Kimi Raikkonen

Points 10 Position 16 Date of Birth October / 17 / 1979
Place of Birth Espoo Team Alfa Romeo Car Number 7

Profile

Kimi Raikkonen is a Finnish Formula 1 driver who was born in Espoo on 17 October 1979.

Raikkonen began his F1 career all the way back in 2001 with Sauber, with a solid rookie season earning him a spot at McLaren where he would race from 2002 to 2006.

The Finn would then sign a three-year contract to move to Ferrari, putting him among the highest-paid F1 drivers of the time, and he would win his only World Championship with the team in 2007.

At the conclusion of the 2009 campaign Raikkonen would walk away from F1 and try his hand at rallying and NASCAR, before returning to the series in 2012 with Lotus.

After two years with Lotus, Raikkonen made his return to Ferrari where he would remain until 2018.

Charles Leclerc's promotion to the Ferrari team for 2019 came at Raikkonen's expense - he would sign for Alfa Romeo, the team where his career started under their Sauber identity, has remained there since.

Raikkonen is largely loved for his 'Iceman' personality - we are yet to find something in the sport which can get him excited.

His blunt nature though has given us a catalogue of hilarious moments over the years, even if it wasn't so fun for his engineers and other personnel in the sport.

Away from the track Raikkonen is known to like a drink, or two. His other hobbies include snowboarding and ice hockey.

Career

Raikkonen first burst onto the F1 scene back in 2001 when he signed for Sauber, and although he would suffer six retirements across the season, collecting only nine points, he would be recruited by McLaren for 2002.

Fellow Finn Mika Haikkinen, who was vacating that seat, reportedly told McLaren boss Ron Dennis on several occasions: "If you wanna win, get the Finn".

Raikkonen made the podium in his first race with McLaren, finishing P3 in Australia, scoring further podium finishes at the European, French and Japanese GPs to finish P6 in the Championship with 24 points.

2003 was the year where Raikkonen put himself into the title battle for the first time. He would pick up his first race win at the Malaysian GP and was initially declared the winner at the next round in Brazil after the race was stopped on lap 55 but, a week later this was confirmed as a mistake and Giancarlo Fisichella was given the win instead.

As the season went on McLaren's pace tailed off somewhat with the team relying heavily on strategy to keep Raikkonen in the title picture.

The Championship went into the final round in Japan with Raikkonen needing to win to keep his title dream alive, while he also needed Michael Schumacher to score no points.

Raikkonen would finish P2 while Schumacher picked up a point with P8, meaning Raikkonen would finish two points behind him in the Championship.

2004 proved a real struggle for Raikkonen. His McLaren, especially the Mercedes engine, suffered repeated breakdowns, allowing him to complete just two of the first seven events.

Raikkonen would claim McLaren's only win of the season in Belgium, and what a victory it was, but he could manage only P7 in the Drivers' Championship with 45 points.

The struggles continued for McLaren early in 2005 with the car reportedly too soft on its Michelin tyres, and it took until round three in Bahrain for Raikkonen to make the podium.

Raikkonen then achieved three consecutive poles in San Marino, Spain and Monaco, winning the Monaco and Spanish GPs, while an almost certain win in San Marino slipped away due to a driveshaft failure.

At the European Grand Prix, Raikkonen flat-spotted his right front tyre while lapping Jacques Villeneuve. The resulting vibrations caused his suspension to fail while he led on the final lap, sending him into the tyre wall and handing a further ten points to his rival Fernando Alonso.

A mistake from Alonso gave the Canadian GP win to Raikkonen, while at the United States GP, Raikkonen and all the Michelin runners withdrew from the race over safety concerns.

In Germany, Raikkonen suffered his third retirement while leading a race of the season, handing ten more points to Alonso.

Raikkonen would pick up further wins in Hungary, Turkey, Belgium and Japan, but it wasn't enough to deny Alonso his first title.

At the 2006 Spanish GP with no wins yet to his name, Raikkonen already ruled himself out of the Championship battle.

He would finish the season winless and P5 in the Championship with 65 points, but Ferrari had announced already that Raikkonen had signed a three-year deal to race for them from 2007.

He would take pole, set the fastest lap and win the race on debut in Australia, but he had to wait until France for his second win of the campaign.

Raikkonen later secured his third consecutive Spa-Francorchamps win, while victory in China revived his title hopes going into the last race in Brazil.

In an incident-packed race, Raikkonen would take the win and became World Champion for the first time, finishing one point clear of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Raikkonen was out of the Championship picture in 2008 by the time F1 reached the season finale again in Brazil - he was forced to settle for P3 in the Championship with 75 points, but he did win the DHL Fastest Lap Award for the second year in a row, setting 10 fastest laps throughout the season.

Raikkonen claimed his only win of 2009 in Belgium, finishing P6 in the Championship with 48 points, and he would leave Ferrari at the end of the season.

After two years away from the sport Raikkonen returned in 2012 with Lotus. The Finn would earn praise for his performances, winning the Abu Dhabi GP and finishing P3 in the 2012 standings.

He would slip to P5 in the 2013 standings and missed the last two races of the season having elected to undergo back surgery. He did though finish on the podium eight times that year, including taking victory in Australia.

For 2014 Raikkonen would make his return to Ferrari, though it failed to reap any major rewards.

He would win just one race, the 2018 United States GP, setting a new record for the longest time between victories of 113 races having last won at the 2013 Australian GP, while it also made him the most successful Finnish driver of all time in terms of race wins.

He would finish P3 in the 2018 Drivers' Championship with 251 points, comfortably his best result since returning to Ferrari.

But it would be his last season with Ferrari calling up Charles Leclerc to replace him for 2019.

Raikkonen returned to Alfa Romeo, the team where he had started his F1 career when they were known as Sauber, collecting 43 points to finish P12 in the Championship.

He stayed another season in 2020, but had an even less competitive car and scored points in only two races with P9 finishes in the two additional Italian races that were added to a schedule revamped due to the global health pandemic.

The only highlight, not that it will have mattered to Raikkonen, was that he set a new record for the number of grands prix started, reaching 329 by the end of the campaign.

Talk of Raikkonen's retirement was rife, but he signed up for another year with Alfa Romeo in 2021 - which means 350 career races will be in sight by the time he turns 42.

History

Kimi Raikkonen began karting at the age of 10 and went on to win the Nordic Championship in 1998 and placed second in the European Formula Super A championship the following year.

Also in 1999, Raikkonen won the Formula Renault UK Winter Championship and that momentum helped him clinch the full Formula Renault UK series with Manor Motorsport in 2000. He won seven out of 10 races, still finished on the podium in the other three and recorded six pole positions in the process.

That was enough compelling evidence for Sauber to bring him straight into the Formula 1 team in 2001.

Networth

Kimi Raikkonen's World Champion status, longevity in Formula 1 and driving for prestigious teams such as McLaren and Ferrari means he is one of the best-paid drivers of all time.

At the peak of his powers in his first stint with Ferrari, Raikkonen was fifth on Forbes' highest-paid sportsman list and 26th on the highest paid celebrity list in 2008.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, his net worth is £180million.

Raikkonen's main sponsor is the Singha beer company, who followed the Finn from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo after he was replaced by Charles Leclerc ahead of the 2019 season.

Raikkonen is also an ambassador of iLOQ, who, according to their website, are a "Finnish growth company who have transformed mechanical locking into highly functional and immensely secure digital access management".

Family

Kimi Raikkonen was previously married to former Miss Scandinavia, Jenni Dahlman. After meeting in 2002, they tied the knot in 2004 but separated in 2013 and divorced a year later.

Raikkonen then began a relationship with fitness model Minna-Mari 'Minttu' Virtanen and in 2015 they had their first child together - a son called Robin. Kimi and Minttu then got married in 2016.

They have since had a second child together, a daughter named Rianna Angelia Milana.

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