Kimi's finest moments

Berj79 · 22nd November 2009, 02:05

I will stop watching f1 now, i feel ferrari are a greedy company, they left kimi in the dry cause of the spanish bulls santander's backing

rranjith_kum · 22nd November 2009, 05:28

@Berj : In the end F1 is also kinda business

Berj79 · 24th November 2009, 02:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by rranjith_kum

@Berj : In the end F1 is also kinda business

True, it was never that way during schumi's era, f1 has changed so much now, all about money & politics, they dont race for passion anymore

McLaren Rulez · 24th November 2009, 16:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berj79

True, it was never that way during schumi's era, f1 has changed so much now, all about money & politics, they dont race for passion anymore

One swallow doesn't make a summer. I can't really say that the passion quotient has declined significantly.

Berj79 · 24th November 2009, 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

One swallow doesn't make a summer. I can't really say that the passion quotient has declined significantly.

YES it has, beemer, toyota & honda quit in a year's time, all of them could have raced for the passion if they wanted but for them f1 is nothing but a marketing tool

McLaren Rulez · 24th November 2009, 17:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berj79

YES it has, beemer, toyota & honda quit in a year's time, all of them could have raced for the passion if they wanted but for them f1 is nothing but a marketing tool

But what can you do if you don't have the money? You can't build a car or gire drivers if you're making losses. Let the economy get back up properly and you'll see them come back.

Anyway, some top bosses in a company may have no passion but I bet the mechanics and team bosses have it. Unfortunately, they can do little if the base cuts them off.

Berj79 · 24th November 2009, 17:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

But what can you do if you don't have the money? You can't build a car or gire drivers if you're making losses. Let the economy get back up properly and you'll see them come back.

Anyway, some top bosses in a company may have no passion but I bet the mechanics and team bosses have it. Unfortunately, they can do little if the base cuts them off.

i disagree with u there, all the 3 companies i mentioned have enough funds for f1, they arent shutting down or anything like that, bmw, toyota & honda must have lost car sales in US but are minting in upcoming markets like india, brazil etc, it was just an excuse to blame it to US economy, they could have continued in f1 for another decade if they wanted, its the absence of passion that made them pull out, the reasons they give about car not selling that well is bullshit

Gilead · 24th November 2009, 18:05

Take a look at this guys. Outgoing Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen a true maverick - Telegraph

McLaren Rulez · 24th November 2009, 18:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berj79

i disagree with u there, all the 3 companies i mentioned have enough funds for f1, they arent shutting down or anything like that, bmw, toyota & honda must have lost car sales in US but are minting in upcoming markets like india, brazil etc, it was just an excuse to blame it to US economy, they could have continued in f1 for another decade if they wanted, its the absence of passion that made them pull out, the reasons they give about car not selling that well is bullshit

I'll leave it there but for me, the big boss not having passion is okay as long as the team itself is run by passionate people. I'm not worried until the guys on the pitwall stop being passionate.

KRf1 · 4th December 2009, 14:18

Kimi Raikkonen has now joined RedBull Citroen WRC junior team for 2010 . Lets hope he continues his winning ways in WRC and that he returns to f1 in 2011 !

madan80 · 7th December 2009, 07:42

Former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen will compete for Citroen in the World Rally Championship next season.

The team announced Friday that the Finnish driver would compete for its Red Bull-backed Junior Team in 2010.

Raikkonen, who won the 2007 F1 championship, left Ferrari at the end of the 2009 season to make way for the arrival of Fernando Alonso.

The one-year contract keeps alive the chances of Raikkonen returning to F1 in 2011.

Raikkonen signs with Citroen rally team | Drivesouth New & Used Cars , Motoring News , Reviews

KRf1 · 19th December 2009, 00:25

An interview of Kimi with Autosport
Source : Autosport.com

Text:

Quote:

Kimi Raikkonen has said that there is no guarantee his switch to the World Rally Championship will be a temporary one, after admitting that it is not certain he will come back to Formula 1. The Finn has signed to do a near full campaign for the Red Bull-backed Citroen Junior team in 2010 after failing to find a seat suitable for him in F1 next year.
And although many have viewed the 2007 world champion's move across to rallying as an F1 sabbatical, Raikkonen himself says there is a chance his WRC switch could actually be permanent.
In an exclusive interview with this week's AUTOSPORT, where he speaks for the first time about his move to rallying, Raikkonen said his long-term future was totally open.
"I don't have any contract with F1 or anything else, so I have no idea what will happen," he said. "I have both options, to stay in rallying or try to come back to F1. I want to see how it goes, and then decide. I'm not in a hurry to decide.
"If it goes well, then I could keep doing it. There are many different scenarios. Right now it's just for this year, both with Red Bull and with Citroen."
Raikkonen also reveals that he suspects there was more to Ferrari's decision to get him out of his contract than simply his performance with the team.
"You have to ask them, I don't know!" he says. "You need to ask the people who make those decisions. I'm not interested in the end why or when. I'm pretty sure I know the answer, and it's nothing to do with racing or what I've done there.
"I think when there is enough money involved, you can always change anything! I think it's a lot to do with Santander coming in. Probably they made some deal. I don't know..."
Raikkonen admitted that he came close to signing for McLaren, and held talks with Brawn, but in the end could not secure himself the conditions that he wanted.
"I could have signed with them [McLaren] if I'd wanted to do, but in the end it wasn't 100 per cent what I wanted. It was not really so much about money; it was all the other things. It's not that I couldn't have gone there but, like I said, I have no reason to do something with a contract that I'm not happy with."
Raikkonen insisted, however, that money was not the key factor in preventing a deal happening - even though the terms of his release from Ferrari meant he would get less money if he secured another drive in F1.
"Yeah, for sure there is something that if I raced with another team, I get a bit less. And there was no point to get paid less if I race with somebody. It was a complicated situation, but in the end that wasn't the issue, the money side, although everybody thinks so. It wasn't what I wanted."
Speaking about the Brawn situation, Raikkonen said: "Probably I could have gone there. I didn't want to start waiting for a long time. For sure we could have got a contract in the end, but when the McLaren thing didn't happen I already had the talks with Red Bull, so I just wanted to go there and see what happens in rallying. Maybe I'll come back [to F1] next year or the year after. Or maybe not.

issigonis · 23rd December 2009, 19:50

Lads,

I've been saying all along that there were wheels within wheels in Ferrari ( Banco Santander syndrome).

Anyway, for Kimi's admirers, here is a copy of an article published some time back in The Guardian, which might relieve to a certain extent the pain of not seeing the fastest man on earth in fast machinery in 2010.

I will quote from a totally unrelated source on an unrelated sport ( cricket, not the pyjama game, not even Modi's IPL tamasha) : Wisden remarking on Pakistani opening batsman Majid Khan (Cambridge, Lahore, Glamorgan, Pakistan) when he was one of the five cricketers of the year in 1970 ( not 100% sure about the year though) :-

One could sense the changed atmosphere when he was not batting.

( Barry Richards was most curious about watching Majid when he first came to play county cricket in England in the late sixties, because of the former's sublime batting skills).
One can say the same about Kimi's absence in F1 2010.

Here's the article from The Guardian.

No fuss, just fast

Kimi Raikkonen may not be the most exciting grand-prix driver when it comes to talking into a microphone, but it is prowess behind the wheel that counts - and last year the Finn came out on top.

Maurice Hamilton reports
The Observer, Sunday 9 March 2008

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When Kimi Raikkonen won the world championship in Brazil last October, you would never have known it when talking to the man himself. No sooner had the obligatory media interviews and informal celebration with the Ferrari team been completed than the Finn, rucksack on his back, was walking briskly from the Interlagos paddock towards the car park and his Fiat Stilo. The modest mode of transport was in keeping with a man who enjoys the anonymity that would come with being almost unnoticed when visiting a nightclub in downtown São Paulo.

His profile might have been raised in the past when making a wobbly departure late at night from places of relaxation, but it says much for Raikkonen's increasingly warm relationship with Ferrari that his extra-curricular activities have gone unchecked, unlike during his five-year stay within the more formal surroundings of the McLaren team.

The difference is that Raikkonen has now won a world title with Ferrari, whereas the team from Woking, by their own admission, succeeded in helping him lose at least two through mechanical unreliability. As long as Raikkonen does what he is paid for (he won more races than anyone else last year) then his current employers are clearly happy to let the monotone and taciturn Scandinavian find his voice when it suits him rather than at the behest of a growing audience keen to learn more.

This is no surprise. Raikkonen has been arguably Formula One's most difficult interviewee ever since his arrival with the Sauber team in 2001. There was not an immediate rush to talk to the novice since popular opinion - including that of the sport's governing body, the FIA - reckoned that the 21-year-old had been elevated far too soon from virtual obscurity.

Never before had a driver arrived in the sport's premier category with just 23 motor races to his credit. Lewis Hamilton completed close to that number in a single season of his multi-year apprenticeship in the junior formulas. Raikkonen may have been racing karts since the age of 12, but his experience in racing cars was limited to Formula Renault rather than the more competitive Formula 3 or Formula 3000, the predecessor to GP2 and final step to F1 at the time. A F1 test with Sauber was enough to convince the boss, Peter Sauber, to defy apparent logic and sign the youngster straightaway. Raikkonen's limited experience was an early reflection of his ambivalence towards most things important.

'When I was a kid, I would watch the grands prix,' says Raikkonen. 'Everyone dreamt of becoming a race driver, while I only started thinking about it when I was 18 or 19. Only at that age did I seriously start thinking about this job. Before then, I would change ideas from one second to the next, dreaming of becoming this or that guy, in other sports, too.'

Raikkonen seemed genuinely oblivious to the furore surrounding his arrival in the F1 paddock at Melbourne. He qualified 13th but any suggestion that such a worthy midfield performance might create perhaps a hint of pressure was immediately dispelled on race day moments before the cars were due to leave the garage. With just over 30 minutes remaining before the start, the tension was palpable, particularly leading into a race that would end four months of preparation, hype and speculation. As the engineers and mechanics controlled their nerves while preparing for their first proper test of the year, Raikkonen was nowhere to be seen. His engineer eventually found him, dozing gently in a room at the back of the garage. Raikkonen disturbed his sleep to go motor racing for 84 minutes, finish sixth, score a point first time out and then wonder what all the fuss was about.

It proved to be an inspired choice by Sauber as Raikkonen scored on three more occasions (twice finishing fourth) in mid-season. There was not a hint of Raikkonen being a danger to others because of inexperience. On the contrary, his performances persuaded McLaren to produce a five-year deal as a replacement for Mika Hakkinen, who was about to retire. In 2002 Raikkonen failed to win a race for McLaren but looked strong on several occasions, most notably in France, where he led a grand prix for the first time, only to slide wide with a few laps remaining and drop to second place. 'It's a bit strange to describe my best ever F1 result as the worst race of my life, but that is how I feel,' said Raikkonen in a rare show of emotion at the time. 'To be at the front of a race with only a few laps left and then run wide and lose the lead is terrible. There was oil on the track and I didn't see an oil flag and locked the wheels. It was great to be fighting for the lead and then taking it. Now that I know how it feels I can't wait for next time.'

That would take a while, Raikkonen not winning his first race until the Malaysian Grand Prix at the start of the following season. If he thought that delay was bad, worse was to follow as he suffered 18 months of frustration with poor cars before winning again in Belgium in 2004.

The win at Spa-Francorchamps would be significant for reasons other than ending a drought that had disguised such a natural talent. Michael Schumacher had finished second and, in so doing, clinched a record seventh world championship. It was an astonishing achievement and yet the Ferrari driver looked as though he had swallowed a wasp as he stood on the lower level of the podium. Raikkonen was towering above him in every sense thanks to controlling the race brilliantly during three safety-car periods and giving Schumacher the sort of thrashing the German was accustomed to inflicting on others. Doubtless, amid their celebrations, the Ferrari management noted Raikkonen's name as a suitable replacement when the day came for Schumacher to retire. It would prove to be an easy and mutually convenient deal since Raikkonen would be ready to leave McLaren after nine wins but no world titles.

McLaren were to hint politely that their driver had played a part in his own downfall, thanks to ignoring instructions by driving flat out to the detriment of a car that could prove fragile. It was a questionable criticism of a driver for whom winning as slowly as possible was an unacceptable as spending his every waking moment studying technical data in the manner of Schumacher. The image was not helped by a YouTube clip of Raikkonen proving more unsteady than the deck of a boat he was partying on in Finland.

Questions began to be asked last year when Raikkonen had great difficulty becoming accustomed to both his Ferrari and the standard Bridgestone tyre (he had run on Michelin when with McLaren), culminating in an amateurish mistake in May when he whacked a barrier during qualifying at Monaco. But that was to be the end of the struggle. Wins in France and Britain were to mark a championship-winning roll that looks like continuing into this year. David Robertson, the Englishman who has managed Raikkonen since 1998, was not surprised by the turn around.

'It's absolute garbage to suggest that Kimi is not serious about his racing,' says Robertson. 'He had his problems at the beginning of last year when he couldn't make the car work for him. But he never complained in public. He just kept his head down and he proved that he really wants it. OK, he doesn't do night-and-day training - actually, truth be told, not many drivers do, contrary to what they may say - but you don't win a world championship in this sort of company if you're not serious about what you're doing.'
Robertson admits that the public image of his driver does not match the private persona he has got to know so well during the past 10 years.

'Contrary to what you see and hear, Kimi is a really funny guy,' says Robertson. 'The problem is that his command of English is not good and he is always restrained in what he says; he's never got himself into trouble or made trouble for his team at any stage. Everyone he works with loves him. He's far more fun-loving than, say, Lewis [Hamilton] or [Michael] Schumacher. I think it's very significant that Kimi is the sort of guy most kids seem to want to be like. He does the job with the minimum of fuss; there's no bullshit. He works hard and yet, in this final week before the start of a new season, he's been riding bikes somewhere in the wilds of Finland. He's a top bloke. And he's a bloody good driver.'

Winning his first title last year cemented Raikkonen's partnership with Ferrari, a relationship that works both ways.
'Formula One is my job but it's also what I love doing because I like driving and racing,' says Raikkonen. 'Now I'm enjoying it more than ever because I won. I think the people at Ferrari are more closely knit together [than at McLaren], there is more of a family atmosphere, a sense of community, perhaps. Obviously, in F1 you don't get to do only wonderful things, but that's part of the game. I want to get good results and win as many races and championships as possible. I haven't set out to beat the record of other drivers or to stay in F1 more than anyone else. I definitely don't want to become the oldest driver in F1, I'll stop before that. The day I stop enjoying it, I quit.'

For the moment, then, Raikkonen is preparing to start his 123rd grand prix at the track where he quietly made his debut. He has scarcely changed during the intervening seven years - except for one thing. Worryingly for the opposition, Raikkonen says he feels even more relaxed than before - if such a thing is possible.

Kimi Raikkkkonen: all you need to know
Born
17 October 1979 (Espoo, Finland)
Married to
Former Miss Scandinavia, Jenni Dahman
Lives in
Switzerland
1988-95
Competes in various junior karting championships in Finland
1996
Competes in Nordic, European and world karting champonships
1997
Wins Finnish Class A karting title
1998
Wins both Finnish and Nordic Class A karting titles
1999
Finishes 4th in first Formula Renault race; competes in Formula Renault Winter Series and wins four races and the championship
2000
Wins British Formula Renault championship (seven wins from 10 starts). Competes in three races in European Formula Renault Championship and wins two of them. Has first test for Sauber Formula One team
Formula One
2001 Sauber-Petronas
10th (9 pts) Best 4th (Austria, Canada)
2002 McLaren-Mercedes
6th (24 pts) Best 2nd (France)
2003 McLaren-Mercedes
2nd (91 pts) Best 1st (Malaysia)
2004 McLaren-Mercedes
7th (45 pts) Best 1st (Belgium)
2005 McLaren-Mercedes
2nd (112 pts) Best 1st (Spain, Monaco, Canada, Hungary, Turkey, Belgium, Japan)
2006 McLaren-Mercedes
5th (65 pts) Best 2nd (Australia, Italy)
2007 Ferrari
1st (110 pts) Best 1st (Australia, France, Britain, Belgium, China, Brazil)

Regards

bottle · 24th December 2009, 12:27

^ really nice post, thanks

samabhi · 4th January 2010, 20:24

Rumours are that Kimi will return to F1 with Redbull in place of Mark Webber. That will be truly amazing to see the IceMan pairing up with Adrian Newey's creation. Possible old times repeated again?? Red Bull is making its mark in the F1 arena by being one of the front runners and I just hope they continue doing so.

22nd November 2009, 02:05	#31
Berj79 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: mumbai Posts: 374 Thanked: 10 Times	I will stop watching f1 now, i feel ferrari are a greedy company, they left kimi in the dry cause of the spanish bulls santander's backing
	() Thanks

22nd November 2009, 05:28	#32
rranjith_kum BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Coimbatore/ Aachen Posts: 692 Thanked: 21 Times View My Garage	@Berj : In the end F1 is also kinda business
	() Thanks

24th November 2009, 18:05	#38
Gilead Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 2,142 Thanked: 60 Times	Take a look at this guys. Outgoing Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen a true maverick - Telegraph
	() Thanks

4th December 2009, 14:18	#40
KRf1 BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: NCR / BLR Posts: 339 Thanked: 3 Times	Kimi Raikkonen has now joined RedBull Citroen WRC junior team for 2010 . Lets hope he continues his winning ways in WRC and that he returns to f1 in 2011 !
	() Thanks

7th December 2009, 07:42	#41
madan80 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Santa Clara, CA Posts: 1,358 Thanked: 82 Times View My Garage	Former Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen will compete for Citroen in the World Rally Championship next season. The team announced Friday that the Finnish driver would compete for its Red Bull-backed Junior Team in 2010. Raikkonen, who won the 2007 F1 championship, left Ferrari at the end of the 2009 season to make way for the arrival of Fernando Alonso. The one-year contract keeps alive the chances of Raikkonen returning to F1 in 2011. Raikkonen signs with Citroen rally team \| Drivesouth New & Used Cars , Motoring News , Reviews
	() Thanks

23rd December 2009, 19:50	#43
issigonis BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bombay Posts: 956 Thanked: 96 Times	Lads, I've been saying all along that there were wheels within wheels in Ferrari ( Banco Santander syndrome). Anyway, for Kimi's admirers, here is a copy of an article published some time back in The Guardian, which might relieve to a certain extent the pain of not seeing the fastest man on earth in fast machinery in 2010. I will quote from a totally unrelated source on an unrelated sport ( cricket, not the pyjama game, not even Modi's IPL tamasha) : Wisden remarking on Pakistani opening batsman Majid Khan (Cambridge, Lahore, Glamorgan, Pakistan) when he was one of the five cricketers of the year in 1970 ( not 100% sure about the year though) :- One could sense the changed atmosphere when he was not batting. ( Barry Richards was most curious about watching Majid when he first came to play county cricket in England in the late sixties, because of the former's sublime batting skills). One can say the same about Kimi's absence in F1 2010. Here's the article from The Guardian. No fuss, just fast Kimi Raikkonen may not be the most exciting grand-prix driver when it comes to talking into a microphone, but it is prowess behind the wheel that counts - and last year the Finn came out on top. Maurice Hamilton reports The Observer, Sunday 9 March 2008 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Kimi Raikkonen won the world championship in Brazil last October, you would never have known it when talking to the man himself. No sooner had the obligatory media interviews and informal celebration with the Ferrari team been completed than the Finn, rucksack on his back, was walking briskly from the Interlagos paddock towards the car park and his Fiat Stilo. The modest mode of transport was in keeping with a man who enjoys the anonymity that would come with being almost unnoticed when visiting a nightclub in downtown São Paulo. His profile might have been raised in the past when making a wobbly departure late at night from places of relaxation, but it says much for Raikkonen's increasingly warm relationship with Ferrari that his extra-curricular activities have gone unchecked, unlike during his five-year stay within the more formal surroundings of the McLaren team. The difference is that Raikkonen has now won a world title with Ferrari, whereas the team from Woking, by their own admission, succeeded in helping him lose at least two through mechanical unreliability. As long as Raikkonen does what he is paid for (he won more races than anyone else last year) then his current employers are clearly happy to let the monotone and taciturn Scandinavian find his voice when it suits him rather than at the behest of a growing audience keen to learn more. This is no surprise. Raikkonen has been arguably Formula One's most difficult interviewee ever since his arrival with the Sauber team in 2001. There was not an immediate rush to talk to the novice since popular opinion - including that of the sport's governing body, the FIA - reckoned that the 21-year-old had been elevated far too soon from virtual obscurity. Never before had a driver arrived in the sport's premier category with just 23 motor races to his credit. Lewis Hamilton completed close to that number in a single season of his multi-year apprenticeship in the junior formulas. Raikkonen may have been racing karts since the age of 12, but his experience in racing cars was limited to Formula Renault rather than the more competitive Formula 3 or Formula 3000, the predecessor to GP2 and final step to F1 at the time. A F1 test with Sauber was enough to convince the boss, Peter Sauber, to defy apparent logic and sign the youngster straightaway. Raikkonen's limited experience was an early reflection of his ambivalence towards most things important. 'When I was a kid, I would watch the grands prix,' says Raikkonen. 'Everyone dreamt of becoming a race driver, while I only started thinking about it when I was 18 or 19. Only at that age did I seriously start thinking about this job. Before then, I would change ideas from one second to the next, dreaming of becoming this or that guy, in other sports, too.' Raikkonen seemed genuinely oblivious to the furore surrounding his arrival in the F1 paddock at Melbourne. He qualified 13th but any suggestion that such a worthy midfield performance might create perhaps a hint of pressure was immediately dispelled on race day moments before the cars were due to leave the garage. With just over 30 minutes remaining before the start, the tension was palpable, particularly leading into a race that would end four months of preparation, hype and speculation. As the engineers and mechanics controlled their nerves while preparing for their first proper test of the year, Raikkonen was nowhere to be seen. His engineer eventually found him, dozing gently in a room at the back of the garage. Raikkonen disturbed his sleep to go motor racing for 84 minutes, finish sixth, score a point first time out and then wonder what all the fuss was about. It proved to be an inspired choice by Sauber as Raikkonen scored on three more occasions (twice finishing fourth) in mid-season. There was not a hint of Raikkonen being a danger to others because of inexperience. On the contrary, his performances persuaded McLaren to produce a five-year deal as a replacement for Mika Hakkinen, who was about to retire. In 2002 Raikkonen failed to win a race for McLaren but looked strong on several occasions, most notably in France, where he led a grand prix for the first time, only to slide wide with a few laps remaining and drop to second place. 'It's a bit strange to describe my best ever F1 result as the worst race of my life, but that is how I feel,' said Raikkonen in a rare show of emotion at the time. 'To be at the front of a race with only a few laps left and then run wide and lose the lead is terrible. There was oil on the track and I didn't see an oil flag and locked the wheels. It was great to be fighting for the lead and then taking it. Now that I know how it feels I can't wait for next time.' That would take a while, Raikkonen not winning his first race until the Malaysian Grand Prix at the start of the following season. If he thought that delay was bad, worse was to follow as he suffered 18 months of frustration with poor cars before winning again in Belgium in 2004. The win at Spa-Francorchamps would be significant for reasons other than ending a drought that had disguised such a natural talent. Michael Schumacher had finished second and, in so doing, clinched a record seventh world championship. It was an astonishing achievement and yet the Ferrari driver looked as though he had swallowed a wasp as he stood on the lower level of the podium. Raikkonen was towering above him in every sense thanks to controlling the race brilliantly during three safety-car periods and giving Schumacher the sort of thrashing the German was accustomed to inflicting on others. Doubtless, amid their celebrations, the Ferrari management noted Raikkonen's name as a suitable replacement when the day came for Schumacher to retire. It would prove to be an easy and mutually convenient deal since Raikkonen would be ready to leave McLaren after nine wins but no world titles. McLaren were to hint politely that their driver had played a part in his own downfall, thanks to ignoring instructions by driving flat out to the detriment of a car that could prove fragile. It was a questionable criticism of a driver for whom winning as slowly as possible was an unacceptable as spending his every waking moment studying technical data in the manner of Schumacher. The image was not helped by a YouTube clip of Raikkonen proving more unsteady than the deck of a boat he was partying on in Finland. Questions began to be asked last year when Raikkonen had great difficulty becoming accustomed to both his Ferrari and the standard Bridgestone tyre (he had run on Michelin when with McLaren), culminating in an amateurish mistake in May when he whacked a barrier during qualifying at Monaco. But that was to be the end of the struggle. Wins in France and Britain were to mark a championship-winning roll that looks like continuing into this year. David Robertson, the Englishman who has managed Raikkonen since 1998, was not surprised by the turn around. 'It's absolute garbage to suggest that Kimi is not serious about his racing,' says Robertson. 'He had his problems at the beginning of last year when he couldn't make the car work for him. But he never complained in public. He just kept his head down and he proved that he really wants it. OK, he doesn't do night-and-day training - actually, truth be told, not many drivers do, contrary to what they may say - but you don't win a world championship in this sort of company if you're not serious about what you're doing.' Robertson admits that the public image of his driver does not match the private persona he has got to know so well during the past 10 years. 'Contrary to what you see and hear, Kimi is a really funny guy,' says Robertson. 'The problem is that his command of English is not good and he is always restrained in what he says; he's never got himself into trouble or made trouble for his team at any stage. Everyone he works with loves him. He's far more fun-loving than, say, Lewis [Hamilton] or [Michael] Schumacher. I think it's very significant that Kimi is the sort of guy most kids seem to want to be like. He does the job with the minimum of fuss; there's no bullshit. He works hard and yet, in this final week before the start of a new season, he's been riding bikes somewhere in the wilds of Finland. He's a top bloke. And he's a bloody good driver.' Winning his first title last year cemented Raikkonen's partnership with Ferrari, a relationship that works both ways. 'Formula One is my job but it's also what I love doing because I like driving and racing,' says Raikkonen. 'Now I'm enjoying it more than ever because I won. I think the people at Ferrari are more closely knit together [than at McLaren], there is more of a family atmosphere, a sense of community, perhaps. Obviously, in F1 you don't get to do only wonderful things, but that's part of the game. I want to get good results and win as many races and championships as possible. I haven't set out to beat the record of other drivers or to stay in F1 more than anyone else. I definitely don't want to become the oldest driver in F1, I'll stop before that. The day I stop enjoying it, I quit.' For the moment, then, Raikkonen is preparing to start his 123rd grand prix at the track where he quietly made his debut. He has scarcely changed during the intervening seven years - except for one thing. Worryingly for the opposition, Raikkonen says he feels even more relaxed than before - if such a thing is possible. Kimi Raikkkkonen: all you need to know Born 17 October 1979 (Espoo, Finland) Married to Former Miss Scandinavia, Jenni Dahman Lives in Switzerland 1988-95 Competes in various junior karting championships in Finland 1996 Competes in Nordic, European and world karting champonships 1997 Wins Finnish Class A karting title 1998 Wins both Finnish and Nordic Class A karting titles 1999 Finishes 4th in first Formula Renault race; competes in Formula Renault Winter Series and wins four races and the championship 2000 Wins British Formula Renault championship (seven wins from 10 starts). Competes in three races in European Formula Renault Championship and wins two of them. Has first test for Sauber Formula One team Formula One 2001 Sauber-Petronas 10th (9 pts) Best 4th (Austria, Canada) 2002 McLaren-Mercedes 6th (24 pts) Best 2nd (France) 2003 McLaren-Mercedes 2nd (91 pts) Best 1st (Malaysia) 2004 McLaren-Mercedes 7th (45 pts) Best 1st (Belgium) 2005 McLaren-Mercedes 2nd (112 pts) Best 1st (Spain, Monaco, Canada, Hungary, Turkey, Belgium, Japan) 2006 McLaren-Mercedes 5th (65 pts) Best 2nd (Australia, Italy) 2007 Ferrari 1st (110 pts) Best 1st (Australia, France, Britain, Belgium, China, Brazil) Regards
	(1) Thanks

24th December 2009, 12:27	#44
bottle Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Chennai Posts: 1,641 Thanked: 295 Times View My Garage	^ really nice post, thanks
	() Thanks

4th January 2010, 20:24	#45
samabhi BHPian Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 406 Thanked: 356 Times	Rumours are that Kimi will return to F1 with Redbull in place of Mark Webber. That will be truly amazing to see the IceMan pairing up with Adrian Newey's creation. Possible old times repeated again?? Red Bull is making its mark in the F1 arena by being one of the front runners and I just hope they continue doing so.
	() Thanks