The Ice Man Cometh (Kimi Räikkönen)

Member Name: DavidJWest

Product:	Kimi Räikkönen
Date:	11/11/03 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, Controlled, Smooth

Disadvantages: Unlucky

Before you read this I should warn you it's probably the longest article I have ever written on Dooyoo - settle down with a cup (vat) of your favourite drink, some food to sustain you and a carton of Pro-Plus!

Finland has produced more than it's fair share of top class F1 drivers considering it is a small country with only 6 million inhabitants. Keke Rosberg was world champion in 1982, then Mika Hakkinen twice in 1998 and 1999, will Kimi emulate them I wonder?

Born in the small town of Espoo on 17th Oct 1979, Kimi was soon showing an interest in motorsport. He began karting at age 8 (not that young for an F1 driver) and was winning national classes by age 13, rapidly rising up through more powerful divisions.

He went overseas in 1996 and only finished 4th in a European karting series, winning it the next year. At age 19 he moved to the Netherlands to further his racing career.

Kimi Raikkonen first burst onto the F1 scene in 2001, driving for the midfield Sauber team. Team boss Peter Sauber took a big gamble signing the youngster, only 21 years old at the time as he had no single seater experience previously, having been British Formula Renault champion in 2000. Before that he had only been in karting, not exactly experienced when you consider how challenging F1 is nowadays.

In fact so inexperienced was Kimi that the FIA (The sports governing body) refused to give him his full "superlicense", making the youngster compete on a race by race basis until he proved himself. The "Ice-man" earned his nickname early on as despite this extra pressure he drove flawless races to make sure he was awarded his superlicense. Driving the Sauber meant Kimi was never likely to win races but he did everything you could expect for a drive in such a reletively slow car. I suppose this is where Kimi earned his nickname, the Iceman, as he demonstrated some very cool driving under severe pressure. He has contin
ued to do this throughout his career.

Notice was served of the young Finns intent at his very first GP, the Australian GP of 2001 at Melbourne Park. Qualifying a respectable 13th on the grid he drove a smooth race to keep out of trouble and score a single world championship point for a very good 6th place.

It seemed to me at the time Kimi was well aware of the fact he did not have his Superlicence and was extra careful to avoid trouble. I think he deliberately drove slightly within himself to make sure that the FIA had no cause to expel him from the championship and this showed as he was often quite anonymous in the early races.

The very next race Kimi would come down to Earth as he had transmission problems on the start-line, but at least he had not given the FIA cause to black-list him. In his first season Kimi's highlight was his two 4th places at the Austrian and Canadian Grand Prixs.

Kimi ended 2001 with a total of 10 points, pretty good from only 4 points scoring finishes, especially so as he had 7 retirements. Of the retirements only one could be attributed to driver error, a truly remarkable performance for a rookie with no experience of single-seaters (unless you include karts!) As well as this he out-scored his more experienced team-mate Nick Heidfeld who had the more reliable car (marginally).

Come seasons end, the young Finn had aquitted himself well and McLaren showed an interest in signing this young talent. The McLaren team is and was one of the top teams in the sport and has been for a long time, winning many titles and for a team of their calibre to show interest was a massive compliment to the youngster. Perhaps there was some influence being exerted by the outgoing Finn Mika Hakkinen, who has been something of a mentor for Kimi and it is well known that McLaren boss Ron Dennis listens to what Mika says - not that he says much!

Whatever the reasoning, McLaren signed Kimi to replace Mi
ka and he has raced for them in 2002 and 2003 and has a contract for at least 2004 as well. There are many simularities between Kimi and his older countryman, both are men of few words, Kimi perhaps even more so than Mika but they do their talking on the track.

Driving styles are quite similar, very quick, very smooth with very few mistakes. I feel Kimi is better than Mika was at overtaking and he his much harder to overtake and also has a good ability in the wet, which was always something of a weakness for Mika and cost him the 2000 WDC.

So Kimi started 2002 with a car capable of winning, not the best car on the grid by a long way, that was the Ferrari but it was capable of winning.

Team mate David Coulthard was a veteran of over 100 Grand Prix and had been at McLaren for many seasons, some expected the young star to struggle against the more experienced man.

Not a bit of it, Raikkonen immediately beat Coulthard at their first race together at Melbourne. Not only that but the young Finn set fastest lap of the race in a car which wasn't really up to the job, finally coming 4th again whilst Coulthard who had outqualified the Finn had to retire with gearbox trouble.

However the tables were soon turned as Raikkonen had massively bad luck with reliability, whilst Coulthard seemed to avoid most of it. Ten retirements in a season may well be considered character building and perhaps this has strengthened the Ice-Man's resolve somewhat.

After Australia we saw Kimi outqualify his team-mate for the first time before his engine let him down in the race. It was to be a season of near-misses for the Finn, but he did score his first podium finishes in this season, 4 of them at Australia, Europe, France and Japan at the final race of the year.

The French Grand Prix at Magny Cours really stands out as Kimi came so close to winning the race, leading with 5 laps to go. He had led the race no less than th
ree times, it being a race of pit-stops with the driver with the best strategy likely to win barring errors or car failures.

Kimi looked fairly comfortable as he had a small lead over Michael Schumacher, who perhaps wasn't pushing too hard as he was comfortably leading the drivers championship. Coming up to lap a Toyota, that of Scotlands Allan McNish, Raikkonen hit a patch of freshly laid oil in the braking zone coming into the Adelaide hairpin. He did remarkably well to control the car, but ran wide enough to allow Michael Schumacher to overtake him.

I am sure that Kimi remembers well the treatment meted out to him by the hard driving Schumacher, running a deliberately wide line to ensure Raikkonen could not rejoin the track and had to yield. Kimi would have his revenge soon enough, but today he had to settle for second place.

It had been a steep learning curve for Kimi and his car problems meant he could do no better than 21 points this year, 5th place in the drivers title no mean feat with only 7 races where he could score points due to not finishing the rest.

Up to now we'd seen nothing, 2003 was a revelation for the Finn, who would show some superb skills over the coming 17 races.

First up we saw the battle resume in Australia, Schumacher versus Raikkonen, little did we know this was to be so for the whole season. The young pretender versus the "old master", who would prevail?

It should be noted that the 2003 McLaren is really the 2002 McLaren with a new lick of paint, they never did get around to releasing a new car. The Ferrari was better almost all season than the McLaren (although the tyre war between the two tyre manufacturers did even it up slightly) and the Williams was also better than the McLaren at a lot of the mid-season venues.

Australia was a very strange race and Raikkonen could have won it, setting quickest lap and leading for 17 laps. He will be remembered fo
r this race though for getting his own back on Mr Schumacher. In the mid-scetor of the race Kimi was leading from Schumacher who had to pit early on for dry tyres, having started on intermediates as the track was damp.

Raikkonen was clearly slower at this stage of the race and simply would not yeild the place. There was nothing at all illegal about his driving, but where many others would have succumbed to the red baron the "Ice-Man" stuck to the task, Schumacher eventually got fed up with being stuck behind the slower car and made a lunge around the outside at turn one, and ended up running over the grass as the door was firmly shut.

Unfortunately for Raikkonen a mistake meant he dropped down to 3rd where he would finish but he must have smiled as he saw bits falling off the Ferrari which ended up one place behind him at the finish. The top step of the podium was summited by Kimi's team-mate Coulthard, but that was almost the only time all season that the Scot beat the Finn, who was now without peers in the McLaren team.

At last Raikkonen claimed his maiden GP win, long overdue at the second race of the season at Sepang, Malaysia, and now led the title fight. Few gave him much chance of hanging onto this position, but how wrong they would be!

Brazil was another strange race, it was monsoon weather and many of the top runners dropped out, but Raikkonen was leading until the race was stopped due to a massive accident, in which nobody was severely hurt. Kimi seems to have more than his fair share of bad luck and this race highlighted it, he was only given second place as due to an obscure countback rule the win was given to the leader two laps before the race was stopped. That was Giancarlo Fisichella in the Jordan of all cars, using his excellent Bridgestones wet tyres he had managed to overtake Raikkonen just as the Finn pitted.

I have no doubt if the race had run to it's normal quote of laps we
9;d have seen Kimi win and he'd have an extra two points for his title aspirations.

We saw a uncharacteristic bout of mistakes at the Spanish GP as Raikkonen ran wide in qualifying and had to start from the back of the grid. He then lunched (launched) his car into the back of the Jaguar of Antonio Pizzonia on the start as it looked like the Big Cat driver had problems getting away. It would have been hard to see Kimi scoring many points from last on the grid but he blew any chance he had by that over anxious start. Put it down to lack of experience and bad luck again, the Jaguar having some kind of problem straight in front of the Finn.

By now, approaching midway in the season, Schumacher had relegated Raikkonen to second in the title fight, but only just. However with their new Ferrari, the 2003GA , the Scuderia looked unbeatable. In fact even setting fire to the German champion couldn't preventing him winning in Austria, Kimi had to settle for second place, but he defended that well from the sister Ferrari of Barrichello.

I should point out here that Kimi didn't put a match to Schumacher, but he had a fuel fire when he pitted for his first stop.

At Monaco, that historic stree circuit the Williams team got their acts together and took victory with Juan Pablo Montoya, Raikkonen driving solidly to be second just behind the Columbian, again holding off Schumacher for the place. Kimi also set fastest lap which is no mean feat around the twisting and undulating circuit.

The moment which influenced the season most profoundly took place at the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. After qualifying on his first ever pole, Kimi was leading convincingly, setting fastest lap only for his Mercedes engine to blow up in front of the manufacturers (being their home race) eyes. The same race saw Michael Schumacher pick up two points after spinning into a gravel trap but being pushed back onto track by some marshals
that he had beckoned over to help. Strangely a rule-change (clarification) made this legal where before it had not been so.

We now saw the McLaren take a dip in form, 4th place at Magny Cours just about saw the title being kept close enough but now it was Montoya who was Schumacher's main rival. At the British Grand Prix it got closer again as Schumacher had a nightmare race to finish well down but another rare mistake from Kimi let rival Montoya into second place at the finish.

Back to Germany for their official race and you can see why Kimi might not like the place very much. After a slightly poor qualifying session for him the youngster tried very hard at the start and was looking like making up a place or two as Rubens Barrichello got away slowly. Unfortunately their was a collision at turn one as there were three abreast going roung the tight right hander and the crash left Kimi, Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher out of the race. It is hard to apportion blame on this one, perhaps you could argue Kimi was too aggressive but he had to be in that situation, being so far out of contention for the drivers title.

It was a heavy crash for Kimi but he got away unscathed, luckily for him. Even luckier was that Michael Schumacher had a puncture in the race and scored far less points than he would have otherwise.

Hungary saw the tables turned, second place for Kimi behind the stunningly Fernando Alonso whilst Michael Schumacher struggle home in 8th place for a solitary point.

We now had perhaps the most contentious incident of the season and it was not even on the track. Ferrari complained to the FIA about the Michelin tyre, which McLaren and Williams were using, claiming they had photographic evidence it was too wide under certain conditions.

Michelin denied this and no punishments were meted out, but the rule were changed, reworded, clarified, call it what you will to the effect that Michelin had to redesign
their tyres.

In the previous two races the Ferrari team with their Bridgestone tyres could do no better than 7th place, they now went on to win the last 3 races of the season back to back against the new Michelin shod teams.

Raikkonen did what he could, driving well enough to take the title down to the last race of the season at Suzuka, but he needed a miracle to take the title from Schumacher.

In order to win, he had to win the race and Schumacher had to finish with no points. There was no chance that could happen of course, but amazingly for a few laps that was exactly what was happening, Kimi led on lap 12 whilst Schumacher was out of the points having trouble overtaking home favourite Takuma Sato in the BAR of all things.

Ultimately then, Raikkonen had to settle for second in the World Drivers Championship in 2003, no mean feat for the 24 year oldin only his third season in F1. Had he enjoyed Michael Schumacher's reliability (and luck) he would be the champion, but he has plenty of seasons ahead of him yet.

Schumacher had been quoted as saying he would retire when a younger, faster driver came along and beat him - is Kimi that driver I wonder? With an inferior car he comes within 2 points of taking that title.

Finally, if you read this far well done, hope I haven't bored you. I'd like to point out Kimi is not my favourite driver, he's probably second favourite right now behind Juan Pablo Montoya. But Kimi impressed me massivelt in 2003 not just for his pace and lack of mistakes (I'd say less errors than any of the top drivers) but he showed he can defend his place to the death and he can overtake as well, some great moves at Brazil especially.

Overall Kimi is a supreme driver in every area, I can't see any weaknesses other than he seems to be unlucky. He could do to improve his image but I am sure that will come with time as he ages and learns English!


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