A Kimi Raikkonen gallery

Time for a collection of pictures of Kimi Raikkonen. A previous slide show of pictures of Kimi proved popular, and he is, as always a popular driver.

I saw Kimi win his first Formula One race back in 2003 at Sepang in Malaysia, and it was clear that great things were ahead for him. He famously won the title at the last race of 2007, before leaving the sport. He returned to Formula One in 2012 for the Lotus F1 team, and seems even more popular since his return. His laconic style when confronted by the press and his frank radio messages have turned him into something of a cult figure in the sport, and his moniker of “The Ice Man” reflects his normal cool demeanour.

Kimi appeared in the Pit Lane as I was walking through it ahead of the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, and he was amiable towards his fans – who are many – and spent plenty of time with people, signing autographs as he went. During the race, it was notable that there were many Kimi fans in Spain, quite a few of whom had made their way there from Finland, for the race. Afterwards, there were plenty of Kimi fans waving Finnish flags around the circuit, and from the circuit down to Montmelo, and the trains back to Barcelona.

Towards the end of the 2013 season, Kimi announced that he was leaving the Lotus team and heading back to Ferrari in 2014, where he partnered fellow former world champion, Fernando Alonso. Fernando seemed to have the edge on Kimi for most of the season, with a sixth place in the championship to Kimi’s twelfth. However, the partnership was only to last one year, with Fernando announcing a move to McLaren for 2015 and Kimi being partnered with four times world champion Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari have kept the same team line up through until 2018.

There is a list of my various galleries of Formula One drivers here.

I hope that you like these pictures of Kimi over the years.