A detailed look on Kimi Raikkonen ‘The Iceman’ – Formula 1
Kimi Raikkonen, born on October 17, 1979 in Espoo, is one of the most talented F1 drivers. He has been given the nickname of ‘the Iceman’ because of his cool character.
Raikkonen started Karting just from the age of ten. In 1998, he won the Finnish Karting championship and showed amazing performances in many international Karting series. In 2000, he won the British Formula Renault championship.
Furthermore, he secured two victories after competing in three rounds of the European Formula Renault championship.
In 2001, Raikkonen made a remarkable F1 debut with Sauber. He finished the season with nine points and helped his team to secure the fourth position in the constructors’ championship with his teammate, Nick Heidfeld.
In 2002, Raikkonen earned a seat in McLaren and finished third in the podium fight at the first GP in Australia. He finished the season at sixth position following his teammate, David Coulthard while the team stood at third place in constructors’ championship.
Raikkonen emerged as one the most consistent contenders of the legendary champion Michael Schumacher during 2003, while at the end of the season, the seven-time world champion was just two points ahead of the Finnish driver.
In the first seven races during 2004, he could only score one point due to the reliability issues in the car. However, later, he secured the pole position at Silverstone and a tremendous victory at Belgian GP against Schumacher.
In 2005, he scored five podiums finishes, seven Grands Prix victories and five pole positions but remained runner up in the championship because of some reliability problems.
Moreover, his best performance in that season was his greatest win at Suzuka where he took his start from the 17th position in the grid and passed Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault during the last lap to claim victory.
In 2006, he failed to win a race during his last season for McLaren as the car remained unable to compete with Ferrari and Renault. Moreover, Raikkonen faced electronic issues in Bahrain at the practice session and a breakage of the rear suspension at the
qualifying and stood at 22nd place in the grid.
Nonetheless, he finished fifth in championship standings after securing points in every race during the season. After the Italian GP, Ferrari signed a contract with Raikkonen for 2007-2009.
In 2007, he won in the first race with the Scarlet team. Moreover, he took five more victories including a huge win at the last GP in Brazil after which he claimed his first drivers’ title by just a single point.
In 2008, he set off quite strong and performed predominantly well during the qualifying. However, regardless of the record-equalling ten quickest laps, he ended the season playing as a supporting role to his teammate, Felipe Massa.
Raikkonen was ninth in the grid after the qualifying at 2009 Australian GP. Nonetheless, afterwards he won at Belgium GP. In addition, he stood second in Hungary and secured third position in Monaco.
However, the pace reduced during the last few races as the team did not make the necessary developments in F60. In the next year, he was replaced by the Spaniard, Fernando Alonso.
In 2010, he left F1 and joined the Rally racing where he took part in 11 races of the World Rally Championship and finished fifth at his best, in Turkey. After struggling in his second 2011 Rally season, he made his comeback for 2012 Formula 1 season with
team Lotus.
It would be quite interesting to see the performance of ‘the Iceman’ in the season ahead.
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