Kimi ranked 15th in McLaren’s Top 50 Greatest Drivers

Source: mclaren.com

Over the Years they have shown incredible bravery, amazing talent, unbridled enthusiasm and huge dedication to the cause. They are the men who have driven a McLaren racing car. Over the next year we will be counting down the 50 who have had the greatest impact on the McLaren cause.

Esteemed motorsport journalist ALAN HENRY has compiled the list and each week will reflect on one of our past drivers, giving his personal account of their contribution to the team.

We put some rules in place. Since this is about the greatest drivers in McLaren’s history, there are no active drivers on the list, so no Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button or Fernando Alonso for example. It’s not just F1 either, as McLaren cars have graced many series over the years. Also, the drivers are ranked on their contribution to McLaren only – not their overall career – so be prepared for a few surprises in the coming weeks and months! Enjoy, and let us know your thoughts as we spend a year in the company of many of racing history’s most awesome talents.

No.15. Kimi Räikkönen

Born 17 October, 1979, Espoo, Finland

156 Grands Prix, 18 wins. World Champion 2007

Career span: 2001 (Sauber); 2002-06 (McLaren); 2007-09 (Ferrari)

Kimi Räikkönen was another distinguished Flying Finn following in the McLaren wheel tracks of twice world champion Mika Häkkinen, although Kimi did not manage to emulate Mika’s achievement until he joined Ferrari after a four year spell with the Woking squad. Having graduated from karting like most of his contemporaries, Räikkönen spent just one season in Formula Renault before being head-hunted by the enterprising Sauber F1 team who shrewdly promoted the young Finn to the sport’s most senior category at the start of the 2001 campaign.

Moody, mean and motivated, Räikkönen was a formidable competitor on his day although he had to wait longer than most expected – to the 2003 Malaysian GP – before posting the first of his 18 F1 victories achieved so far. One of his most memorable victories came at Suzuka in 2005 when he brilliantly outfumbled Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault going into the first corner of the race’s final lap to beat the bewildered Italian by just over a second. At the end of 2006 he decided to switch to Ferrari, driving brilliantly to pip Lewis Hamilton to the title crown, but this was followed by two lacklustre seasons and he left F1 at the end of 2009 to spend two years trying his luck in the World Rally Championship.

Kimi had little luck with this career detour and signed a two-year deal to return to F1 in 2012 with the Lotus-Renault squad, hoping to pick up the threads of his successful time in his heyday with McLaren and Ferrari. Time alone would tell how successful he would be.