Music: Iris by Awie
Kimi Matias Raikkonen: 2007 World Champion!
I've been rather silent about F1 this time round, haven't I? On the contrary, I actually do have a lot to say, and have been following this season rather closely than usual, even if I might have not been articulate about it. I am, an avid F1 fan after all. It's been one heck of a season. So much to comment, so many things going through my mind, I'm not sure where to start.
**This entry is gonna be solely about Kimi Raikkonen, and I have a feeling it will be a long one, so, those interested in what I have to say, brace yourselves!
Ok let's begin with.. congratulations to my beloved abang Kimi for winning the Driver's Championship, with style! Who would've thought he'd win? As much as I've harbored those feelings myself, I still had unrelentless faith when it comes to Kimi. Going into the final race of the season, third in standings, 7 and 3 points adrift of Hamilton and Alonso respectively, one had to be realistic. The likelihood of Lewis and Alonso to finish 6th and 3rd or lower (for Kimi to emerge champion), was low. As in, very low. Really, really low. Lewis has been performing superb all season, finishing on podiums race after race, with zero retirements, and similarly, Fernando. But alas, its Kimi's time to shine. Its a miracle really, what happened. Fate has given him all the good luck in the world after many years of disappointments. I never doubted that Kimi would one day win the championship. Not just me, anyone/everyone who knows how good Kimi is, knows that Kimi is a rightful winner. He's been denied of two possible driver's title due to McLaren's fast but unreliable car during his 5-year stint driving for McLaren. This season could've been his third! Now, that elusive, coveted, driver's title is finally his.
Ok let me recap for you his journey as a racer, from what I remember at the top of my head at this moment. He's been karting since 11 years old. He never won any karting championship, as far as I know. Then, he went on to single seater races beginning in the late 90's. I don't remember what though, but the furthest he went was a Formula Renault or sth like that, and it wasn't even a high level championship (that much I know), compared to F3 or GP2. But he did win enough races to catch Peter Sauber's attention. Soon, Mr. Sauber offered him a test drive with his Sauber Petronas team. So impressed he was with Kimi, that after only 3 tests, Sauber straight away signed Kimi as the team's F1 driver for 2001. According to Sauber, he was surprised himself that he had that much confidence in Kimi, he knew Kimi had an undescribable raw talent, coupled with Kimi's attitude towards racing (in a good way), a very postive vibe, if you will. Mind you, Kimi had only driven in 23 single seater race drives thus far, which is a minuscule figure compared to any other F1 rookie by far, so much so that even Max Mosley was sceptical when Kimi was granted a superlicense to drive in F1.
And so, come Austalian GP 2001, Kimi had his debut F1 race. One of the more famous stories about Kimi was, on his debut race, he was sleeping and had to woken up 20 minutes before the race! Any Kimi fan would definitely know this fact by heart. He went on to score 10 points (I think) for Sauber Petronas that season, and together with Nick Heidfeld, propelled the team to their highest ever finish in the Constructors Title, fourth. I remember being awed by Kimi's races, keeping in mind that he was a rookie at that time. No doubt that Ron Dennis and I were in the same boat, because he signed Kimi to race for McLaren in 2002, and beyond. Could you believe that? After only one season, he's already being courted by McLaren, one of the top teams, in his second year as an F1 driver. An incredible feat if u ask me. Come 2003, he's already battling Micheal Schumacher for the driver's title, getting second place. If anyone is comparing Kimi with Lewis Hamilton, please don't say anything first. My next entry will touch on that very topic.
From 2004 to 2006, was heartbreaking for all Kimi fans. It was when McLaren was hit with reliability problems, its mind boggling! Actually, the reliability problems had already started in 2003. In this duration, Kimi raced so many incredible races with the handicapped MP-xx car. It was fast, really fast, but unreliable, both the chassis and engine. It was crazy. By then, seeing Kimi having to start races from the back of the grid and work his way up into the points, and occasionally, onto podiums, using single pit stop strategies most of the time, was a thing of the norm. The most usual reason he'd have to start from dead last would be that he qualified on the top but had to have an engine change, which consequently demoted him to the back.
In 2004, he won only 1 race, and he scored only 1 point in the first seven races. How frustrating that must be. The thing is, Kimi was so cool about it. Most of the time, he'd be saying, well it's too bad, but that happens in racing. Let's move on. I'm so tempted to comment on Alonso regarding this same topic, but that will also have to come in my next entry. In 2005, was the second time he finished runner-up in the driver's championship, only 2 points away from Alonso. In 2006, he didn't win any race and was placed a dismal 5th.
If you remember, the qualifying format before this was different from now. Whoever finished last on the previous race would start his quali session first. Every driver would have the track to him alone. This was a disadvantage because early in a quali session, the track would still be dusty and not donned with rubber yet, so there'd be less grip and be very slippery and that would make it difficult to put in flying lap times. But one time, Kimi had to go out in quali first, because he retired in the race before that, and clocked one of the fastest times. Ron Dennis said it was Kimi's best qualifying ever. Once he was leading on the last lap, and suddenly his car broke down because of the vibrations on the car due to him flat spotting his tyre (which was in turn due to some other thing that happened, which i don't remember), and he didnt win that race. The same thing happened to Hakkinen before. I think most ppl would remember this extraordinary event. There are so many more impressive stories about Kimi, everything I said here does not do justice, but these are some of the stuff that I can recall now, Well, its 5am in the morning, my brain's not exactly tiptop right now, not that it ever will be anyway haha. If you're interested in knowing more about Kimi's dramatic and heroic races, just read about it in Wiki. Most of it happened in 2005, if my memory serves me right. So yeah, Wiki has the best summary to his whole career you can ever get, online, that is.
Ohh, did I mention that he almost always outpaced and outscored all his team mates? David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, and now, Felipa Massa. I'm not too sure about Nick Heidfeld though. But even if Nick Heidfeld did outscore Kimi in 2001, Ron Dennis still signed Kimi instead of Heidfeld. Need I say more?
There's one important thing that I'd like to point out here. Anyone who follows F1 as closely as I do, would know that Kimi's not the type to fret about the past, not the type to complain, let bygones be bygones, and just move forward, never losing focus, concentrate on one race at a time (and have fun when he can lol), always trying his best come what may, and does his talking on the track. His icy cool demeanor and monosyllabic responses when talked to, has garnered him the nickname 'Iceman'. As far as I can remember, during these 5 years in McLaren, not once I've read about Kimi complaining about his car. If he did, I tell you, I'd remember. Even if he has, I'm pretty sure he just kept it out of the press's knowledge, and make his worries/or disatisfaction only known within his team or to his boss. His comments to almost everything, would almost always start with "It's OK, I guess". He always defended, and did not speak ill of his team, which was the right thing to do (unlike Alonso). It's hard to believe that he's not frustrated, but I suppose he knows better than to feed the F1 media with stuff that would fuel juicy doses of gossips and ridiculous rumors, which are most of the time, crap. The F1-media is super-vicious and hungry for scandals/rifts, I'd liken them to the Hollywood papparazis who follows Britney every-freakin-where, even when she wants to get a cup coffee or go pee. Seriously.
When Kimi signed the 3-year contract with Ferrari starting 2007, I knew that this was gonna be his year. No matter how difficult its gonna be (look at how the season panned out), despite all the setbacks, it was definitely gonna be his year. And I was right. I have a feeling that Kimi was tipped that Schumacher was definitely going to retire, because Schumacher made that decision as early as the Bahrain GP, only that he didn't announce it until much later (during Monza GP). I think it wouldn't have been right to put Michael Schumacher and Kimi in the same team, as it wouldn't for Kimi and Alonso as well. You have to remember that, starting 2007, Ferrari had some changes in the management. Ross Brawn took a sabbatical, they got a new technical director. The crew was so used to Michael Schumacher being the epicenter of everything they do and work for. Heck, they adored and loved Michael. Sceptics kept saying that, Ferrari is now a new team altogether, the team has to get used to Kimi's aloofness after so many years of being around Michael's, should I say, warmness and leadership? Could the team adapt? Could Kimi adapt? Would this 'change of atmosphere' affect the team as a whole? Could they perform as well as before with the absence of Ross Brawn, the technical genius behind those clever and complicated racing tactics and strategies? Million dollar questions, but nobody had the answer. Anyway, in his first race this year, he did his first ever hat-trick. He got pole position, won the race, and set the fastest lap. Kimi looked well on course to greatness. Luca di Montezemolo couldn't be happier. So was Jean Todt. The sceptics were proven wrong. Mid season saw Ferrari hit with a couple of reliability probs that hampered Kimi's race for the title. By this time, I was so sure that Kimi's bad luck from his McLaren days has decided to follow him to Ferrari. But Kimi, ever so positive, always saying, 'anything can happen'. Just keep doing your best. Then, all started to fall into place again. He began to win races again, and with the help of Lewis and Alonso not finishing in the points and retiring on some occasions, he managed to slowly chip down the driver's points tally. And, well done Kimi, his persistence paid off beautifully in the end. With all the drama that has happened this season (I've yet to touch on that too), this victory, in my opinion, is even sweeter.
Isn't it ironic that, 5 years in McLaren, Kimi didn't win the drivers title. He came close twice, but that's it. His first season with Ferrari, and he won it. Probably tired of the lack of reliability of McLaren's car, he wanted to move on to a better team, which is none other than Ferrari. Coincidentally, Schumacher was leaving Ferrari and he knew Alonso was contracted to McLaren 2007 onwards. Perfect timing. It's obvious that Kimi is much happier man at Ferrari. He even went as far and said he loved the team (which is so uncharacteristic of him), and he's been happier at Ferrari than he has ever been compared to the previous years, and the key thing to note here is that he wasn't referring to the car or the races. Go figure.
Whoa, my hands and fingers are getting sore with all this typing. With this never-ending praise of Kimi, you'd think there must be at least something bad to say about Kimi. I'm too elated about him winning to say anything about him. I cant even think about his bad qualities. Well, he doesn't have anything that's obviously bad, in my eyes anyway. Hahaha. He's my hero lah! Well, one thing, Kimi's known for his love of partying. Apparently, he loves to get drunk as well. I don't see this as anything detrimental though, as long as Kimi knows when to work, and when to party, which is like, duhh, of course he does. I think Jean Todt is not too happy about this rather wild side of Kimi. But its not like Todt Snr can do anything about it. It's Kimi's life. That's how he lives. He even got a new tattoo on his right arm, to commemorate something he achieved this year, which Todt Snr did not particularly like. Dammit I can't remember what it was for. I bet its on Wiki. I have the picture here.
He also loves to race in pretty much anything. Once he competed in a snowmobile race, under the name James Hunt, against 200 other expert races in this field, and he freakin won. A true racer. Born to be one. He loves ice hockey, whoa, you should see some of his videos on YouTube.. Macho giler. He's a fan of the NHL too. Ah, and apparently he's favorite singer is Eminem. God knows if its true, but if it is, awesome man! I used to have this obsession with Eminem, so we do have at least something in common haha.
Kimi can sometimes do and say the darnest things. Once, this season, in one of the races, he admitted to nearly falling asleep during the race, when he was driving the car! He said this when one of the inteviewers asked him about a slip-up he did during the race, he probably went wide or sth like that. It's insane! How can one feel even remotely sleepy driving a car at 150-300mph, with levels of Gforce up to 3 to 6g? Well, ask Kimi! He said, the race was kinda boring. Boring, as in uneventful for him lah. Not much traffic, no one to actually race with. Alone. Things like that. Hahaha.. Kimi oh Kimi. Once a reporter asked him about the fastest lap he set during the penultimate of this one particular race. And he replied, oh.. I was bored, so I thought, why not give it a try? Wahhh. How more kakkoiii can this Kimster get? Oh, once, asked what were his activities in his spare time, he answered, "Usually, there's screwing and fishing, and when it's raining, there's only screwing". hahahahahha.. another one I remember, when asked what was he doing (or where was he at) during Schumacher's retirement announcement, or sth that had to do with Schumacher lah.. i don't remember, he said, "I was having a shit".. Bwahahahahhahahh... Oh man.. what a good lad.
Ok, this is getting out of control. I can go on and on about Kimi, but I guess I've pretty much said most of the stuff I wanted to say.
Kimi so totally deserved this win. Lewis Hamilton probably deserved to win as well (but not really, I'll tell you why I think so next time), but for sure it's Kimi's time for glory. He earned it, harder than anyone that I know since I followed F1. It would be the best birthday present he's ever had, his sweetest victory that will be remembered for many years to come. Lastly, I'd like you all to read the text below (got it from
http://www.f1-live.com/), which is what he said first thing after he landed back in Europe after the win on Sunday--this is, by far, his longest speech that I've ever come acrossed!
*****
"I am so happy it almost hurts! This is like a dream come true."
"This is something I wanted to reach since I've been a child. I was seven years old when I first saw a race track: it was an old, small kart circuit called Bembole; just five kilometres from where I lived. It was like a second home for me. Now, 22 years later, I have many favourite race tracks, but the most important one is Interlagos, more than 5,000 kilometres away from home!"
"I've always said that the aim of my career is to become world champion. I came very close a couple of times and in the end everything turned out fine. We have always given our best to try to win. Doing that in sport you have to always push to the max until the end. You never know what may happen in a race; you only have to look at the last three races and you know what I'm talking about. Fuji was really terrible for us: we were at the back of the pack and our race was over almost immediately."
"We left Japan and were 17 points behind, without the possibility to fight back. I think I can say that not more than ten people outside of the team would have bet on us. But we didn't give up. In a certain sense we believe in miracles. China was our joker: we won and the driver on the top of the standings didn't make any points. That gave us some hope, but there weren't many chances for us left. The last race was really emotional. The first four drivers in the field didn't retire, but there was a tough fight for positions between us and our competitors. Maybe I had the best start of the season and maybe I could have passed also Felipe at the first corner, but I had a plan and it didn't involve a fight with my teammate. I could see in my mirrors that Hamilton was next to Alonso in turn 3 and that he had a problem. I realized that we had the chance we had hoped for: this first lap seemed to be decisive for the whole championship."
"It was a great race and I think that I've never experienced such emotions in the cockpit. Everything worked perfectly fine. It was like a birthday present from heaven! We could have had more pace and I want to thank Felipe again for his support: he did what he could do, just like a perfect teammate. As a team we couldn't do more than a double-win, but when I had crossed the line the most important thing to know was what Hamilton had done. I asked for information over the radio but there was just silence for a couple of seconds: finally Chris told me that he came in seventh and my heart nearly went into flames due to happiness! This is it: now we're world champions!"
"I want to thank all those who have been close to me over all these years, all my fans. Thanks to the team: it is fantastic being a part of the greatest team of all times. This year I really enjoyed Formula One more than ever before. I dreamt about winning the title with Ferrari and I bet that this is every driver's dream. This team never stops: they work at the max and never give up. We had some difficult moments, but we always managed to come back. And this shows the quality of the people working there. Thanks again! But I also want to thank the sponsors and partners: together with them we really have the package of a world champion!"
"Now I go to the Finali Mondiali at Mugello, to celebrate with all of Ferrari: it's my first time there and it's the perfect moment to get there. And then it's time for a holiday, the first as world champion."
