Kimi Raikkonen (Räikkönen) – famous racing driver of Finnish origin. On the way to the top of the most elite and expensive sport, Raikkonen repeatedly encountered obstacles, but the athlete overcame them with amazing composure, becoming the world champion.

Biography. Early years

Kimi Raikkonen (Räikkönen) –

a native of Espoo, he was born on October 17, 1979. The head of the family, Matti, was a grader driver, and the racer’s mother, Paula, was an office worker. Kimi grew up with his older brother in the house his grandfather built. The wealth of the family was average, and parents had to refuse in many ways in order to ensure the future of their sons.

According to Paula, at the age of eight, Kimi announced that he would become a world champion, but could not explain in which sport. Like most Finnish boys, he played hockey, and lost interest in this sport when a moped was bought for his older brother.

By the age of nine, Kimi’s dream of becoming a champion had taken on a very real shape, and his father gave him a racing kart.

Since 1988, Kimi has been involved in karting, and so that he could race, Matti worked part-time in a taxi. Within three years, the little racer won several victories in the junior classes, and in 1991 he entered the regional karting competition, but did not win, partly because of not the best and fastest car. From 1992 to 1994, the young man participated in the national karting championships in the Raket class, but did not receive the championship title.

The path to victory

Despite weak financial support and lack of confidence in piloting, in April 1995, Kimi won his first significant victory in the Finnish Formula A championship, thanks to which he was able to enter the international level. Of all the cars that participated in the “rain” race, Kimi’s car was the only one “shod” in slicks, because the young race car driver and his family simply did not have the money to buy tires with treads.

The next two years were also not the best in Kimi’s career, the technical level of the car did not allow him to be on an equal footing with his rivals, which hurt the young man’s pride. In 1997, Matti and Paula invested in their son’s career the money they had saved for many years to renovate the house, and Kimi won the national karting championship in the Intercontinental A class.

1999 brought the Finnish racer both defeats and victories. Having missed the championship cup in the national championship, Kimi won the Formula Renault winter championship, in which he won four out of four races. In 2000, he scored a resounding victory in British Formula Renault with seven victories in ten races.

Iceman: major victories

The chance helped the young athlete to get into the legendary Formula 1, in place of Miki Salo, who left the Sauber team, it was necessary to find a pilot. Flying Finn Hakkinen proposed the candidacy of Kimi, who was already under the attention of the leadership because of his perseverance, natural speed and ability to squeeze everything possible even from not the best car. Becoming a test driver, Raikkonen showed such excellent results that team boss Peter Sauber provided him with a car. However, in addition to the consent of Sauber, a super-license from the FIA ​​was also required to participate in the races, and as a result of the tests that took place in the winter of 2000, Kimi received a temporary license.

From 2001 to 2006, Kimi’s career, already earning the nickname Iceman for his composure and ability to instantly adapt to the features of the track and weather conditions, underwent both ups and downs. In 2002, he took only sixth place in the Australian Grand Prix, and in 2003 – third.

2005 is considered one of the most difficult years of Raikkonen’s career. The Finn, who played in the McLaren team, was named the best driver of the season: the Brazilian confrontation between Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya and Raikkonen ended in silver for the Finn, and gold in the Japanese Grand Prix. At the championship in China, Alonso was the first, but Iceman came second, ahead of Mikael Schumacher.

At the end of 2006, the Man of Ice signed a contract with Ferrari, and in 2007 he became the world champion at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

2008 and 2009 were not crowned with victories, which led to a conflict situation and a break with Ferrari. A year later, Iceman signed a contract with Lotus, and won the Australian Grand Prix, and in 2013 he returned to Ferrari again, signing a contract for two seasons, during which, however, he did not rise above second place.

The 2016 and 2017 seasons did not bring Kimi a championship title, but in the fall of 2018 he won a brilliant victory at the US Grand Prix.

Personal life

Kimi’s first wife was model Yenny Dahlman, whose marriage lasted from 2004 to 2013.

In 2010, it became known about the death of Kimi’s father. The athlete had a hard time losing a loved one and even thought about ending his career. Only a year later, Kimi managed to pull himself together, in an interview he said that he must achieve new victories in memory of his father, who did everything possible to develop his sports career.

The second chosen one of the Formula 1 star was fitness model Minttu Virtanen, who in 2015 gave Kimi a son, Robin, and in 2017, a daughter, Rihanna. On his Instagram, Minttu shares photos of family vacations and travels with subscribers. Despite the fact that the athlete gives the impression of a balanced and calm person, notes often appear in the media about Iceman’s addiction to alcohol and his explosive nature.

Book about Kimi Räikkönen

In August 2018, the athlete announced the release of the book “Unknown Kimi Raikkonen”, written by Kari Hotakainen, a famous Finnish writer. Over 100,000 copies were sold in Finland in the first month. Biography in English, German and Japanese continues to break sales records. Lightly written, featuring Kimi’s interviews, sayings and quotes, and unknown biography facts, it was released for Iceman’s birthday. Kimi’s Russian fans are expecting a book with a translation into Russian, but there is no reliable information about when and whether the book will be released in Russia. A lot of noise on the network was made by Räikkönen’s phrases about his drinking bouts, love of beer and marathon trips to bars.

Kimi Räikkönen now

About the 2018 season, Kimi said he was happy with himself and with the team. An article dedicated to the athlete was published in December 2018 on the pages of the Match TV online publication, in which he shared a favorable impression of Russian roads and assured fans that he did not plan to end his career.

Rumors that Kimi will leave Ferrari in 2019 have been confirmed. It is believed that the reason for breaking off relations with Kimi was the scandal that broke out at the end of 2018 after a Canadian waitress accused Iceman of sexual harassment. And although the incident had no legal consequences, Ferrari management made a decision not in favor of Kimi.

Iceman has been officially with Sauber since the beginning of 2019.

Source of personal photos: Instagram racer Kimi-Mathias Räikkönen.

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