Kimi Raikkonen on his debut and how drivers are now driving harder RaceFans

In addition to his role as Formula 1 World Champion 2007 and 21-time Grand Prix winner, the extremely independent Kimi Raikkonen has recently won another award. Last year he surpassed Rubens Barrichello as the most experienced driver in the history of the sport.

Raikkonen, who spoke to RaceFans last weekend on the occasion of his 340th Grand Prix start at the Hungaroring, is characteristically amazed by such milestones. But he’s a long way from the driver who made his F1 debut 20 years ago after just 23 starts in Formula Renault.

Today’s super-license point system would make such a leap impossible. The then FIA President Max Mosley questioned Raikkonen’s suitability for his debut and asked him to do his first four races on a trial basis. Sixth place on his debut, which at the time earned one instead of eight points, left little doubt on Raikkonen’s abilities.

It wasn’t that the driver, who had come from a relatively unknown background in karting, needed more obstacles in his way. In fact, as Raikkonen explains, he only considered Formula 1 a possible goal shortly before his arrival.

“I drove go-karts and it got to the point where it didn’t cost anything,” he told RaceFans. “I earned some pocket money between races with Peter de Bruijn and built go-karts that I sold. I thought I could go karting for the next 10 years and at some point I would make some money with it. “

Raikkonen made the leap from Formula Renault with Manor… After diving into Formula Renault UK in late 1999, Raikkonen returned the following year for an attack on the championship. From 12 laps on unknown routes, he achieved seven wins and three more podium places.

The patronage of David and Steve Robertson, who funded his move to auto racing, drove Raikkonen into F1 at astonishing speed. “Without the Robertsons, I would never have had the chance to race in cars, that’s for sure. That was the next big step from the go-kart. “

He also pocketed his first salary, part of which was returned to his parents, who had funded his karting, and used to renovate the family home. “When I lived there, we never had an indoor toilet machine, and of course we did that job, and I bought a little piece of land next to our house.”

Based on Raikkonen’s remarkable performance in Formula Renault, the Robertsons persuaded Peter Sauber to do a Formula 1 test. The venue was Mugello, a high-speed track where the young driver found the cornering performance of the F1 cars as a shock to the system.

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Raikkonen admits that at the time he had no idea whether he was up to the physical demands of an F1 car, but did not want to express any doubts. “If I had a chance, I’ll take it because obviously you don’t get a lot of chances here. Of course, I tried to take the chance as long as possible. Who knows what will come of it.

… To drive for Sauber in Formula 1 “Of course it was difficult to drive it. No power steering, my neck couldn’t take it. Obviously, the braking and cornering speed of Formula Renault was a very different story than I was used to. So I wasn’t ready on this side. But of course I wouldn’t tell them, ‘No, I’m sorry, I can’t come because I don’t feel strong enough’ or anything. “

A key benefit he enjoyed back then when the tests in F1 were unlimited was that the team gave him three lap days with lots of gaps between runs.

“The first day for sure [it felt] everything was as if it was going too fast. But it’s funny how the head works. Once I slept overnight, then everything slowed down a bit and looked a lot more normal. It got a lot easier that way.

“Of course they knew that it would be difficult to do many laps in a row. So I always did three laps in a row and then came in. “

Mugello was “perhaps not the easiest place” to take his first F1 test, he admits. “But I wouldn’t complain. Of course, steering in the fast corners without power steering was sometimes not that easy, but it worked out well. “

The inclusion of the name Räikkönen in the Formula 1 entry list in 2001 caused confusion among many people: Who was this Finnish driver who had never been seen in a Formula 3 starting field, let alone in Formula 3000 (forerunner of today’s Formula 2 )? His lack of experience led to the infamous controversy over his super license, although Raikkonen didn’t care how long his provisional license was supposed to last.

Sauber has prevailed in the super license scramble for Raikkonen. I was probably worried, but I never found out if I had it for a race or two, I never asked. ”After doing well in the first few races with the Sauber, Raikkonen’s place in the sport was assured. His speed was so impressive, too, that McLaren overtook his teammate – their junior driver Nick Heidfeld – and promoted Raikkonen to their team for 2002.

That era of Formula 1 – light cars, V10s, wartime rubber tires, and unlimited testing – remains one of his favorites in the sport. He names the 2005 McLaren MP4-20, in which he won seven races but narrowly missed the title, as one of the most satisfying to drive.

“Those Michelin tires, where you could choose what you wanted, that was of course nice,” he recalls. “It was like a setup tool that each team could have their own needs. It was a good time.”

His successor, who followed the sport’s switch to V8s, was better than his winless record suggested, adds Raikkonen. “In 2006 the car was actually very good, but of course the engine wasn’t good enough.”

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By then, he had already signed a deal to replace Michael Schumacher with Ferrari and, it turned out, win the title the first time with Scuderia in a car he calls another of his favorites.

Although he split from Ferrari just two years later when they took a nosedive for Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen returned to the team in 2014. Four years later, he scored his last win with the team to date. Ferrari gave him the car he won at the Circuit of the Americas.

Raikkonen kept the car he drove to his last victory [can] Take it with you on the track and use it, ”he explains. “But of course I need a couple of mechanics who come from Italy to put it into operation.”

He hasn’t taken it with him yet, but wants to do it “when I’m old enough that it’s scary”.

After losing his driver at Ferrari, Raikkonen is now back in his third season with Sauber in the Alfa Romeo F1 outfit. There are some drivers who would not stay in Formula 1 with a midfield team after winning a world championship. Raikkonen’s remarkable longevity shows that he is not one of them.

Much has changed during this 20-year period, which was characterized by positions in the same team, and not everything for the better, says Räikkönen. This also includes reducing tests during the season as the calendar becomes filled with more and more races.

“Sometimes you wish it was a little more [testing] or you can choose when to do it, ”he says. “Maybe it could be 10 days and you choose when to use them. Maybe somewhere in the middle.

“It really depends. When you have a good car everything is nice and simple, but sometimes it would be nice to try a few things and see what happens.

“We can do that on the racetracks on Fridays. But I think like it was in the past, of course there were fewer races, but then we had tests. That was certainly more difficult than now. “

The sport is regulated more strictly from year to year. Raikkonen failed in Imola in April, where he lost one of the team’s few top 10 results this season due to a regulation that even the stewards admitted to be incompatible with other rules.

The Michelin-shod McLaren MP4-20 was a career highlight. He finds the idea of ​​a return to the leaner rules of the past appealing, if not realistic. Today’s generation of drivers quickly ruthlessly exploit every detail of the rules, he notes.

“In the past the drivers were kind of – I don’t know what the right word is, not ‘fair’ – but now you need the rules. I think you could get rid of a lot of the rules if you were stricter in some things. “

He points out the “three strikes” rule, which is often used when enforcing route barriers. “I don’t mean you have to pass on more punishments or anything, but if you are punished for doing something wrong, people would stop because they know.

“Now there is always this gray area that you have ‘three chances’. So obviously everyone is going to use it. But if you tell them, “This will happen when you do it,” we won’t because we know. Now you can get away with a lot of things, but not so much. “

“When we are told that when you go away there are obvious things [from the car] that you can lose if you go off, but these are usually pretty obvious things. So it won’t do it to anyone. But it’s not our thing to change that. “

While other areas of the sport have changed, it’s the difference in the way drivers compete against each other that stands out more for Raikkonen than anything else.

“There are more people, bigger RVs, bigger factories, all of those things. All the little details are much more important now than they were in the beginning. But I think the driving part hasn’t really changed.

Today’s drivers are demanding the rules tougher, believes Raikkonen. “The rules have changed, some cars are faster, others slower because the rules change from year to year. But to be honest, if it’s five seconds of difference, you don’t really feel it. It is not much. There’s a lot on the clock, but when you walk around it’s like it’s the same. [From] When you qualify for a race, you don’t lose that much because we’re full of tanks, but it doesn’t change anything in life.

“The race may have been a little fairer in the past. If someone was there [alongside], you didn’t push him away. Sometimes yes, but then maybe it was different. “

But in the characteristic Raikkonen manner, he will not rave about how different today’s cars feel compared to their predecessors.

“Of course the cars are very big now, but because you drive from year to year, you lose touch. If we drive now in mid-2000 or whatever, these cars are sure to feel very different.

“But if I tell you they were very different, I would be nonsense because your memory is playing a game. I don’t know – was it better or is it better now? It is what it is.”

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