He made his f1 debut in the 2001 formula one season for Peter Sauber's then Sauber Petronas racing team. He was given a provisional super license for, I think a period of three races. @ Albert Park in Melbourne, with a few hours to the start of the race, he fell asleep in his motorhome and was woken up minutes before the start. He also scored his first F1 point on debut, finishing 6th while battling greats like Schumacher and Hakkinen. Ferrari also claimed that they had discovered Schumacher's eventual successor and he would be Kimi Raikkonen, when the time comes. However Raikkonen had to wait till his 3rd F1 season and second with Mclaren to get his first win. He did it in Malaysia in 2003 after starting from 7th on the grid. he led home Barrichello and Alonso. In that season he lost the title by 2 points to Micheal Schumacher, who had an emotionally turbulent season himself, recovering from the shock of his mother's death to clinch his first win of the season at Imola.
2004 season and 2002 season were steam-rollered by the Ferraris and Micheal Schumacher, which prompted rule changes. Thus for the first time, F1 would have no tyre changes during the 2005 season. Raikkonen again lost the title fight to Alonso by 21 points. 2006 was to be Schumacher's swansong and he converteded a mid-season defecit of 25 points into a lead, by virtue of more wins going towards the last 2 races of the season. what happened at Japan and Brazil is history and Alonso romped home for his second consecutive title. Also 2006, Monza saw Ferrari announce Raikkonen as their driver for 2007 and Schumacher announce his retirement at the end of the season.
2007 started spectacularly for Raikkonen with a win at Melbourne. But for the rest of the season the spotlight was on Mclaren's young gun Lewis Hamilton. It was Hamilton all the way till the bandwagon reached Interlagos. Starting from 4th, Raikkonen spoilt Mclaren and Hamilton's party by leading home teammate Massa and Alonso to take the championship by a solitary point. Ferrari had won the constructors' title when Mclaren were stripped off all their points due to the spying scandal that erupted after Monaco.
Thats Raikkonen's 7 year career in brief. What you read here is partly from memory and partly from my Autocar archives.
2004 season and 2002 season were steam-rollered by the Ferraris and Micheal Schumacher, which prompted rule changes. Thus for the first time, F1 would have no tyre changes during the 2005 season. Raikkonen again lost the title fight to Alonso by 21 points. 2006 was to be Schumacher's swansong and he converteded a mid-season defecit of 25 points into a lead, by virtue of more wins going towards the last 2 races of the season. what happened at Japan and Brazil is history and Alonso romped home for his second consecutive title. Also 2006, Monza saw Ferrari announce Raikkonen as their driver for 2007 and Schumacher announce his retirement at the end of the season.
2007 started spectacularly for Raikkonen with a win at Melbourne. But for the rest of the season the spotlight was on Mclaren's young gun Lewis Hamilton. It was Hamilton all the way till the bandwagon reached Interlagos. Starting from 4th, Raikkonen spoilt Mclaren and Hamilton's party by leading home teammate Massa and Alonso to take the championship by a solitary point. Ferrari had won the constructors' title when Mclaren were stripped off all their points due to the spying scandal that erupted after Monaco.
Thats Raikkonen's 7 year career in brief. What you read here is partly from memory and partly from my Autocar archives.
No comments:
Post a Comment