu Dhabi GP had possibly the defining win of his 21 grand prix victories. Leading the race, Raikkonen was warned on his race radio by his race engineer that Alonso was closing in. For a driver renowned for saying very little, Raikkonen came back with a classic response, which has come to define his time in F1.
"Just leave me alone, I know what I'm doing," Raikkonen retorted.
When the race engineer reminded him to keep working all four tyres, Kimi became sarcastic.
"Yes, yes, yes, I'm doing that all the time ... you don't have to remind me every 10 seconds."
A limited number of T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" were produced and sold out instantly. Anyone who has one should not wear it but wash it and get it framed, as it's a valuable collector's item.
Raikkonen won with Lotus again in 2013 in the season opener in Melbourne, and finished fourth in the championship, and then rejoined with Ferrari for 2014, as a teammate to Alonso. It was not a good year for either driver, Ferrari had lost its way, failing to adjust to the turbo era that Mercedes and Hamilton in particular would dominate until last year. Raikkonen finished 10th while Alonso was sixth. The latter became disillusioned and joined McLaren-Honda in 2015, out of the frying pan into the fire.
Raikkonen stayed with Ferrari as a teammate to Sebastian Vettel. The latter would win races for Ferrari, but the car was no match for Mercedes. In 2018, Raikkonen's last grand prix win came in the US GP at Austin, Texas. Three frustrating seasons spent with Alfa Romeo and no podium, no doubt convinced Raikkonen it was time to leave.
Top athletes often retire, get bored, regret the retirement decision and return, and F1 drivers are no exception. Schumacher retired in 2006, only to return with little success three years later. Alonso retired for two years in 2018, but was back last year and made
the podium with Alpine. However, at 42, Raikkonen's time in F1 is done, but will he find retirement difficult?
"I don't see why. No, I'm looking forward to it," he told Auto und Sport.
"Many people have already predicted to me 'if you are at home for half a year, the ceiling will fall on your head'. I love being at home and I'm looking forward to spending time with my family much more now and doing normal things. My free time is more important to me than anything else.
"I can be home for a week without stepping outside the door once and I'm still a happy person. I really have zero plans. Just the feeling I no longer have to do this or that gives me a sense of anticipation."
So, will he miss F1?
"Only time will tell. What I already know, driving is the only thing I liked about it! I may never set foot in the paddock again. Formula One was never my life. There were always things that were more important to me. Nothing will change about that. I didn't stop because I didn't have the strength but because I have better things to do than sit on planes and stay in hotels."
His Alfa Romeo team had the words: "Now we will leave you alone, Kimi" on his car in Abu Dhabi
But even if Raikkonen won't miss F1, Alonso says F1 will miss him.
"I'm happy to have shared so many years with Kimi," Alonso says.
"He is a very good character in Formula One and this year we will miss him a lot.
"Obviously, we both had a fantastic time in F1; we both won a championship which maybe, in 2001, we were not sure of that success at that moment."
"He's sincere. He's not playing games. He is what you see. Part of this mask that we see from him, being very cold and not talking too much and things like that, there is a different person inside. Not the 'Iceman'.
"I share many of his ideas and thoughts about Formula One and this world. What we live here is a bubble and not real life. We travel in good planes, we are in five-star hotels, we have all the help from everyone but, on Sunday night, we are normal people and we tend to laugh about how fake this world becomes," Alonso added, echoing the thoughts of the man we will all now leave alone, even if he doesn't know what he is going to do.