Not many get a start as early in life as Kimi. He started his driving career at the young age of 10 the way many professional drivers start. He started his career with the European Formula Super A championship and was placed 2nd in 1999. the same year, he participated in the Formula Ford Euro Cup and by the time he was 20, he had won the British Formula Renault Winter Championship.

By September 2000, he had earned a test with the Sauber Formula 1 team. Peter Sauber was sure of his value, but there were many who weren’t so sure including the FIA President Max Mosley who though he didn’t have enough experience with just 23 races to his credit. Sauber nonetheless tested him and even gave him a contract for the 2001 season. And he didn’t disappoint!

His debut race at the Australian GP saw him earn a point despite being asleep 20 minutes before the race! In fact, there are stories of Kimi being needed to be woken up before qualifying and the final race. Anyhow, Kimi had a good debut year scoring in four races and along with teammate Nick Heidgeld, he helped Sauber to their best ever finish at fourth in the constructors’ championship.

Kimi wouldn’t stay with the Sauber team for 2002, though. When fellow-Finn Mika Hakkinen left McLaren, Kimi was offered the seat and he accepted it gladly. McLaren had to face criticism because many thought they should have signed Nick Heidfeld instead, who, at the time, was the better of the two drivers.

2002 was a good year for Kimi as he finished sixth, just one behind his more celebrated team-mate, David Coulthard. He almost won his first race at Magny-Cours in France, but sliding off track late in the race meant he had to settle for second. Three other podium finishes in the year ensured he had 24 points and made a point to his detractors about his capability as well.

The 2003 season was a topsy-turvy one for Kimi. While his performances in his first two years had raised expectations, he was stuck with a car that was older and slower than the one his opponents were driving. In fact, for the first race of the year, he qualified in a spare car in 15th place but still fought off other drivers including Michael Schumacher to finish third. The start was good but regular engine failures and niggling issues (a software glitch in Australia earned him a pitlane penalty). Frustrations built through the year and Kimi finished the year second behind Schumacher.

Technically, he had a chance to win the 2003 season but for that, he would have had to win the last race and Schumacher not finish among the points. As things transpired, he finished second, but Schumacher also managed sixth place and won his sixth World Championship.

The next season, 2004, didn’t start off in the best manner possible. Kimi managed only one point in the first four races of the year and the Mercedes engine was under a cloud of doubt about its reliability. This continued until the seventh race of the season when McLaren finally rolled out the MP4-19B. Raikkonen’s performances improved and the McLarens were in the second row and Kimi got off to a good start too until he lost his rear wing. From there, it was an up and down season that did see Kimi have four podium finishes and 45 points, but he was seventh in the overall standings.

One of Raikkonen’s greatest weaknesses is said to be his inability to drive ‘on the limit’ of every lap of every race. This is the quality that has made champions like Schumacher and Alonso. His fans (and detractors) believe that if he can start doing that consistently, there is nothing stopping him from going all the way. Despite all his failures (mostly technical failures, actually), Kimi was touted as the next big thing and counted among the top three drivers in the world. There were high hopes for 2005…

Kimi started 2005 with high hopes, but not all of them were fulfilled. Not immediately, anyways! The McLaren was reported to be too ‘soft’ on its tyres and as a result, it wasn’t thought to be generating enough heat to be competitive. It took him three races to get to the podium and that wasn’t until there was a stalled car and a faulty tyre valve in preceding races! The European GP threw up a fresh controversy when Kimi’s right front tyre went flat. As a result, the excess vibrations affected the suspensions on the last lap and cost him the lead as he crashed into the wall. Changing a tyre would have assured him at least the third place, but in 2005, tyre changes were allowed only in case of a puncture or damage to the tyre.

Further technical failures (The French GP saw Kimi suffer a 10-place grid-penalty for replacing his Mercedes engine that failed in Friday practice) meant this too would be an unhappy season ending for Kimi. Despite all this, though, most believed Kimi was the best driver of 2005 and it was proved when he won accolades including “Driver of the Season” from reputed magazines. Maybe 2006 would be his year?

Perhaps not. After a promising start in Australia, accidents and some lacklustre driving saw him fall behind. Incidents marred by accidents and more technical failures kept Kimi away from the title. And although he managed six podium finishes, he could not win a race. Australia and Italy was as close as he got (finishing second) and eventually, he finished the season in fifth place with just 65 points. Interestingly, every time he finished a race, he scored points. But five retirements and no wins are not exactly the way to become the World Champion! And more than him again, most blamed the team and technical shortcomings of McLaren. A five-year-long partnership had ended.

After a stunning 2007, where he beat Lewis Hamilton for the title from an impossible position with two races left, 2008 didn’t quite go the Finn’s way. Starting off with a win in Malaysia, the season went steadily downhill for him as he struggled for form and reliability from the car. Murmurs that he was out of favor with the Ferrari management were put to rest when he regained the championship lead by winning the Spanish GP. That, however, would prove to be the last feather in his cap for the season.

Kimi did have a few more podium finishes, notably, three third places in the final three races of the season, but these helped the team more than they helped him. For 2009, Kimi remains Ferrari’s number one driver despite the better showing by Massa in 2008. However, there are detractors who insist this could well prove to be Kimi’s toughest test... a bad season could well mean the end of the road for him in F1