Kimi Räikkönen
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Kimi Matias Räikkönen (born October 17, 1979 in Espoo, Finland) is a formula one race car driver for the Scuderia Ferrari. After seven seasons of Formula One car racing, Räikkönen finally won the 2007 Formula One World Driver's Championship.
In his very first season, Räikkönen debuted along with the likes of other talented drivers, including Juan Pablo Montoya and Fernando Alonso as a regular driver for Sauber-Petronas in 2001. After a couple of runner-up finishes, first to Michael Schumacher in 2003 then to Alonso in 2005, Räikkönen finally hit paydirt after switching to Ferrari prior to 2007. He went on to be the highest paid driver in the sport before claiming his first world driver's championship.
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Personal Life
Kimi Räikkönen (pronounced /ˈki.mi ˈmɑ.ti.ɑs ˈræik.kø.nen/) was born in Espoo, west of Helsingfors, the capital in Finland. He lives with his wife Jenni Dahlman (born on October 27 1981), a Finnish model and a former Miss Scandinavia beauty queen, in Wollerau Switzerland. The couple got married on the 31st of July 2004. Kimi also has a house and apartment in his homeland of Finland. His older brother Rami, a rally driver and a national junior-class champion, competes in the Finnish Formula 3 Championship, while his father Matti was a road builder.
When he is not racing cars, Kimi likes to snowboard and play ice hockey since they live in a country with much snow. He also enjoys jogging and working out in the gym during his spare time. However, racing seems to be Kimi's top hobby as he has also joined in several other motorsporting events, including snowmobile racing and powerboat racing---both racing under the name "James Hunt". Among his achievements in these sports include winning the Enduro Sprint race, which he won by over 20 seconds with his Lynx MaMo, and the award for the best-dressed crew after he and two friends raced their powerboats in the Finnish harbor city of Hanko while wearing gorilla suits.
Aside from being popular on the race track, Kimi has also been renowned for his "playboy" lifestyle. In an incident that happened in January of 2005, he once stunned onlookers at the London Mayfair strip club called "For Your Eyes Only" when he cavorted with a lapdancer before launching into his own strip show. The incident drew criticism most especially from his former team, McLaren, who at that time were unveiling the new MP4-20 car. Chief executive Martin Whitmarsh admitted that Räikkönen may have been naive.
Kimi's lifestyle has been more likened to Hunt, the 1976 drivers' champion, rather than to his predecessor Schumacher. Hunt has personified the playboy lifestyle which is in huge contrast to Schumacher who has always kept his personal life in private.
Kimi is known as "Iceman" because of his cool, calm, and calculating race strategy. That nickname is written on the side of his current helmet design. He's other nicknames include Kimppa, Räikkä and Kimster (used by his mechanics). Kimi is 1.75m (5.9) tall and likes to listen to the music of "Eminem."
One interesting tidbit about the world champion is that he sometimes gets to sleep right before the Formula One race and wakes up just in time to start the race, like what happened in his first F1GP as he dozed off for 20 minutes right before the competition began.
Career
Early Career
Long before becoming a successful Formula One driver, Räikkönen achieved a great deal of success in karting. He had his first kart experience in 1987, and for three consecutive years, at the age of about 10-12, had some wins in Classes A, B and C. He went on to compete on the national level, in 1991 as a Class Mini, in 1992 as a Class Raket Junior, and in 1993-94 as a Class Raket. He finished 9th overall in the Finnish Cup in 1993 before jumping to 2nd place overall in 1994.
In 1995, Räikkönen shifted to Formula A Karting and won his very first race on the 23rd of April. His first race outside of his home country happened in Monaco where he had a couple of memorable experiences. One of those was when he waved his broken steering wheel in the air on the home straight to inform his mechanic about the problem. The other was when he was thrown on the wrong side of the safety fence in a first lap collision but still managed to continue driving, lift his kart back on the race track and even caught up with the rest of the competition to eventually finish third.
At the age of 17, Räikkönen joined the Karting Grand Prix (European Series) World Championship races and Nordic Championship races and placed 4th overall in Class Formula A. In 1997, he won the Finnish Championship Class Intercontinental A and placed 4th overall in the Nordic Championship Class Intercontinental A before getting invited to drive with Peter de Bruin Team in the World Championship races. A year later, he lived in the Netherlands and competed in several races, winning the Finnish Championship Class Formula A, the Nordic Championship, and the Class Formula Intercontinental A European Karting Grand Prix. He also placed 2nd overall in the Super A, 3rd overall in the Monaco Cup class Super A, and retired from 7th position in the World Championship Formula Super A. After placing 2nd overall in the Finnish Championship Class Formula A, 3rd in the First Formula Renault race with Haywood Racing, and 10th in the World Championship Class Formula Super A, Räikkönen turned to single-seater racing in 1999 for four races in British Formula Renault, winning the first four races of the year in the Winter Series with Manor Motorsport.
He raced with Manor for the 2000 season, winning 7 out of 10 races in the British Renault 2000 and was declared champion with 6 pole positions and seven fastest laps with podium finishes in all ten races. He also competed in the European Formula Renault Championship for three rounds, winning two with two pole positions and two fastest laps. He retired in the third race while leading due to mechanical failure.
Sauber -- entry into Formula One (2001)
With his success, Peter Sauber of the Red Bull Sauber Petronas Formula One team tested him in September of 2000 in Mugello. Räikkönen was eventually signed to contract to race for Sauber the following year alongside teammate Nick Heidfeld. His signing was considered by some as a historic moment as Räikkönen was able to race despite having no prior experience in Formula 3 or Formula 3000 which is a common requisite before being able to race in Formula One. Amidst his fast-increasing popularity, Räikkönen's entry in Formula One drew some concerns from critics most notably the FIA officials, including FIA president Max Mosley, who were reluctant to grant him an F1 Super Licence because of inexperience (only 23 car races). He nevertheless was able to prove just how ready he is to race with the big boys during test drivings and eventually was granted with the license.
Räikkönen raced like a veteran during his debut season, finishing sixth on his Grand Prix debut in Australia and went on to score on three more occasions (twice finishing fourth) in the midseason. He placed in the top eight in eight occassions and garnered a total of nine points, scored from placing 4th in Canada and Austria, fifth in Great Britain, and from his 6th place finish in Melbourne. He ended the season placing 10th in the Driver´s Championship. Along with teammate Nick Heidfeld, his performance also helped Team Sauber to its best ever finish in the constructor's championship, at #4.
McLaren (2002)
With a spectacular showing on his debut as a Formula One race car driver, several teams lined up to hire the services of the Finn. One of those was Ron Dennis of McLaren, who made a bid in August and eventually signed him up in September on a 5-year deal to replace recently retired double-world champion Mika Hakkinen.
In his maiden year at McLaren, Räikkönen failed to win a race but came as close as second place in France with a sureshot victory jeopardized by an oil at the track of Adelaide hairpin. He also had three third place finishes, namely in Australia, Japan, and Nürburgring and even out-qualified his very experienced team-mate David Coulthare several times. He ended the season placing 6th in the Drivers' Championship with Team McLaren Mercedes earning 24 points and a 3rd place finish in the constructors' championship.
McLaren (2003)
The following season, Räikkönen qualified 15th in the spare car at the Australian Grand Prix while holding off Schumacher to a 3rd-place finish. He finally bagged his first F1 victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix after starting from 7th on the grid. On the ensuing round in Brazil, Räikkönen dropped from first to second place finish after the race was stopped on lap 55. As the rules command that the winner would be decided by the race order as of two laps before the race stopped, Räikkönen claimed victory after topping lap 53 but an evidence that emerged a week later, which saw Giancarlo Fisichella racing on lap 56 when the race was stopped, relegated Räikkönen to a runner-up finish just behind Fisichella. Räikkönen had another second place finish at Imola before getting retired at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain after colliding with Antônio Pizzonia.
Räikkönen finished 2nd in Austria, almost claimed victory number two at Monaco but was relegated to a close second to Juan Pablo Montoya, and placed 6th in Canada which was over a minute behind race winner Michael Schumacher. At the European Grand Prix, Räikkönen took pole while Schumacher finished 5th taking 4 points advantage from him. In France, Räikkönen came fourth behind Schumacher but was a point ahead of him for a 3rd place finish at the British Grand Prix. He had another second place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix and placed 4th in the Italian GP which cost him five championship points to race winner Schumacher. Both went neck and neck again at the US GP, with Räikkönen taking second spot to Schumacher. In one of the closest race in recent years, Räikkönen actually had a chance to win the drivers' championship, but he would need to win the final race and at the same time hope that Schumacher will not score any points.
In the season-ending race in Japan, Räikkönen qualified 8th but managed to place second in the actual race. However, rival Schumacher was able to preserve his lead with some points, thus earning his 6th World Championship. With Montoya's retirement during the race, Räikkönen was declared second in the championship which was two points behind Schumacher. Team McLaren on the other hand placed third in the constructor's championship, two points behind runners-up Williams and 12 points behind winner Ferrari.
McLaren (2004)
Räikkönen suffered several engine breakdowns in 2004, allowing him to participate in only two of the first seven races where he managed to score only a point as compared to Schumacher's 60. With a little help from the competition, namely the Williams-BMWs and the two Toyotas who got disqualified, Räikkönen sneaked in at 5th in Canada despite making 5 pit stops and then placed 6th in the United States. After a little ray of light in France and Great Britain, where the "Iceman" finished 7th and 2nd respectively, the luckless season would continue as Räikkönen retired on both German and Hungarian Grands Prix. The Finn finally won one on race 14 at Belgium despite qualifying 10th on the race. Räikkönen, who also had the fastest lap, gave the team its only win of the season at the Belgian GP before getting retired once more in Italy after 13 laps due to electrical problems and placing thirteen points behind winner Rubens Barrichello in China for a 3rd place finish. He also placed 6th in Japan after having handling problems and ended the season placing second behind Montoya in Brazil. He had 45 points that year, a point shy from 6th place finisher Jarno Trulli, to go along with four podiums.
That year, Räikkönen also announced his intention to create a racing team with his manager Steve Robertson aptly named Räikkönen Robertson Racing (or "Double R") which will be competing the following year in Formula 3.
McLaren (2005)
In 2005, McLaren formed a very competitive team with both Räikkönen and Montoya on its fold. Räikkönen however got off to a slow start after getting just a point good for 8th in the season opener in Australia and dropping out of points the following race in Malaysia due to faulty tyre valve. He finally got his first podium at race #3 with a 3rd place finish in Bahrain. Despite getting retired in San Marino, Räikkönen still managed a pole as well as the next races at Barcelona and Monte Carlo where he both finished on top. In the 7th race of the season at the European GP, Räikkönen flat-spotted his right front tyre eventually sending him into the tyre wall causing ten more points for his rival Alonso. The incident in a way had a hand in changing the rule that will allow teams to change tyres without punishment not only when the tyres are punctured or damaged, but also when they are flat-spotted. The following race, an Alonso mistake propelled Räikkönen to his third first place finish of the season before all Michelin teams, including McLaren, withdrew from the US leg for safety reasons. The team returned for the French GP where the Finn turned out what his boss Dennis said was his best qualifying lap after finishing 3rd, but later on getting demoted to 13th with a significant fuel load. He also incurred a ten-place grid-penalty following the replacement of his new specification Mercedes Benz engine which failed in Friday practice but still managed to earn 2nd place behind Alonso.
In the 11th race in Great Britain, Räikkönen dropped from 2nd place qualifying to 12th due to engine failure but still managed to place 3rd in the race. The ensuing race in Germany, Räikkönen once again had car trouble, that time around it was hydraulics failure that pushed him back from leadership to retirement. It was the third time in the season that he lost a lead due to car problems and interestingly, his rival Alonso came on top on those three occassions. Afterwhich, he hinted his possible exodus from McLaren upon his contract's expiration if reliability issues were not solved.
After his "pronouncement," Räikkönen managed to win the Hungarian Grand Prix from the most handicapped qualifying position by running first on the notoriously dusty and dirty track due to his early retirement a week earlier. He accomplished another feat the following race as he became the first winner of the Turkish Grand Prix. Räikkönen seemingly was back on the winning track until his pole position was taken from him in the Italian GP after receiving a 10-position grid penalty for an engine change. Although he dropped to 12th in that race, he still managed to catch up and almost end up 3rd but after his car had spun, settled for fourth in the race. He came back and won the Belgian Grand Prix for the second straight year, placed second in Brazil, then garnered win #7 for the year in Japan after starting 17th on the grid. He ended the 2005 season as runner up to Alonso in the World Drivers' Championship with 112 points as well as being named as F1 Racing's "Driver of the Year" and Autosport's "International Racing Driver of the Year."
McLaren (2006)
Like the previous seasons, Räikkönen continue to experience problems with his car starting with the season opener in Bahrain where he suffered electronic problems at practice and a rear suspension break during the first qualifying session that pushed him on the 22nd place on the grid. Although he managed to finish third on that race behind Alonso and Schumacher, he was not lucky enough the following race in Malaysia where he was forced to retire after being hit by Red Bull Racing's Christian Klien that caused a left rear suspension failure. He also flat-spotted a tyre and lost a wing end-plate in Australia but his strong finish gave him a second place finish behind Alonso. Bad strategy and bad luck strung up several poor finishes for Räikkönen, ending up 5th in San Marino and Spain, 4th in Europe, and retired in Monte Carlo after a failed heat shield led to heat from the exhaust causing a wiring loom inside the car to catch fire.
He managed to place third in the British and Canadian GP, was punted out of the US GP in a seven car accident, qualified in sixth place in the French Grand Prix before finishing 5th (with new teammate Pedro de la Rosa, a former test driver), qualified on a pole in Germany placing third in the race, before getting retired for the fourth time in the season after a collision with Vitantonio Liuzzi in Hungary. He was also retired on the ensuing race in Turkey after a first turn incident caused a tyre explosion and a suspension damage. Räikkönen was able to redeem himself in Italy where he tailed Schumacher for a second place finish. After the race, world-renowned driver Schumacher announced that he was retiring, eventually being replaced by Räikkönen at Ferrari. Räikkönen experienced his 6th retirement of the season at China because of engine problems then went on to finish the season with a couple of fifth place finishes in Japan and Brazil.
Räikkönen settled for an unimpressive 5th place finish worth 65 points in a trouble-loaded season, while his team manage to bag third place in the World Constructors' Championship inspite of a winless stint. On the other hand, the Räikkönen Robertson Racing, which started competing in the British Formula Three Championship a year ago, bag the 2006 British F3 International Series title and the prestigious Macau Grand Prix with driver Mike Conway behind the wheels.
Ferrari (2007)
After Schumacher announced his retirement, it did not take long for team Ferrari to find a replacement as the team announced after the 2006 Italian Grand Prix its acquisition of Räikkönen on a three-year deal worth US $51M annually, making him the estimated highest paid Formula One driver. He was paired with Felipe Massa who only joined the team in 2006.
Räikkönen regained his winning form in 2007, taking pole position, setting the fastest lap and becoming the first driver since Nigel Mansell in 1989 to win his first Grand Prix with Ferrari at the Australian GP after showing his dominance in earlier sessions. After the maiden win at Ferrari, Räikkönen struggled a bit after finishing third behind winner Lewis Hamilton at the Malaysian Grand Prix, also third in the Bahrain Grand Prix, retired after only 10 laps at the Spanish Grand Prix, went from 16th to 8th after dealing with a broken right suspension at the Monaco Grand Prix, qualified 4th and finished 5th in Canada, and qualified 4th and finished at the same spot despite recording the fastest lap of the race at the US Grand Prix. With 10 races to go, Räikkönen was already 26 points behind first placer Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship.
He was able to bounce back in France where he qualified third but overtook Hamilton and Brazilian teammate Massa throughout the race to claim his second win at Ferrari and the team's first 1-2 win of the season. He made it two in a row in Great Britain after qualifying second and overtaking Hamilton and Alonso for a first place finish while also recording the fastest lap of the race. He managed to claim his second pole position of the season at the European Grand Prix but after experiencing hydraulics problem with his car, was forced to retire on the 35th lap. By this time, he was still 18 points behind Hamilton and was in 4th place in the Drivers' championship behind Hamilton, Alonso, and Massa.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Räikkönen qualified fourth but was promoted to a third place start after Alonso was penalized. He managed to stay within striking distance of Hamilton and although he recorded the fastest lap time on the final lap, he remained second up until the finish. On the next race at the Turkish Grand Prix, Räikkönen qualified third and managed to register the fastest lap of the race at 1.27.295, but still finished second behind teammate Massa to record the team's second 1-2 finish of the season.
At the Italian Grand Prix, Räikkönen qualified in fifth place but had to race on Ferrari's reserve car after crashing his vehicle in the third practice session. Despite sustaining a neck problem from the accident, he still managed to place third after employing a one-stop strategy finishing behind Hamilton and race winner Alonso. His 4th win of the season came in the Spa-Francorchamps after dominating the practice sessions and securing his third pole position of the season and the 14th of his F1 career. He went on to beat teammate Massa, Alonso, and Hamilton for his 13th career F1 victory, and became the seventh driver to bag three or more Spa wins. For the record, it was the third 1-2 finish for Team Ferrari in 2007.
In the Japanese Grand Prix, both Räikkönen and Massa struggled at the Fuji Speedway due to a wet track. After an impressive showing at the Friday practices, Räikkönen still came short and ended the race at the third spot. The following race in China, Räikkönen turned out with the fastest laps in the free practice sessions, qualified second for the race, and ended at the #1 spot by the end of the race to keep his championship hopes alive. He cut Hamilton's lead to seven and Alonso's to three in the Drivers' Championship by this time.
In the final race of the season, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Massa took the pole position then Hamilton, Räikkönen, and Alonso followed. Massa later on yielded the lead to Räikkönen at the second round of pit stops and his teammate would later on bag the title. Räikkönen outraced his competition as Hamilton managed only a seventh place finish while Alonso was third. In the end, Räikkönen edged both just by a point to claim the Drivers' Championship.
Results and Records
Career Summary
| Season | Series | Team Name | Races | Poles | Wins | Points | Final Placing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | European Formula Ford | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 5th |
| Formula Ford Festival | Continental Racing Van Diemen | 1 | 0 | 0 | N/A | NC | |
| Formula Renault 2000 UK Winter Championship | Manor Motorsport | 4 | ? | 4 | ? | 1st | |
| Formula Renault 2000 UK | Haywood Racing | 4 | 0 | 0 | ? | ? | |
| 2000 | Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup | ? | 2 | 2 | 2 | 62 | 7th |
| Formula Renault 2000 UK | Manor Motorsport | 10 | 6 | 7 | 316 | 1st | |
| 2001 | Formula One | Sauber | 17 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10th |
| 2002 | Formula One | McLaren | 17 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 6th |
| 2003 | Formula One | McLaren | 16 | 2 | 1 | 91 | 2nd |
| 2004 | Formula One | McLaren | 18 | 1 | 1 | 45 | 7th |
| 2005 | Formula One | McLaren | 19 | 5 | 7 | 112 | 2nd |
| 2006 | Formula One | McLaren | 18 | 3 | 0 | 65 | 5th |
| 2007 | Formula One | Ferrari | 17 | 3 | 6 | 110 | 1st |
| 2008 | Formula One | Ferrari | - | - | - | - | TBD |
Complete Formula One Results
References
- Kimi Räikkönen Profile @ formula 1 database
- Kimi Räikkönen Profile @ Grandprix.com
- Kimi Räikkönen Profile @ itv.com
- Kimi Räikkönen Profile @ PlanetF1.com
- Kimi Räikkönen Wikipedia
- Kimi Räikkönen: The Formula One Database
