2007 Formula 1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen: The Iceman from Finland
With a cool and calm personality from Finland, Kimi Raikkonen took over the Formula 1 sport for a short period of time, won a drivers’ championship, and left the sport to join NASCAR.
Nicknamed Iceman by his colleagues, he became the highest paid driver ever in the history of Formula 1.
Kimi had a career that most people wish they had as his path of driving a Formula 1 car was almost uninterrupted and a smooth one. He became one of the few drivers who won in the first season with Ferrari. Kimi became the richest F1 driver when Ferrari hired
him for $51 million.
Currently he is driving in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with the Kyle Busch Motorsports team.
He started his career with the conventional Karting from the domestic level in Finland. His first performance outside Finland came in 1994 in Monaco. Kimi came third in the race despite having a bad start when he was thrown off the road.
He won Nordic (Karting) Championship at Varna, Formula Ford Euro Cup, British Formula Renault winter series and Formula Renault UK Championship from year 1998 to 2000.
With only 23 races in a proper Formula car, Kimi’s talent was recognised by Peter Sauber who gave the Finn a driving seat for the 2011 season. He scored his first championship points in his first race in Australia despite facing heavy criticism about his
position in the Sauber team.
He finished the 2001 season with four point scoring finishes and earned a fourth place for the Sauber team along with teammate Nick Heidfeld.
For 2002, Kimi replaced two-time world champion, Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren team and had a good season in the Mercedes-powered car. He scored his first podium in the first race in Australia and finished the season on a high. Kimi out matched his teammate
David Coulthard and finished the season in sixth place.
In 2003, he remained with the McLaren team and finished third in Australian Grand Prix. In the Malaysian Grand Prix, Kimi started the race in 7th place and went on to win the race to register his first win. He finished second in
the drivers’ championship which was his best performance then in F1.
In 2004, Kimi had a bad start when he scored just one point in first seven races. He ultimately finished seventh with 45 points in the faltering McLaren car.
In 2005, Kimi again started the season in a suffering position when his car was giving all sorts of problem on the Michelin tyres. Nevertheless, Kimi was able to win five races that years in the most dramatic rain induced situations and ended the season
as a runner up behind Fernando Alonso. In 2006, he finished the season 5th with 65 points and then moved on to the Ferrari team.
Kimi joined the Ferrari team with the highest annual salary in the history of F1 sport. Kimi signed deal with the Ferrari team, but he did not took that for granted as he went on to become the one of a few drivers to win a championship in his first season
with Ferrari.
He won his first race with the Ferrari team in Australia. He went on to win five more races in France, UK, Belgium, China and Brazil and became the world champion in the closest season ever in the history of F1. Kimi was just one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton
and Fernando Alonso when he won the title.
Kimi remained with the Ferrari team for another two years, but despite finishing 3rd in the 2008 season, he was left out by the Ferrari team near the end of the 2009 season. Kimi expected a race seat from McLaren, Mercedes
GP and Toyota team but such circumstances were build around him which demanded a withdrawal from the F1 sport.
After rallying for two years, on March 29, 2011, he joined Kyle Busch Motorsports to compete in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.
Tags: