Kimi Räikkönen

Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen Career Overview and Fast Links

• Career Overview

• 2021 Alfa Romeo F1 Launch

• Route to F1

• F1 Sauber (2001)

• F1 McLaren (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)

• F1 Ferrari (2007, 2008, 2009)

• WRC

• F1 Lotus (2012, 2013)

• F1 Ferrari (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

• F1 Alfa Romeo (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

• Fast Facts

Kimi Raikkonen F1 Career Overview

Kimi Raikkonen will no longer compete in Formula 1 after retiring at the end of the 2021 season.

Now one of F1’s most experienced and most successful competitors, Raiklkonen’s legendary status has been assured by his emergence in the sport from relative obscurity, his giant-killing performances with McLaren, title glory with Ferrari, his rallying-inspired hiatus, successful comeback with Lotus and return to the Scuderia.

Never one to mince his words, Raikkonen’s dedication to the art of racing - coupled with his famed taciturn demeanor - has won him a legion of fans attracted by his no nonsense attitude, he will certainly be missed from the F1 paddock.

KimI Raikkonen - Route to F1

While eyebrows have been raised on numerous occasions over drivers who haven’t fulfilled the ‘unwritten’ criteria of experience for entering F1, arguably it is Kimi Raikkonen - at least in the modern age - who arrived in the top flight with the fewest credentials than any driver both before and after him.

Indeed, though Raikkonen was certainly a leading light in karting, it took only a single season Formula Renault racing in the UK to catch the eye of one of F1’s premier talent scouts, Peter Sauber. Winning seven races to claim the title with Manor Motorsport, Raikkonen found himself coming in a significant rung lower than the more conventional F3-F3000 route to F1.

In short, if Raikkonen was making his debut in F1 today from Formula Renault, there would be rules in place to stop him from doing so.

Kimi Raikkonen F1 Career - Year-by-Year (2001 - Present)

Indeed, though few will deny Sauber’s eponymous founder had been a shrewd spotter of talent over the previous decades, Raikkonen was not so much a risk but an entirely unknown quantity to anyone beyond a few key people. It thus made his debut as unexpected as it was fascinating.

Prior to his announcement, Raikkonen had held a series of secret tests in the Sauber, required for him to attain an FIA Super Licence. With only 23 car races under his belt, it was assumed he wouldn’t pass, but after lapping consistently faster than its 2000 driver Pedro Diniz, it was granted on the basis that he proved competitive enough during his debut races.

As it so happens, Raikkonen was arriving at a Sauber on the upswing, with the team’s Ferrari-powered C20 proving a tidy chassis that delivered some encouraging results in testing, particularly in the hands of Nick Heidfeld, himself attempting to make a name for himself after a non-scoring, unrepresentative debut with a woefully uncompetitive Prost the previous year.

The FIA’s - and Sauber’s - fears were eased, however, when Raikkonen qualified an eye-catching 13th for his debut, before crossing the line in eighth position. However, this was then elevated to sixth - and thus a point - post-race when Olivier Panis and Jos Verstappen picked up penalties that pushed them back down the order.

From here Raikkonen quickly proved Sauber’s risk on him had been worth it and he adapted to the rigours of the faster - and competitive - machinery while crafting his still nascent talent by pulling off a series of immensely impressive showings, peaking with a pair of fourth places in Austria and Canada, plus a fifth in Silverstone. 

This placed him tenth in the standings and assisted Sauber to a best-ever fourth overall in the constructors’ reckoning. 

Unsurprisingly, Raikkonen’s burgeoning skills earned him plenty of attention over the winter period and despite being linked with a future Ferrari seat, was instead poached by McLaren-Mercedes for the 2002 season. 

Replacing fellow Finn Mika Hakkinen, the double world champion reportedly had a hand in convincing Ron Dennis to sign Raikkonen rather than Sauber counterpart - and Mercedes aligned - Nick Heidfeld.

In a season utterly dominated by Ferrari, however, it was a tough initiation for Raikkonen though, albeit largely due to a series of failures from his Mercedes engine. He did have highlights though, marking his McLaren debut with a podium in Australia, while he came to within just a few laps of first win in France when he spun while leading on oil deposited by an expiring Toyota just ahead of him. 

He ended the year sixth overall with four podiums but having finished just six of the 17 races.

With Mercedes seemingly getting the bottom of its reliability woes, Raikkonen drove an updated version of the team’s MP4-17 in 2003 after the planned ‘radical’ MP4-18 had to be shelved due to a series of design faults that made it unwieldy to drive and, crucially, fail two FIA crash tests.

Despite this, Raikkonen enjoyed a strong start to the year, beginning with a first win in the Malaysian Grand Prix, followed by a series of podium finishes to keep Michael Schumacher on his toes in the overall standings.

As the driver considered next in line to succeed Schumacher on the grounds of his deft skills behind the wheel and inherent ability to drive around a temperamental chassis, Raikkonen’s title campaign took on a cruel twist during the European Grand Prix when an engine failure forced him to retire out of the lead.

A win that would have given him the series lead, thereafter Raikkonen found himself playing catch up to Schumacher, while Williams’ Juan Pablo Montoya was also able to haul himself into contention after a run of strong mid-season form. His campaign wasn’t helped by protest from Ferrari that McLaren’s Michelin tyres weren’t running legally, forcing a modification that appeared to limit the firm’s erstwhile advantage over rival Bridgestone rubber.

In the end a pair of crucial wins for Schumacher in Italy and the USA allowed him to eke out a lead over Raikkonen to nine points, which he consolidated in the final round at Suzuka to claim the title over the Finn by just two points.

Following his close call in 2003, Raikkonen was installed as many pundits’ favourite to end the dominance of Schumacher and Ferrari in 2004, but found his efforts waylaid by a woefully unreliable McLaren MP4-19, which had been developed out of the stillborn MP4-18 project but still seemingly restricted by the shortcomings that had it shelved in the first place.

After seven races Raikkonen had just a single point to his name (compared with Schumacher’s 60), prompting McLaren to rush out a significantly updated version (dubbed MP4-19B) from Round 10 onwards. 

Though not a full-proof solution for the results McLaren might have expected, it was a stronger performer and Raikkonen duly notched up a second career win in Belgium and a pair of podiums to recover seventh overall.

With renewed hope heading into 2005 in a year that would see Ferrari’s former advantage pegged back by the stronger Michelin contingent, Raikkonen shrugged off initial difficulties getting the tyres up to temperature in qualifying - leading to lowly grid positions - to strike back with a pair of wins in Spain and Monaco (Rounds 5 and 6)

Together with a win in Canada (Round 8), Raikkonen should have made it four-in-a-row with a win in Round 7 at the Nurburgring when he crashed on the final lap following a suspension failure, caused by the Finn having locked up earlier in the race to create a flat-spot that vibrated the struts into snapping.

More frustrations followed with a retirement from the lead in Germany too, leaving him 36 points shy of Renault’s Fernando Alonso with seven races to go. 

However, during the final third of the season Raikkonen was the driver to beat, the Finn reeling off four wins and two second place finishes in six of the final seven events. This included a spectacular win in Japan when, from 17th on the grid, he powered to victory by passing Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap.

And yet it wasn’t enough to unseat the more consistent Alonso, the pair ending the year with seven wins apiece but separated by a comfortable 21 points.

Once again Raikkonen came into the following season with high expectations but again found a McLaren team one step behind its rivals during the early stages, making do with four podiums from the first half of the season to all-but-rule himself out of the running behind Alonso and Schumacher. 

Results didn’t improve much thereafter, leaving him fifth in the standings and on his way out of McLaren to replace Schumacher at Ferrari.

While there had long been speculation as to which driver could possibly take on the pressure and attention of replacing a driver like Schumacher at Ferrari, Raikkonen was always considered the man best equipped to handle the inevitable spotlight.

While Ferrari had spent the previous two seasons battling a Renault front, it and Raikkonen ironically found McLaren its closest rivals in 2007, the British team coming alive with the fresh pairing of double World Champion Alonso and hot prospect - and rookie - Lewis Hamilton. 

Raikkonen steadied nerves with a win on his Ferrari debut in Australia, but found a keen rival in team-mate Felipe Massa, the Brazilian eager to steal his new team-mate’s thunder (and number one status) in the absence of Schumacher.

As the season progressed though, it appeared the title battle would distill into a fascinating all-McLaren battle between Alonso and a Hamilton exceeding all expectations, Indeed, while Raikkonen had added two more wins in France and Great Britain, with four races remaining he was 18 points off the top spot.

However, with McLaren becoming distracted off track by the brewing “Spygate” scandal and the Alonso-Hamilton inter-team rivalry creating immense friction, Raikkonen - almost stealthily - began clawing back the initiative with wins in two of the final four races.

It meant he came into the final round in Brazil still with a shot at the title, albeit seven points off leader Hamilton and three behind Alonso. 

Raikkonen did his bit at Interlagos with victory, with Massa covering him off in second position to leave Alonso in third. However, with Hamilton suffering with a gearbox problem that slowed him to seventh, it was enough for Raikkonen to leapfrog both and claim the title by a single point. 

Having successfully launched Ferrari’s post-Schumacher era in style, Raikkonen set about attempting to emulate him by defending his title but despite a solid start to the year with wins in Malaysia and Spain, his season would slip midway through the year, with a run of four non-scores putting him out of title contention. 

Losing his prominence in the team to Massa, who took eventual champion Hamilton all the way to a title showdown in the Interlagos finale, Raikkonen had to make do with third.

With the 2009 F1 season heralding an overhaul in the technical regulations, Ferrari found itself wanting in the development race against a new wave of championship frontrunners, such as BrawnGP and Red Bull Racing. 

Indeed, the Ferrari F60 lacked competitiveness and Raikkonen didn’t score a podium until Round 6 in Monaco. Ferrari made headway as the year progressed with Raikkonen adding to his victory tally in Belgium after a fierce fight with Giancarlo Fisichella in a Force India that had never even scored a point in F1 prior to that race.

However, it was a false dawn and Raikkonen would find himself mired in the lower reaches of the points as he laboured to sixth in the final classification. 

This slump in form coincided with a decision by Ferrari to part ways with Raikkonen - despite it having a contract for 2010 - citing the earlier-than-anticipated chance to sign Fernando Alonso from Renault.

Though Raikkonen flirted with the idea of either re-joining McLaren or linking up with the incoming Mercedes factory team (which replaced champions BrawnGP), and turning down an offer from Toyota, he instead opted to step away from F1 altogether for what would become an indefinite hiatus

Kimi Raikkonen WRC Career

While hiatus’ weren’t a new career direction in F1 and had been used successfully in the past by the likes of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, few had used it to embark on an entirely different discipline as Raikkonen did when he turned to the World Rally Championship for 2010 and 2011.

Indeed, it wasn’t entirely clear whether an increasingly disillusioned Raikkonen was ever intending on returning to F1 at all, much like the man he replaced at McLaren back in 2002, Mika Hakkinen.

Even so, by hailing from a nation of famed rally drivers, Raikkonen’s move into rallying wasn’t so far fetched, with his switch being met with a healthy dose of intrigue to see what an esteemed Tarmac single-seater racer could do in a closed cockpit on loose surfaces.

Backed by Red Bull, Raikkonen was quickly snapped up by Citroen - the era’s most dominant force courtesy of Sebastien Loeb - albeit placed in a so-called ‘Junior’ set-up. With the rallying discipline often taken years of mileage - and crashing - before becoming a front runner, Raikkonen nonetheless acquitted himself well in the C4 with relatively few errors for a rookie.

His highlight was a run to fifth place in his fourth event in Turkey (in what would be his best result from two years of competition), but his smattering of top ten results - leading to tenth overall - were in part down to a relative thin full-season entry list among the WRC class. 

Forming his own off-shoot outfit - ICE 1 Racing - at the wheel of the all-new Citroen DS3 in 2011, Raikkonen started nine of the 13 events and picked up top six finishes in Jordan and Germany, ending the year tenth overall once again. 

With his WRC endeavour failing to sparkle in the two years he’d spent there, it was reported in September 2011 that Raikkonen was seeking a return to F1 for 2012 and was believed to be closing on a deal to join Williams. However, this would prove a red herring as in November Raikkonen was confirmed to join Lotus (formerly Renault) in a two-year deal.

Though Lotus was competing as a privateer entry, its slow metamorphosis from Renault - which started in 2010 - meant it still made the most of a quality technical team based in Enstone, not to mention use of the Renault V8 that had powered Red Bull to glory the previous two seasons.

As such, Raikkonen - whose smooth driving style was expected to suit the new Pirelli tyres introduced in his absence from 2010 - was considered something of an outside threat provided he could re-adapt to the rigours of F1.

After a modest start to the year, Raikkonen hit his stride with a second place finish during Round 4 in Bahrain, before following it up with another podium in Spain. More podiums occurred during the season’s middle portion with top three results in Valencia, Hockenheim, the Hungaroring and Spa.

Lifting Lotus into the upper echelons of the points’ standings above Ferrari and Mercedes, Raikkonen’s form remained consistently good leading to a spectacular return to the top of the rostrum in Abu Dhabi for his first victory in three years and Lotus’ first in its new guise. 

Giving rise to the now famous response to race engineer Simon Rennie to ‘leave me alone, i know what to do’ when told he was being closed on by Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen would end the year third in the standings.

Sticking with Lotus for the 2013 F1 season, despite apparent efforts from bigger budget rivals to try and buy him out of his deal, Raikkonen kicked off what appeared to be an unlikely title tilt with victory in the season opening Australian Grand Prix, before following it up with a trio of second places finishes in Rounds 3, 4 and 5.

Lauded for his sheer consistency in the tidy Lotus E21, Raikkonen maintained a new record of consecutive points’ finishes for 27 races - including more podiums in German and Hungary - before suffering his first-ever DNF with the team during Round 11 in Belgium.

He was on the podium again in Singapore and Korea, but these successes were coming amid apparent discontent brewing behind the scenes fuelled by rumours Raikkonen’s hefty salary hadn’t been paid by a team that - despite its pace - was struggling financially to meet the podium bonus clauses worth millions written into the Finn’s contract.

Matters came to a head more publicly during the Indian Grand Prix when Raikkonen was ordered to move over to allow faster team-mate Romain Grosjean through, leading to a heated exchange over the team radio between himself and team manager Alan Permane. 

At the time it was noted the disagreement was less to do with what was happening on track and more to do with the breakdown in relations off track, and sure enough Raikkonen came close to missing the following round in Abu Dhabi altogether, reportedly only turning up just before free practice.

Nevertheless, Raikkonen took the opportunity to go public with the fall-out, declaring he wouldn’t compete in the final two rounds of the season unless his salary dispute was resolved.

The issues appeared to have been eased the news an investment group had bought a stake in the Lotus F1 Team that provided the cash flow needed to satisfy Raikkonen, only for the Finn to elect to skip the races anyway to undergo surgery on his back following a heavy landing during a briefly airborne accident in Singapore.

It was reported the saga into Raikkonen’s unpaid wages would drag on into the following seasons and was named as one of the outstanding bills Lotus was yet to settle when it came close to collapse mid-way through the 2016 F1 season.

A free agent once more, Raikkonen subsequently beat a path back to Ferrari for the 2014 F1 season, which coincided with the launch of new technical regulations, namely the switch to V6 Hybrid powertrains.

However, with Ferrari lacking the raw performance of Mercedes, despite impressive reliability, Raikkonen was consigned to the midfield for much of the year.

His best finish came with a fourth place finish in Belgium as he laboured to 12th in the standings, a huge 106 points behind team-mate Fernando Alonso

Joined at Ferrari by Sebastian Vettel for the 2015 F1 season, Raikkonen struggled to match his new team-mate in a car that at times had the measure of Mercedes over the course of the year.

Though he made a welcome return to the podium in Bahrain, it was one of only three visits to the rostrum all year en route to fourth overall, but 128 points shy of Vettel in the final standings. 

With his return to Ferrari not the glittering comeback he had envisaged and harbouring misgivings about the current format of racing that gave priority to tyre conservation and energy harvesting, it was widely expected Raikkonen would call time on his career at the end of the season.

Nonetheless, he went on to pen a new two-year deal to the end of 2017 and in a year that saw Ferrari slip behind Red Bull in the fight against Mercedes, he at least proved a more consistent frontrunner versus Vettel at least, claiming podiums in Bahrain, Russia, Spain and Austria, while he out-qualified the German 11 to 10.

Results tailed off later in the season to leave him sixth in the final standings behind both Mercedes, both Red Bulls and Vettel.

With Ferrari making another step forward for 2017, Raikkonen once again provided a useful foil for title contender Vettel with a series of podium results, albeit without ever really looking able to get on terms with the frontrunners.

Highlights included a pole position at the Monaco Grand Prix, though his chance of victory there was scuppered by Vettel getting the jump on him through the pit-stops. Elsewhere he notched up podiums in Russia, Britain, Hungary, USA, Mexico and Brazil to secure fourth in the standings.

Receiving a one-year extension to his contract - in what was widely presumed to be his final season in ‘red’ - Raikkonen nonetheless went on to enjoy arguably his best Ferrari season since his 2007 title-winning year, which included a win in the United States.

His first win since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, the margin between the two successes (113 grands prix) is the longest in F1 history. At 39 he became the oldest F1 racer winner since Nigel Mansell succeeded in the 1994 Australian Grand Prix. Coupled with 11 podiums, Raikkonen ended the season third, his best result since the 2012 F1 season.

Prior to his victory in Austin, it was announced Raikkonen would return to the team with which he made his F1 debut back in 2001, Sauber, albeit under the Alfa Romeo Racing brand name.

Closely aligned with Ferrari, Raikkonen relished his new underdog status and proved one of the standouts from the opening-half of the 2019 season, scoring in eight of the opening 12 races and peaking with a best of seventh. 

Though that form tailed off as Alfa Romeo slipped behind in the development race - leading to a series of non-scoring results - he did bounce back with a run to fourth in Brazil, just 0.6s off the podium.

For 2020 Raikkonen found himself hampered by uncompetitive machinery, in particular an underpowered engine from Ferrari, the legacy of which was believed to have stemmed from the FIA’s move to tweak the power unit’s fuel flow which it said had shown irregularities in 2019. 

With Ferrari’s form faltering notably from the moment the new rules came into place, Alfa Romeo mirrored the downturn in 2020 and generally battled towards the rear with Haas (another Ferrari customer) and Williams.

Raikkonen troubled the points only twice all season, despite finishing 15 of the 16 races, though he was given the FIA Action of the Year Award for a remarkable performance in the Portuguese Grand Prix that saw him overtake ten cars on the opening lap.

He also made history during the Eifel Grand Prix - his 323rd career race - surpassing Rubens Barrichello’s record for the most F1 race starts in history.

2021 marked Raikkonen's final year in F1 as he announced his retirement on the eve of the Italian Grand Prix. 

Alfa Romeo improved significantly on its 2020 form with Ferrari's improved power unit aiding its performance. Although, its improved performance didn't result in consistent points scoring as a combination of Raikkonen's poor qualifying form and team strategy cost it dearly.

Raikkonen missed the Italian and Dutch Grands Prix due to COVID-19 but returned to the Russian Grand Prix with a strong race to eighth. 

Kimi Raikkonen Fun Facts

• Raikkonen had contested only 23 car races before he was picked for a drive in F1 and was only granted a provisional FIA Super Licence by proving he could be competitive during his first races

• Dubbed the ‘Iceman’, the nickname is borne out of a combination of his nationality, his monosyllabic emotions and his famously taciturn demeanour when dealing with the media. Among the numerous examples of the latter, he gained a legion of fans with his deadpan response to Martin Brundle during the ITV-televised grid walk when - after being asked what he was doing while Pele gave Michael Schumacher a lifetime achievement award - he said he was ‘having a shit’.

• It has been reported that Raikkonen was asleep 30mins before his very first race at Albert Park

• Years before memes became a viral trend, Raikkonen nonetheless gave F1 one of its media-friendly oddball moments by choosing to spend the break after a red flag period at the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix by eating an ice cream

• A driver that has given few private interviews during his career, Raikkonen is nonetheless known for his partying antics off track and enjoys a tipple, most famously at the 2018 FIA Prize Giving gala during which he accepted an award while being very obviously sozzled

• Off track Raikkonen has been known to dabble in other disciplines incognito, such as snowmobile and powerboat races, which he enters under the pseudonym  ‘James Hunt’

• During his hiatus from F1, Raikkonen started a race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, finishing 27th at Charlotte.

• BWOAH!