Kimi Raikkonen: The underdog story that became history
From being the least experienced to the most experienced world champion in F1 history
Kimi Raikkonen
Formula One world champion, 21 grand prize victories, 103 Podiums and all-time top 5 in records 46 fastest laps top three records And 341 Grand prize starts and still counting till the current season ends, all these records belong to a then 21-year-old rookie Kimi Raikkonen who was considered to be too inexperienced that drivers such as Ruben Barichello and then FiA President Max Mosley deemed to be not ready for F1and was hesitant to grant him the super license, with just only 23 junior single-seater race experience and winning 13 of those races with a 57% win rate and Renault UK Champion.
2000-2001: The Beginning
Someone convinced then Sauber F1 team boss Peter Sauber to give this impressive Fin a test with his team in September of 2000, lo and behold he impressed the team and certain someone whose name is Michael Schumacher who insisted Peter Sauber give kimi a seat for 2001.
There was no doubt he was fast enough for f1 but with past precedents where drivers competed in various junior categories for year's and did considerably more than 23 races before jumping into an f1 car.
Despite all the odds and doubts on his debut kimi rewarded the Sauber f1 team with points finish and kept on improving during the season with multiple points finish and an impressive P4 twice that season.
And there's a story that his then race engineer Eeckelaert told on F1's beyond the grid podcast on how kimi drove the Sauber C20 without traction control for more than half of the race and set the top 5 fastest laps of the race.
But, just a year into f1 this rookie who according to many wasn't ready to race in f1 got a call up to the Mclaren team after another 2x f1 world champion also finish decides to take his long unending sabbatical Mika Hakkinen. And straight up took his first podium finish of 103 in his first race with McLaren a few more podiums came that season but ultimately, Raikkonen wasn't able to do much with an unreliable and slower McLaren compared to Ferrari and despite coming close to winning he never won a race in 2002.
2003: The dawn of Michael Schumacher Challenger
But, it all changed in 2003 where kimi came tantalisingly close to winning his first world championships and also winning his first race in f1 but with McLaren's reliability and dominant Schumacher in a Ferrari, kimi was short of 3 points from the title.
2004: unlucky and confused Mclaren
2004 was arguably Kimi's worst season so far with only one victory at Spa Francorchamps, a slow and unpredictable Mclaren didn't help either.
2005: what-ifs
In, 2005 Kimi established himself as the next generation of the top 2 drivers in f1 alongside that year's world champion Fernando Alonso, kimi with 7 victories and impressive consistency was a prime challenger for the title but a very fast but unreliable Mclaren yet again alluded him from his first world title. And a dominant win at Monoco.
2006: what now?
2006 was a farce for McLaren with a handful of podiums and their both driver leaving them. Kimi bettered his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya to an extent where Montoya struggled to keep up with him and prematurely retired from f1 after not being able to understand and struggle with the Mclaren team and a car that was not on the same level as others but also to see his teammate Raikkonen do things with the car that he wasn't able to.
2007: World Champion
Kimi joined Ferrari after Michael Schumacher retired and went on to win the first race for the team and at the end of the season, he won his first and only world championship beating an impressive Rookie Lewis Hamilton and a 2x world Champion Fernando Alonso by one point in a 2nd fastest car which he struggled to get on the grips with because of the Bridgestone tyres.
2008-2009: Tires, unlucky and a potential sabotage
Unlucky and plagued with unreliability saw kimi win few more races until he was paid a huge sum by Ferrari to not race for the team in 2010 exiting the contract early so they could sign Fernando Alonso and full fill their sponsorship affair in Brazil with Fellipe Massa with Santander.
From 2010 to 2012, kimi tried his hands on different categories of motorsports such as rallying and Nascar. But eventually came back to F1 in 2012 driving for lotus.
2012: He knew what he was doing
2012 and 2013 were Kimi's best years in F1 not because of the impressive results he got but because of the relative competitiveness of the lotus's car compared to Redbull, Ferrari and McLaren, kimi did some impressive stuff with that car that year winning his first race after his comeback with that infamous "I know what I am doing" radio message and finishing on the podium multiple times to take 3rd in the overall championship. In his two years with lotus kimi won 2 races and got 13 podiums, considering the grid was packed with world champions that season kimi went on to show that he deserved his place amongst the best in f1, 2012 was a proving ground for all the present world champions.
2014-2017: Kimi and Ferrari
Came back to the team where he had his biggest win Ferrari but initial struggles with a bad Ferrari car and tyres kimi struggled to get impressive results in 2014 and in 2015 he still wasn't on the same level as his 4x world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel but was good enough for few podiums.
In 2016 Raikkonen although was not on the same level as Sebastian in terms of one-lap pace but was more than quick in the races to get few more podiums for Ferrari and lost on some victories either because of bad luck or just pure incompetency from the Ferrari Team. In 2017 Raikkonen took pole in Monaco but a strategy call from his team meant that Sebastian was given the priority and Raikkonen lost the lead when Sebastian came out 1st after the pitstop.
2018: The Last Hurrah
2018 was by far his best season for Ferrari on his return with 13 podiums and a race win, which could've been more if Ferrari strategist held their own in Monza when Raikkonen alone had to defend his lead from pole alone when his teammate spun and two Mercedes drivers were hunting him down with impressive strategy. But a race victory in the USA after taking the lead on the first corner of the first lap from already in form Lewis Hamilton and defending vigorously the whole race with impressive race craft to take his final victory for the Scuderia Ferrari, and potentially his.
2019: Back to Where it All began
After leaving Ferrari at the end of 2018 for Ferrari junior driver Charles Leclerc, Raikkonen joined the Alfa Romeo branded Sauber f1 team coming back to the team where it all started for the iceman, in his first season with Sauber, Raikkonen scored 41 points with one p4 finish with machinery that was 9th fastest out of 20 teams and helped the team finish 8th in the championship.
2020: The beginning of the End
2020 is on paper Raikkonen's worst season with only 5 points finish to his name which was enough to secure 8th in the championship for the team and he was miles ahead of his young teammate Giovinazzi, and often was quicker than the Ferrari drivers who were also having a horrid season. But, it was quite clear that at the age of 40 kimi was not enjoying finishing out of the points or battling out with Ferrari's for a single point despite his famous line in DRIVE TO SURVIVE where he said ''it's more like a hobby for me" and fans were prepared to see him bid goodbye to the sports.
2021: The Climax
Unlucky, fast in the race, incredible opening lap overtakes, slow in qualifying, clumsy mistakes and still scored more points for the team, this is how 2007 world champions season has been so far but I am pretty sure these won't be the reason we will remember 2021 season and Kimi Raikkonen for as this will be his last season at the pinnacle of the motorsports.
Kimi has announced his retirement and said will not continue beyond 2021 in F1.
For many Kimi will be remembered as a driver who was enigmatic, funny even when he wasn't trying to be and his interesting radio comments.
For me, Kimi's f1 career is a story of a driver who won a race in wet conditions with slick tyres because he wasn't able to afford wet weather tyres in his junior career from being one of the highest-paid athletes in the world.
In my mind Kimi is the real successor to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, winning the championship in his first year and how long he has been associated with the team. And not to mention Kimi's racing style is also very similar to 7x world champion Michael Schumacher.
Despite being one of the unlucky drivers in f1 history he won 21 races, 103 podium finishes and in between them he is a Formula One World Champion. In some context he was Max Verstappen of his era, relatively inexperienced and often challenging a world champion in inferior machinery during one particular driver and teams dominant era just to keep things interesting in f1.
only driver in modern f1 to win in three different engine Era v10, v8, v6 Turbo-hybrid, Kimi has certainly put himself in the history books with his 19 season f1 career.
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Comments (1)
He's entered almost a third of all F1 races ever. What a hobbyist