As a World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen certainly has proven he has the talent and ability to be racing at the top. However, since leaving Ferrari in 2009 and having a break from F1 for a few years, he has had little success.
Kimi began racing karts at the age of 10 and became the Finnish Karting Champion in 1998. In 1999 he moved to the UK to join British Formula Renault and Formula Ford Eurocup. At the end of the year he took part in the Formula Renault Winter Series in Britain and won all four events – taking the title. In 2000, he then won the Formula Renault Series, winning 7 out of 10 races.
He then moved straight to Formula One in 2001 for Sauber, having competed in just 23 car races previously in his career. On his debut he finished sixth which was a promising result. However, the season was ruined by many retirements and he finished in 10th place. A move to McLaren saw him on the podium 4 times, although once again his car let him down and he had a lot of retirements.
2003 started off very well, with Kimi winning the first race of the season, in Malaysia. Despite this being his only win, he ended the year in second place behind Schumacher – who had been dominant all year. 2004 was much less successful with one win and just four podiums. However, the following year he won seven races and finished second overall. With no wins and few podiums in 2006, Raikkonen moved to Ferrari in 2007 following Michael Schumacher’s retirement.
With consistent results and six wins, Kimi was still in the title hunt going into the last race of the 2007 season. With a great result in Brazil, he clinched the title by one point to Lewis Hamilton. In the first four races of 2008, Kimi won twice. However, with no more wins he finished the season in 3rd place. An awful year in 2009, winning just once and finishing 6th overall meant he retired at the end of the year.
In 2012, Raikkonen returned to F1 in Lotus. With a win and consistent podium finishes, he was in the title fight until near the end of the season. 2013 started well, with Kimi winning the opening race in Australia. He finished the season in fifth. Moving to Ferrari for 2014 seemed to promise great results. However, Kimi has failed to even get a podium so far this year and hasn’t won a race. He is in 12th place currently.