The Rise of Kimi Raikkonen

The Rise Of Kimi :

Kimi Raikkonen was acknowledged as a future great as soon as he burst onto the F1 scene in 2001. The following year he reached the big time, stepping into countryman, Mika Hakkinen’s shoes at Team McLaren Mercedes. And at 2003 and 2005 he showed his true potential as he challenged for The Drivers’ World Championship all the way to the final round, which he could get the title at 2007, in his 6^th season in F1 circus. He became The 2007 World Champion after his worst season, his last season in McLaren, in his first season ever in Scuderia Ferrari. In 2003 and 2005 he just finished runner up after his car had a worst reliability, same problem in 2006.

Kimi’s rise to the top should serve as an inspiration to any aspiring driver. He made it despite not coming from wealthy family or landing support from a major backer early in his career. He has progressed purely on talent, and by being in the right place when his results generated opportunities.

Pic: Kimi and famz

Despite his new fame, Kimi’s feet remain firmly on the ground. He’s still close to his parents and the friends from back home that he made before he was a superstar. His home is in Switzerland but he goes back to Finland whenever he can.

Kimi inherited his love of speed from his famz. However, his 1^st exploits were actually on two wheels rather than four, he said “My brother started in motocross when he was three and a half or something, when he couldn’t even ride a normal bike!”. Kimi recalls “They put those stabilizers on the motorbike. Then when I was five, I started. They got him a bigger bike and we were racing together on the land around the house”.

“My dad was a mechanic too. He used to work for a guy whose son was doing go-karts, so we went to look one day. We bought one kart for me and my brother- I was seven or eight then. I started in local races, not really licensed, but just hobby racing. I was 12 when I started proper racing, which was quite late. My brother raced katrs until he stopped at 17 or something, and I started to do more car racing”.

“He wanted to go on because he was more interested in a big car and rally stuff. He’s also taller than me, so he was a bit too big for karts. I was always more interested in racing, while he was doing it for fun”.

Kimi’s dad put everything he had into supporting his boys, and made huge sacrifices. “He used to do three jobs at the same time. He used to drive a taxi, and he worked for the government, driving a big machine that made the roads more smooth (he meant smoother). And sometimes he used work on the door of a bar, throwing people out!”.

At once stage he diverted funds from a planned refit of the bathroom into karting. That meant the famz had to still make do with their old outside lavatory, although Kimi says it was no great hardship:”It’s trus, but that’s normal for us in Finland…”--- it’s known that Kimi using his 1^st salary to make new or to repair his bathroom in his house.

Soon Kimi was travelling all over Europe, enjoying considerable success. “The 1^st time I raced outside Finland was 1993. I won the Scandinavian Championship, and it all started from there. One of my cousins was helping me to do the European Championship. The 1^st year wasn’t very good. I had some races where I went fast, but I usually ended up somewhere outside of the circuit! But at least some people noticed. Then I started to get tires for free, and all these things that start to help”.

His big break came when he was offered a drive by a man who had not only raced against the great Ayrton Senna in karts, but actually beat the Brazilian to the 1980 world title.

“I won a championship in Finland in1997, and in 1998, a guy called Peter de Bruijn from Holland was planning to build up his own team, and he needed drivers. He said he would like me to drive for him- I was 17 or 18. I stopped school and moved to Holland to do racing”.

“I was still paying my hotels and flights and things like that, but he paid most of the stuff. It was good, because otherwise I couldn’t really do karts because we didn’t have money. We always struggled. Anyway that year I won two Finnish Championships, and the Scandinavian Championship, and I came second in Europe, so it was good year for us”.

His success earned him a lot of attention. One man who saw the potential was former F1 team boss Peter Collins, who had an eye for young talent. Through him, Kimi met father and son team, David and Steve Robertson. They had already helped Jenson Button up the ladder, and how they gave Kimi their management support as much as they can.

“The 1^st couple of tests I did were in Formula Ford, and then I went to race in Formula Renault. It was more fun because they didn’t slide so much and were quicker. But I only did a few races in 1999. In the 1^st one I came 3^rd, the car broke down in one race and I had an accident another. The car wasn’t very good, so we stopped it”.

Aware that he wasn’t in a competitive situation, Kimi and the Robertsons decided to stop the programme and await another opportunity at the end of the year.

“I came back and did some go-kart racing-I did the Finnish Championship because I didn’t have anything else to do. I came 2^nd in that and in the Nordic Championship. I was just hanging around in Finland. People were giving me a hard time because so many drivers go to England and come back. It was hard dong nothing! Dave and Steve had a promised that I was going back to race in the Winter Series in a good team, so I went there and won all the races”.

Kimi found the Manor team much more to his liking. He stayed for 2001, and duly dominated the championship.

“In 2000 the Formula Renault rules changed, and everybody had the same car. It was a much better championship, with brand new cars for everyone, and it was much more straightforward. There were 12 races, but I did only 10 because I won the championship before then. I won 7 races and had 7 pole positions, one 2^nd and two 3^rd”.

He makes it sounds easy, but it was an awesome performance that really got him noticed. It was achieved despite the distraction of National Service, which is compulsory for young Finns.

“It was a little bit difficult, because I was in the Army. I went in October 1999, and left in October 2000. I was flying backwards and forwards to Finland all the time. It was pain! There was all this marching in the forest and camping and the normal stuff. They’re always shouting at you, so it’s not nice to be there”.

“There was a special place if you were at high level in some sport, so you got it more easy (he meant easier). I think for 70 days you could be at your races-maybe one day for a race win. I was away for 100 days, so I needed to stay two or three weeks longer or something. But because the new guys were coming in they didn’t care what we did, so we just played computer and did nothing!”

Even before his army career was over, Kimi got his 1^st test in Formula 1. Despite his limited experience, he landed a test with Sauber Petronas. At 1^st, nobody expected it to lead to a full time drive, but Kimi immediately impressed the Swiss team.

Pic:Kimi (Sauber-blue overall) and Mika (Mercy-silver overall)

“Everybody was just waiting to see if I’d get the F1 super license or not. It changed a lot, because suddenly everyone was interested”.

The world was watching Kimi when he made his debut in Melbourne in March 2001. How could this kid straight out of Formula Renault step into a Formula 1? (before step up to F1, after raced in Formula Renault, drivers should raced in Formula 3 and Formula 3000-but Kimi, he’s different)

He showed that Peter Sauber’s judgement was sound by finishing an astonishing sixth. In fact he barely put a foot wrong the whole season, finishing as high as fourth in Austria and Canada, and fifth at Silverstone. His total of nine pts earned him 10^th in the World Championship.

“The car was good, and I had some good races. The start of the year was a little bit difficult, and then I had quite a few retirements, engine, gearbox, and one time the steering wheel came off at San Marino! But then I had a few good results, which was nice. I didn’t really have any accidents, so it was a good year, and I had a close battle with Nick Heidfeld, which was good also for the team”.

Even before the end of the season, Kimi had made the next step. He landed s fulltime Team McLaren Mercedes seat for 2002, effectively replacing his close friend Mika Pauli Hakkinen, who was considering his future. Kimi had met McLaren Group Chairman and CEO Ron Dennis at a party as early as June, but discussing did not became serious until later on. (uhm, actually Nick-Kimi’s teammate in Sauber hope that Mercy would took him to replace Mika, but what happened was Mercy choose Kimi over him to replace Mika-which made Nick sad, well sad may not the best word, but he was sad, and not only once that Kimi made him upset, not angry actually, just upset. When Kimi joined Scuderia Ferrari, it heard rumors that Ferrari will took Nick, but when Kimi didn’t want to make a new contract with Mercy, then Ferrari offered him to be their race driver, now Kimi replacing the F1 Legend Schumi,,,)

Pic:Kimi with Mark Arnall, his physio trainer

By the way, Kimi choose as rookie of that year by his troumendes performance in his 1^st ever year on F1 from F1 Racing Magz.

“First we thought it was for testing, but we were not interested in that, but then Ron said he would like to have me as a race driver. It all depended on what happened with the contract with Sauber and all those things. When I was younger, McLaren was always winning and I was thingking it would be nice to drive for the team one day, because they’re doing so well”.

By the way, I like his tattoo, so cute!!!

--- still to be continued ---