Source: China News Network
At the weekend, the new F1 season will unveil the curtain of the new season. Raikkonen, a veteran who will turn 42, is about to start his 19th f1 season of his career.
Infographic: Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen (first from right) finished third at the 2018 F1 Grand Prix. Photo by China News Service reporter Hou Yu
In October last year, Alfa Romeo announced that Raikkonen would stay in the team, which means that fans will still be able to make this familiar face in the 2021 arena.
As the oldest of the active racers, Raikkonen's three words are linked to the youth of countless fans. Although he has only won one world championship in his long career so far, this has not affected the audience's love for him, and even looking at the history of F1, he is destined to occupy his place.
Infographic: On April 15, 2019, the main race of the Formula One World Championship (F1) shanghai was held at the Shanghai International Circuit, showing Ferrari's Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen in the race. Photo by China News Service reporter Hou Yu
In 2001, Raikkonen began his F1 career at the then Sauber team. Because of his reticent personality and calm performance on the field, he has a nickname called "Iceman". His debut season showed his potential to become a first-class driver, and spectators began to place high hopes on him.
At the end of the season, Raikkonen moved to McLaren, and with it came the first peak of his career. Changing the doors, he drives the new racing car of the new team, skimming through the straights and lightly in the corners.
In 2003, Raikkonen won his first f1 race in Malaysia, and according to the situation at that time, Raikkonen should not be too far away from the first annual championship... However, it backfired.
Raikkonen was caught in the Explosive Cylinder Spell, and it was this spell that ran through his McLaren career.
According to statistics, he suffered 12 explosions during his five seasons with McLaren, and the victories and points that should have been in the pocket were finally wiped out by the white smoke from the engine. If it weren't for these technical failures, Raikkonen would have won the annual championship in 2003 and 2005. But there is no sports car in the world that tests the tools in the hands of athletes more. It wasn't until he put on his Ferrari shirt that he got the only driver of the year championship title to date.
In 2007, the "Iceman" joined Ferrari, and this season, Raikkonen completed a stunning reversal in F1 history, beating the strongest rookie in history, Hamilton, with a one-point advantage, to win the drivers' championship. His time with Ferrari from 2007 to 2009 was the golden age of Raikkonen – during which time he represented Ferrari in 52 races, winning nine races, winning pole positions five times and winning 233 points for the team.
After three seasons at Ferrari, Raikkonen was replaced by Alonso. In the absence of a suitable team, the arrogant Raikkonen resolutely rushed to the rally and did not return to f1 until 2012.
Anyway, the good drama of the return of the king did not appear. When the day came to return, F1 gradually entered Hamilton time, and the Mercedes-Benz team began to dominate the paddock. Along the way, Raikkonen happened to be caught between the two great eras of Schumacher and Hamilton, but he still had countless fans.
As a Finnish "Iceman", Raikkonen was a taciturn man from an early age. When he was three years old, he began to speak, and his parents took him to the doctor, but the diagnosis showed that his intelligence test score exceeded the average of his peers.
He just didn't want to talk.
Growing up, all this still hasn't changed. In the eyes of the outside world, Raikkonen has always been treated unfairly, but in the face of controversial topics, he has never responded too much.
Under the lens of the media, Raikkonen will also give the most honest answer with the least words. Once, when a reporter asked him why he liked his helmet the most, he replied, "Because of protecting my head." "Another time, in the last game before Schumacher's first retirement. Raikkonen missed Pele's speech to Schumacher, and when asked by the host why he didn't attend, Raikkonen said: "I went to the toilet. ”
Raikkonen will always live in his own world, preferring to be maverick rather than quiet and silent. And his cold and authentic personality almost made him the most unfettered person in the field of racing.
Raikkonen social media screenshots.
Once, when there were 40 minutes left before the start of the race, the team was surprised to find that Raikkonen was still asleep, and when they woke him up, Raikkonen's answer was, "Let me sleep for another 5 minutes." McLaren's technicians also found him sleeping on the track's cement barrier, when the sun was still shining.
After the victory, Raikkonen did not have much special celebration, but he always kept his first sip of champagne for himself after standing on the podium. What's even funnier is that after the 2012 race in Australia, the team's rest area suddenly caught fire, and after Raikkonen learned the news of the fire, he rushed into the "sea of fire" to rescue the ice cream in the refrigerator.
Raikkonen's love of ice cream is beyond anyone's imagination. Before rescuing the ice cream, he also got out of the car to buy ice cream and drinks in the gap between the start of a race, under the gaze of all the drivers and spectators.
Because of his strange behavior, Raikkonen was often hated. But neither his enemies nor his fans can deny it: Raikkonen maintains his purest love of racing. As he has said before: "I still have the original feeling for F1, I really like to continue a lot of competitions, it's always nice to be able to finish on the podium, but I want to be in the middle of the podium." ”
It is undeniable that as he rises in age, Raikkonen must make more efforts to win the championship. But for fans, whether Raikkonen can stay in the paddock is far more important than whether he wins the championship or not. (Reporter Xing Rui)