Kimi Räikkönen

Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (born 17 October 1979 in Espoo, Finland) is a Finnish racing driver who formerly took part in the FIA Formula One World Championship. He made his debut at the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, driving for Jordan as a stand-in to the injured James James Davies. After his retirement from Formula One he became a rally driver competing in the World Rally Championship. Räikkönen is considered by many pundits to be one of the best drivers to have not won the Formula 1 World Championship.

Kimi Räikkönen, pictured before his debut at the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix.

Formula One

2001-2002: Jordan

Kimi Räikkönen was an unfamiliar name to the racing world before the 2001 season, previously taking part in Formula Ford and Formula Renault, as well as testing for Williams in 2000. Before the season, he was announced an official test driver for Jordan, and eventually made his Formula One debut in Canada - he qualified an impressive eighth, but unfortunately for the Finn, the Honda engine inside the EJ11 expired early into the race. He made three more starts after Davies was again injured, this time at Spa. His best finishes were two 9th places in the United States and Japan.

Räikkönen resigned with Jordan for 2002 but this time, his role has been promoted to full-time driver, partnering Japanese debutant Takuma Sato. After finishing eighth in the season opener at Albert Park, "Iceman" immediately delivered, scoring two fourth places in Malaysia and San Marino, before going into a slump and failing to score points in several races with the average machinery - until he scored again at the British Grand Prix. The Finn eventually finished the season in 10th place.

2003-2004: Sauber

Räikkönen impressed so much that Peter Sauber gave him an offer he could not reject, and therefore replaced David Coulthard in Sauber for 2003, partnering the Frenchman Sébastien Bourdais. He'd become a regular points scorer in the mid part of the season and finish in 11th overall.

He'd remain with Sauber in 2004, this time being joined by highly rated Australian Daniel Melrose - whom joined the team by virtue of being in Ferrari's young driver programme. Räikkönen struggled in the shortened 2004 season, only taking a handful of points finishes compared to his teammate, who outclassed him all season.

2005-2009: Renault

Räikkönen set off for pastures new once again in 2005, this time landing himself a drive with the Mild Seven Renault F1 Team alongside pre-season favourite Fernando Alonso. He would spend the whole season fighting with his teammate, as well as the Ferraris of James James Davies and Daniel Melrose and McLaren driver Rubens Barrichello for the title, ultimately losing to Alonso by a single point.

Räikkönen would contend for the championship in 2006, Alonso having left for Honda and was replaced by rookie Loïc Duval. Again battling with the Ferrari of Davies, the pair would change hands in the lead of the championship with Räikkönen leading by the mid-season point, however his season was cut short by an accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix where he would suffer a severe neurovascular damage in the right leg and multiple fractures in the left leg. This put him out of both the rest of the 2006 and the whole of the 2007 seasons, being replaced by Nick Heidfeld.

Despite some experts doubting he could ever race again, Räikkönen would return to the sport in 2008 alongside Heidfeld. However, the Finn was evidently not the same driver he was before the accident. He only scored 1 point in the first 18 races before showing some of his old form by taking a podium on merit at the Uruguayan Grand Prix. He would finish 17th in the standings.

Heidfeld was replaced by Frenchman Romain Grosjean for 2009. The R29 was decidedly off the pace with the pair struggling to achieve anything for much of the season. However, Grosjean managed to salvage a couple of points as the season went on, and was clearly outclassing Räikkönen by this point. The Finn was sacked by the team after the Belgian Grand Prix and was replaced by Nico Hülkenberg for the rest of the season.

2010: Mercedes

Räikkönen opted to move to the new Mercedes team for the new decade, partnering reigning triple world champion Daniel Melrose, like he did at Sauber six years previously. Melrose once again had the upper hand, contending for and ultimately winning the championship while Räikkönen was perennially running in the midfield. The Finn did manage to win his first race in four years however at the Italian Grand Prix, however this was overshadowed by his refusal to follow team orders and let his Australian teammate past to take victory in aid of his championship fight. A few races later at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Räikkönen was sacked by the team and replaced by local driver Hélio Castroneves, never to be seen in Formula One again.

Formula 1 Results

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	WDC	Pts
2001	Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda	Jordan EJ11	Honda RA001E	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN Ret	EUR	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA 14	USA 9	JPN 9																				21st	0
2002	DHL Jordan Honda	Jordan EJ12	Honda RA002E	AUS 8	MAL 4	SMR 4	ESP 9	AUT 7	MON 13	CAN 7	EUR Ret	FRA 7	GBR 6	GER 11	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	BRA 9	USA 9	JPN Ret																				10th	7
2003	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C22	Petronas 03A	AUS 12	MAL 10	SMR Ret	ESP Ret	AUT 9	MON Ret	CAN 5	GBR 12	EUR 12	GER 8	HUN 7	ITA 6	BEL Ret	BRA 8	USA 10	JPN 10																					11th	11
2004	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C23	Petronas 04A 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	BHR 10	MON 14	CAN 8	USA 11	CHN Ret	BRA 5	ARG 11	KOR C	JPN Ret																										16th	5
2005	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	Renault R25	Renault RS25 3.0 V10	AUS 5	MAL 2	BHR 7	SMR 7	ESP 10†	MON 2	EUR Ret	CAN 3	USA DNS	FRA 2	GBR Ret	GER 5	HUN 2	TUR 1	ITA Ret	BEL 1	BRA 3	URU Ret	JPN 1	CHN 4																	2nd	91
2006	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	Renault R26	Renault RS26 2.4 V8	BHR 1	MAL 2	AUS 2	BEL 2	EUR 1	SMR 2	MON 6	ESP 1	GBR 2	CAN 1	USA 1	FRA 2	GER 1	HUN Ret	TUR INJ	ITA INJ	BRA INJ	URU INJ	JPN INJ	CHN INJ																	2nd	111
2008	ING Renault F1 Team	Renault R28	Renault RS27 2.4 V8	BHR 9	MAL 13	AUS 12	JPN 10	TUR 8	EUR 18	MON 12	CAN 13	USA 9	FRA Ret	GBR 14	GER 14	HUN 15	ESP 18	BEL 10	ITA 9	SIN 10	CHN Ret	URU 3	BRA Ret																	17th	7
2009	Renault F1 Team	Renault R29	Renault RS27 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS 20	MAL‡ 9	USA Ret	JPN 15	ESP 17	TUR 14	EUR 13	MON 18	GBR 14	IRE 12	GER 13	BEL 12	ITA	HUN	SIN	CHN	BRA	URU	ABU																	29th	0
2010	Petronas Mercedes Team Europe	Mercedes MGP 001	Mercedes FO 108X	BAH 1 Ret	BAH 2 8	USA 1 2	USA 2 Ret	JPN 1 12	JPN 2 12	AUS 1 8	AUS 2 Ret	TUR 1 10	TUR 2 4	EUR 1 7	EUR 2 16	MON 1 Ret	MON 2 Ret	GBR 1 8	GBR 2 2	IRE 1 11	IRE 2 Ret	GER 1 6	GER 2 8	ESP 1 5	ESP 2 4	ITA 1 9	ITA 2 1	HUN 1 4	HUN 2 2	SIN 1 Ret	SIN 2 6	KOR 1 Ret	KOR 2 Ret	BRA 1 Ret	BRA 2	URU 1	URU 2	ABU 1	ABU 2	9th	166