Kimi biography

Kimi was born in the year, in the Finnish city of Espoo. At the age of 10, he achieved the first successes in the picture, and at the age of 15 he first performed outside Finland - in Monaco. In the year, he won first place at the Northern Northern Championship in Norway. In the year, he took second place in the European championship of the Super A formula and took part in the Formula-Ford European Cup.

By the age of 20, he became the champion of the winter series of the British formula -renault, winning the first four races of the season. In the year, Raikkonen won 7 of the 10 stages of the UK championship in the Formula-Renault class. These successes attracted the attention of Peter Zauber, who invited Kimi Raikkonen to the tests of his team in Mujello. After the second and third test sessions in Keres and Barcelona, ​​Sauber concluded a Finnish contract for the season, nevertheless, many of which was the President of FIA Max Mosley skeptically reacted to the fact that such an inexperienced pilot was issued a Formula 1 superlessification.

At that time, only 23 Grand Prix were on such cars. Despite this, he received a superlessie and made his debut in Formula 1 at the Australian Grand Prix of the year. Kimi Raikkonen spent his first season quite successfully, finishing four times with glasses. Through the efforts of Finn and his partner Nick Haidfeld, Sauber won fourth place in the designers' Cup, which still remains their best achievement.

Already in the year, he first declared himself as a serious contender for the championship title. Until the middle of the season, Raikkonen headed a personal test, but the failures that began with the explosion of the engine at the European Grand Prix led to the loss of leadership in the championship. Finn retained the chances of the title until the end of the season, but in the end he lost only two points to Michael Schumacher and became vice-champion.

The new McLaren MP revolutionary model was extremely unreliable and not too fast. Only by the middle of the season, MPB modification debuted at the French Grand Prix, and the results of Raikkonen began to improve. He took second place in Silverstone and won in Belgium, which allowed him to climb the seventh line in the championship. A year later, Kimi again fought for the championship title, but the problems with reliability did not allow him to hold on to Fernando Alonso and Finn again went to vice-championship.

For the first time since the year, he did not win a single victory, although he showed stable results during the season. Two races before the end of the Finn season took the third position in the championship with a lag of 17 points from the leader of the championship for the victory 10 points were awarded. However, Finn won two victories in the last two races, while his rivals - Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were faced with problems and could not score many points.

Thus, Kimi Raikkonen became a champion with an advantage of one point. In the year, the relay went to his partner, Felipe Massa.

The Brazilian fought for the title to the last race, but luck did not smile at him, and only the vice-champion title remained behind him, while Kimi Raikkonen took third place in the championship. The next season, the Ferrari racing pace did not allow Finn to stably fight for high places, and Kimi was able to win only one victory in the season-at the Grand Prix of Belgium.

Toward the end of the season, Ferrari announced that Kimi would leave the team, despite the fact that he had a contract for the next season. His place was taken by Fernando Alonso. It was expected that Finn would return to McLaren, but his negotiations with the British team had come to a standstill. Then there were rumors about his possible transition to Mercedes, but the German team invited Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

Shortly before the announcement of leaving Formula 1, the Toyota team actively expressed interest in the Finnish pilot, but he refused, as he wanted to play in a team capable of fighting for victory, and also did not arrange a fee proposed by the Japanese. For lack of other options, Kimi Raikkonen left Formula 1. In the years, Kimi Raikkonen took part in the World Rally Championship. He showed good results, and won his first victory in the rally, and continued to perform in his own ICE 1 Racing team.

In the first race, he finished the eighth, then missed the stage in Mexico, after which he finished the seventh in Portugal. At the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, he won his first victory after returning, and in the season he was able to beat the record by the number of effective finishes in a row. His series was interrupted in Belgium and amounted to 27 fins in the point in a row.

At the end of the year, Kimi Raikkonen signed a contract with Ferrari for seasons according to the rules of the year, each pilot was obliged to choose for himself the number that he would use throughout his career. Raikkonen chose number 7 under which he spoke in the year for Lotus, considering that his current number suits him and he has no reason to change it. The season ended for Raikkonen M a place in the personal standings - the worst in the career of the Finnish racer.

Only in Belgium did he manage to finish above his teammate Fernando Alonso.In the year, the new partner of Raikkonen in Ferrari was four -time world champion Sebastian Vettel. Together with the German champion, Raikkonen spent four seasons and showed much more confident results than as a partner Fernando Alonso. The best result for Kimi was his last season for Ferrari, when he took third place in the championship and won his last won in Formula 1 at the US Grand Prix.

The next three seasons of the district, the Sauber team, which was renamed the Alfa Romeo Racing team before the start of the season, the first season in the new team began well for the Finn - a series of finishes in the point zone allowed him to rise to eighth line in the championship. However, then followed by a series of seven inappropriate races and one fourth place in Brazil.

As a result, Finn repeated his worst result in his career and again took the sin in the personal standings. Seasons and have developed for Finn no better. For two seasons, he only managed to finish in the point zone only six times, and the final result in both cases was a place in the championship. The season for Kimi Raikkonen last in his career in Formula 1.