Kimi Räikkönen

Probably one of the coolest drivers ever to grace F1 alongside James Hunt.

His part life-style may not have been to some teams liking in F1 but you can't deny that Kimi was probably one of the best drivers on the grid from 2003-09. He should have won more championships than he did!

Kimi won his one and only F1 Championship in 2007. Kimi won 18 races, 16 pole positions, scored 62 podiums and claimed 35 fastest laps in his time in F1.

Kimi is probably the must unluckiest driver to ever grace F1 and the amount of retirements he had no fault of his own were lots.

Kimi won his first GP in 2003 winning the Malaysian GP and he claimed his last victory in F1 at the 2009 Belguim GP.

Kimi started his F1 career in 2001 driving for Sauber, he then went on to drive for Mclaren and Ferrari before quitting the sport in 2009.

Kimi produced probably the 2 most funniest moments to happen in F1 over the last 10 years, when he said at the Brazilian GP in 2006 when Schumi first retired from F1 and the other one at the Malaysian GP where the race was red flagged and he went to the garage and got into shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops and started eating ice-cream.

Whether you liked him or not you can't deny his talent, he produced one of the comebacks of the past 10 season by starting near the back of the Japan GP in 2005 and went on to win it! Probably one of his best race wins in F1.

Did you like Kimi or Not?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Strange that no-one asked Barrichello about it in the press conference.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/10/12693.html

 

[Fenderman]

Even the greats make mistakes but I won't laugh at him for it. Unlike some jesters who delight in this sort of thing on another thread. Okay?

 

[Brogan]

Kimi confirms talks took place: http://translate.google.com/transla...1080/raikkonen-vahvistaa-williams-neuvottelut

If it goes ahead, this would be the oddest pairing since, well, Alonso and McLaren

 

[RasputinLives]

If it goes ahead, this would be the oddest pairing since, well, Alonso and McLaren

lol

difference being that Alonso and Mclaren seemed like a good idea at the time! Not sure this does.

Maybe we'll all be surprised.

actually

I can't bring myself to believe that.

 

[FB]

I suppose the only saving grace for Kimi is that Williams aren't exactly awash with sponsors so his off duty activites won't be affected.

Who's going to set the car up though?

 

[Road of Bones]

I can see the reasoning behind Kimi at WIlliams - you can effectively remove the driver as a variable when assessing pure laptime, as you know Kimi will pedal the car as fast as it can possibly go: everything else then can be attributed to chassis/drivetrain/tyres. As long as he provides the necessary feedback regarding overall balance, and Williams makes a car that'll actually last more than a few laps, then it could very well be the start of a long-overdue resurgence for our favourite "British Team that isn't McLaren".

 

[RasputinLives]

Kimi will pedal the car as fast as it can possibly go

most of the time faster! cue big explosions out the back of the Williams! whoops.

In all seriousness if Kimi comes back next year it'll be the first time he's had to deal with no fuel stops and high tyre deg - reckon that will cramp his style or suit him better?

 

[sportsman]

Bit that puzzles me is sponsorship.Kimi has a great deal of personal sponsorship from Red Bull.
I don't know how they get around that one.
http://www.kimiraikkonen.com/

 

[RasputinLives]

Bit that puzzles me is sponsorship.Kimi has a great deal of personal sponsorship from Red Bull.
I don't know how they get around that one.
http://www.kimiraikkonen.com/

Won't it just mean Red Bull written down the side of yet another F1 car? Don't think they'll onhect much to more advertising space.

He had all the Red Bull Sponsorship when he was at Ferrari and Mclaren too so I don't see it being an issue.

 

[teabagyokel]

In all seriousness if Kimi comes back next year it'll be the first time he's had to deal with no fuel stops and high tyre deg - reckon that will cramp his style or suit him better?

I can see him suffering due to driving the car straight off the cliff! He always was on the edge!

 

[laFrau]

In all seriousness if Kimi comes back next year it'll be the first time he's had to deal with no fuel stops and high tyre deg - reckon that will cramp his style or suit him better?

I know that extrapolating from rallying to F1 is not a good idea but, considering how mild Kimi is with the tyres in WRC, I don't think that high tyre degradation should be the biggest issue. Adapting to the F1 Pirellis, maybe (he has only used the rallying Pirellis).

 

[teabagyokel]

I know that extrapolating from rallying to F1 is not a good idea but, considering how mild Kimi is with the tyres in WRC, I don't think that high tyre degradation should be the biggest issue. Adapting to the F1 Pirellis, maybe (he has only used the rallying Pirellis).

He was possibly mild for a rally driver, but as I recall his F1 plan was to drive as fast as he could and bugger the consequences!

 

[RasputinLives]

hence:

 

[laFrau]

He was possibly mild for a rally driver, but as I recall his F1 plan was to drive as fast as he could and bugger the consequences!

Oh! I remember Nürburgring 2005 too well

Again, extrapolating from rallying to F1 is not a good idea, but in rallying the tyre degradation is not related with how fast the drivers go, but with their driving style. Of all the WRC drivers, the driver with the lowest tyre degradation is Loeb and the one with the highest is Latvala. Funny enough, Loeb and Latvala are the two drivers with the highest raw pace

 

[Brogan]

It seems Räikkönen's management has also been in touch with Renault over a 2012 drive.

It's a good job he's not desperate to get back in to F1, otherwise it would make his original decision to leave look extremely foolish.

 

[sportsman]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96379
"In the short term - in the next two to three years - I want two big names," he said. "I want to fight with the big names and to fight with [Sebastian] Vettel and [Mark] Webber, [Lewis] Hamilton and [Jenson] Button. So yes, I need two big names and the target is to have two big names by 2014 or even 2013.
"2012 we know will be another year for rebuilding the team and so we are not in the position to attract big names now. And by the way, the driver market is closed anyway for 2012 so our priority is not to have a big name in the car but to have a fast car which can then be given to a big name to win races.
"We should do it in this order and not the other way around - even though I would agree that a big name would help to make the car better, definitely."

 

[Viscount]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96379
"In the short term - in the next two to three years - I want two big names," he said. "I want to fight with the big names and to fight with [Sebastian] Vettel and [Mark] Webber, [Lewis] Hamilton and [Jenson] Button. So yes, I need two big names and the target is to have two big names by 2014 or even 2013.
"2012 we know will be another year for rebuilding the team and so we are not in the position to attract big names now. And by the way, the driver market is closed anyway for 2012 so our priority is not to have a big name in the car but to have a fast car which can then be given to a big name to win races.
"We should do it in this order and not the other way around - even though I would agree that a big name would help to make the car better, definitely."

Autosport just didn't reproduce the entire interview, he was also asked:

http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2011/11/12810.html

Q: What about Kimi Raikkonen?
EB: What about him? I have just explained how we want to go about our driver line-up for next season. But yes, there has been contact - look at this call (Boullier holds up his mobile phone) - this was from his manager.

 

[Brogan]

Brundle just confirmed during Q1 that Raikkonen won't be at Williams next year.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I think that's actually a good thing for Williams. While having Raikkonen may have been wonderful for column inches in the rags I don't think he would have applied himself to the task in hand if Williams still find themselves fighting at the back end of Q2 next year and would have quickly become fed up.

 

[Jen]

Does that mean Ruby is safe in his seat for 2012? I think he's past his best, but is still better than Maldanado - maybe two new drivers for Williams?

Sorry a bit OT