Kimi Matias Raikkonen was born in October 17, 1979, in Espoo Finland. He is a world champion currently racing for Ferrari. During his first season in McLaren in 2002 he was nicknamed “Iceman,” and he was recognized as a title contender, as he lost the championship in 2003 to Michael Schumacher and in 2005 to Fernando Alonso, for a few points. Raikkonen was racing in karting since he was racing. His first race out of his country was at the age of 15 in Monaco, where his steering wheel broke. In his second race in Monaco he was remembered, as he was thrown out of the track after a collision in the first round, but he manage to get back in the track and in the end he finished in third place. In 1999 was second in the European Formula Super A championship. In 2000 he won seven out of ten events in Formula Renault UK Championship. After competing in the Formula Renault later that year, he won 13 of the 23 events (a percentage of 56%).
After these results Raikkonen was given a Sauber F1 car for test. Sauber decided to sign him, although there were some concerns from FIA and Max Mosley, about granting an F1 Super Licence t such an inexperienced driver, having only 23 races in his credit. However Sauber signed him and Raikkonen proved everybody wrong as he scored in his maiden race in Australia. Raikkonen kept scoring points in other races finishing the season with 9 points. He and his teammate Nick Heidfeld helped the team Sauber to it's highest result ever, which was the fourth place in the constructors championship.
Raikkonen impressed the McLaren team. As a result Ron Dennis signed him up to replace the Finn double world champion Mika Hakkinen, after his retirement in 2002. He manage a third place finish in his first Grand Prix with the team, in Australia. Although the team suffered problems with the Mercedes engine, as it was unreliable, Raikkonen manage to score 24 points and finish 6th in the championship. He also got very close in winning his first Grand Prix in France but went of the track after he slipped on the oil of a Toyota blown engine. He finished that race in second place.
In the first 2003 Grand Prix in Australia, Raikkonen qualified 15th. He manage to get to the first position before he was caught speeding in the pit lane. In the end he finished third in that race. In Malaysia he took his first victory after starting the race from 7th position. At the next race in Brazil Raikkonen was first when the race was stopped in lap 55. According to the rules if the race is stopped the winner is decided by the race order of two laps before. So on lap 53 Raikkonen was first. After a week though, evidence showed that Giancarlo Fisichella was already on lap 56 so the winner would be decided by the race order in lap 54. So the victory was handed to Giancarlo Fisichella.
As every other car in the grid was improving, McLaren was still using the 2002 chassis, and begun to fall behind due to that. At the European Grand Prix Raikkonen gave a fantastic performance as he took the pole position and held the race by far, till lap 25 where his engine failed. Title rival Michael Schumacher made a mistake and got of the track. As h was stuck in the sand his mechanics pushed him back in the track and he managed to continue his race and finish in 5th position taking a 4-point advantage from Raikkonen. These were the points that cost Raikkonen the championship in the end. Raikkonen failed to finish the German Grand Prix as he was involved in an accident with Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher.
Raikkonen finished second in the Hungarian Grand Prix and took the pole position in the United States Grand Prix but Schumacher took the victory there as Raikkonen finished in second place. The championship was taken to the last race in Japan, with Schumacher needing only one point to win the title as Raikkonen needed to win and also needed Schumacher not to score any points. In the end Raikkonen finished 2nd behind Rubens Barrichello, and Michael Schumacher just got into the pints finishing in 8th position and winning his 6th championship title. Raikkonen lost the title for two points. He got really close that season, but bad luck and unreliability costed him the title.
During the 2004 season McLaren had very serious reliability problems. Raikkonen finished only the two of the seven first races as the engine kept breaking down. After these seven races Raikkonen scored only one point and Michael Schumacher 60. This gap was almost impossible to close, considering that Ferrari had no reliability problems and was finishing in every race.
In Canada Raikkonen had 5 pit-stops but managed to finish in 5th place after the two Toyota and the two Williams were disqualified. In the United states Grand Prix he finished 6th. At the French Grand Prix McLaren rolled out the new MP4-19B, which was a bit more reliable than the previous one, too late for Raikkonen to give an battles for the title and the car was not that competitive either. Raikkonen finished the championship in seventh place with 45 points just one point behind Jarno Trulli.
Despite the disappointment in 2004 Raikkonen was still considered one of the upcoming stars along with Renault's Fernando Alonso and his 2005 teammate in McLaren Juan Pablo Montoya. He was also referred by Ross Brawn and Jean Todt as a driver Ferrari might consider in the future. That year Raikkonen also announced his intention to create a racing team with his manager Steve Robertson, with the name Raikkonen Robertson Racing, also known “Double R”, which would compete in Formula 3 in 2005.
Raikkonen didn't make a good start in the 2005 season as the car was reported to be too soft on the tyres, with the result that it wasn't generating enough heat to post competitive qualifying times. The best position a McLaren driver qualified in the first three races was 6th. In Bahrain Raikkonen got his first podium finish in the season. After that Raikkonen managed three consecutive poll positions, In San Marino, Barcelona and Monte Carlo and won two of these races as in San Marino he had a driveshaft failure. After that he got 22 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso. In the European Grand Prix, Raikkonen was leading the race till the final round. Problems with the suspension caused his tyre go off and he crashed in the tyre wall in the final lap, giving Alonso the victory and 10 more points.
In United States all the Michelin teams withdraw from the race due to safety concerns. After that Raikkonen suffered many reliability problems in the next races handing more points to his title rival Fernando Alonso. The 2005 Japan Grand Prix is
remembered as Raikkonen gave a very impressive race. He won the race after stating from the 20th position. This win was secured when he overtook Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap. Raikkonen received the F1 racing ”Driver of the Year” accolade, and the Autosport “International Racing Driver of the Year” award. He got close to the title and lost it due to reliability problems once again. He finished the championship in second place 21 points behind Fernando Alonso.
Raikkonen started the 2006 season in Bahrain with suspension problems in the qualifying session which caused him to start his race from the 22nd position. However Raikkonen managed to finish in third place behind Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher. Raikkonen's season was not good as he did not win a single race and finished the championship in fifth place with 65 points, 69 points behind champion Fernando Alonso. Raikkonen Robertson Racing team, which was Raikkonen's team in Formula 3, claimed their first major success, with British driver Mike Conway winning the 2006 British F3 International Series title and the prestigious Macau Grand Prix.
After the 2006 Italian Grand Prix Scuderia Ferrari announced that Kimi Raikkonen had signed a three year contract with them for the 2007-2009 seasons. Raikkonen became the highest paid driver in Ferrari as it is reported his salary is US $51 annualy. Raikkonen started his season very good at 2007, taking the pole in his first race of the season in Australia, setting the fastest lap and being the first driver since Nigel Mansell in 1989, to win his first Grand Prix with Ferrari. This was the first time in his career that he managed to achieve this hat-trick, a pole position, a fastest lap and a victory. He was doing really good in his first three races but reliability problems stoke again in Spain. He retired with an electrical problem. In the Monaco Grand Prix he started his race 16th and finished in 8th place.
He took his second victory in the season and 11th in his career in France where the Ferrari's made the 1-2. This feat was repeated in Turkey, where the Ferrari's made the 1-2 again, but this time Massa was first and Raikkonen finished in second place. In the Chinese Grand Prix Hamilton made a mistake which caused him to retire from the race. He was 12 points in front of Alonso at the time and 17 points in front of Raikkonen at the point. Raikkonen won the race and got into the fight for the title again as he got in the final lap in Brazil, 3 points behind Alonso and 7 points behind Hamilton. Raikkonen's win in China was also the 200th win for Ferrari and the 600th podium finish.
In the final race in Brazil, three drivers were fighting for the title, something that is not oftenly seen in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton had a gearbox failure and fell in 18th position. Massa was leading the race for more than half of the time, but Raikkonen overpassed him after his second pit-stop and finished the race in first place while Alonso finished in third and Hamilton manage to get in the points b finishing in 7th position. But that was not enough to take the title from Raikkonen. Raikkonen was the outsider to win this title but he managed to do it after giving a great performance. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso finished the championship with 109 points, both of them just one point behind champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Till the end of the 2007 season Kimi Raikkonen competed in 122 races in Formula One and won 15 of them winning also a world championship title. He has 48 podium finishes, 14 pole positions, 25 fastest laps and totally has gathered 456 championship points.
