Kimi Räikkönen

When I think of F1, Kimi Räikkönen stands out as number 1 in my books. I know some of you may be saying “How about Senna or Schumacher?” I say they didn’t have the “playboy” lifestyle Kimi had, but at the same time he was a very calm, cool and collected person. Thats why his nick name is “Iceman”.

He entered F1 with Sauber in 2001 and he was only 21 with very little experience. Check this clip of him surprising Murray Walker (legendary F1 broadcaster) during his first qualifying:

He finished 6th in his first race and he was sleeping 30 minutes before the race started. With his impressive performance with Sauber, he signed a 5 year contract with McLaren. He should have won the World Championships in 2003 and 2005, but car problems cut him short of that. With this problem he moved to Ferrari in 2007 and became the highest paid driver in motor sport. In that same year he finally won his first Formula One World Drivers’ Championship. 

In 2009 he left Formula One and moved onto Rallying, saying in an interview “Rallying is very relaxed – there’s much, much less politics and bullshit than F1”. Even though he is not in F1 anymore it feels like he has some unfinished business. In the end, he had the worst luck in Formula One but I do believe that he is one of the few drivers that can stop Vettel’s streak of wins (even though they are both good friends).

What I really like about this guy is his love for speed. For some reason most Finns are natural racers (Keke Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen, etc.). Watch this video where he is leading the race but risks it all to pull an extremely fast lap time.

He has gone into Nascar after F1 for a few races and it only took him 5 laps in practice to get half a second under the fastest lap set on the track. Now he is in the Rally racing doing a great job winning his first rally in 2010. Anything that goes fast he will race. He was even in a snowmobile and powerboat race in Finland under the name “James Hunt”. This guy just loves speed.

*Now on a side note, a lot of people don’t like Kimi because of his attitude but really it’s a typical Finnish characteristic. Which is very quiet, keeps answers short, keeps to himself and doesn’t like attention type of person. Kimi just adds a bit of character with “I’ll say what I want to say.” attitude mixed in there. Hey, kinda sounds like me LOL. (edit) Also, look at this video after his first win in 25 Races. He acts like it’s nothing. 

Its funny how David described him when they were team mates saying he would go out on tests, set blistering fast laps, go back to the trailer to sleep while his car gets adjusted. They wake him up, puts on his helmet, sets another blistering lap, comes back to get info on the car and fall asleep again. Like a BOSS.