Why Kimi Raikkonen will always be a legend

[Music] so it's 2005. there's still a couple of rounds left in the world championship but fernando alonso is already the champion having just won it into lagos the interest in the championship therefore is already over unless you are a renault or mclaren employee in which case the constructor's title is still up for grabs alonso and physically would do their utmost for reno by finishing on the podium in this race while one pablo montoya would do his utmost for mclaren by smashing into the wall like a idiot this wasn't ideal for mclaren however their other driver was kimi raikkonen and although he was starting the race from 17th on the grid his performance in this race would certify him as an absolute bonafide forever legend not just a formula one but of all time in motor racing given the nature of this video it's imperative that we look back at kimmy's beginnings porn and lyria of finland were finished as a second language to vodka kimmy won every karting accolade in the region before trying his hand at car racing as you do when you finish he ran around in formula fought for a couple of meetings before immediately going back to carting he then made his way to formula renault in the uk in 1999 after dave and steve robertson gave him enough coin to drag him out of cards he wound up winning the winter series that year once the year 2000 came along and the world hadn't ended yet kimmy competed in two racing series that year formula renault uk and the formula renault euro cup and the latter he only partook in a couple of races although he wound up winning both of them at donington and spa and with that uk championship he would finish quite a way ahead of ryan diel to take the title so a pretty good start to his campaign and his junior formula plans for 2001 were pretty straightforward ditch junior formula and go straight to formula one a pretty abruptly sent up the ladder but after impressing pederselba at a test session in september 2000 where he was lapping half a second faster than pedro dinners salba decided to sign the young laid up for the 2001 season to partner new kitefeld there were some out there who were concerned by this move saying that he driver to was too there on that formula one grid however in helmut marco's case he didn't want kimmy on that team because he was of the opinion that enrique bernalde was the superior driver i mean i got a feel for marco there selling the idea that bernardi was the better driver would have been hard task on the other hand vouching for reikon is not tricky at all for you see reikon is a brand of wireless earbuds they give you the sounds of the other premium brands but start at half the price of those premium brands now i'm always listening to stuff whether it be music or audiobooks or my own annoying accent and after recon contacted me i thought okay let's let's see what's what so i've been running around with these booties for the last few weeks using them on an everyday basis to see how they compare and they've been bloody awesome because of their new improved rubber oil look and feel they are nice and comfortable they have a long battery life 32 hours to be exact so you can continue to belt music through your ears for that long if you want if you're that mad the audio quality is amazing wherever you go whether you're working out or going to work and they have a built-in microphone so you can take calls from el presidente and furthermore unlike some other brands there are five stylistic colors for you to choose from so click the link in the description box or go to buyreicon.com forward slash josh revel and use the code holiday to get 15 off site-wide with free shipping and returns gifting is easier than ever it also comes with a 45-day happiness guarantee which is something helmet mark i probably could have done with when peter salba told him to get lost and the benaldi plans took an arrow to the knee on that experience front though the f1 commission eventually voted kimi into their little club and allowed him to race under a provisional license he and heightville would prove to be a good pairing with both scoring points in the first round that year even if kimmy was found 30 minutes before the start of the race fast asleep under the table of his motorhome he became famous for this cool calm approach to racing thus leading him to be dubbed the iceman but seriously how can you not love a driver with an attitude like this sleep sleep race repeat that year was a decent one for salba with the team finishing mp4 in the constructors race heidfeld who got a podium in brazil was heavily linked to mclaren after mkhitaryan fled to retirement sorry sabbatical and with nick having been part of the mclaren family for a while he was naturally assumed to be the edge of the throne in that regard but he wasn't now that must have sucked because you could see that mclaren were looking at this guy like wow you're quick you're a great ambassador for the brand you've got good racecraft you've got good oh no wait hang on you're 511. instead they went for kimi who was also linked to ferrari although apparently he turned them down because he strolled into a fortune teller's tent one night who four told him about austria 2002. he wasn't so keen on the idea of playing second fiddle and so went off to working to partner david coulthard for the 2002 season he did score a podium in the demolition derby race in melbourne although this didn't exactly herald a stream of amazing results for him and the 17 races that year his car failed him eight times and even in the times where it didn't fail him such as in france fate intervened and prevented him from winning his maiden grand prix 2003 was a little bit better save for the debacle that was the mp4-18 that adrian newey was hell-bent on putting onto that grid if you don't know the story behind that basically the drivers just didn't want to drive it anymore after it kept on throwing them into the wall during testing but the car they did actually take to the grid was solid enough as it was it was certainly good enough to take kimi to his first grand prix victory in malaysia that year and although he didn't win anything else he turned up to the last round of japan with mathematical chance of winning the title it was a long shot for sure but to hell with it what's a hammer trying he started that race from eighth on the grid but michael schumacher his main competitor decided to make life a little bit difficult for himself by starting down in 14th okay okay there's still a chance here ultimately though ribbons barry keller took victory in that race preventing kimmy from getting the points needed to win the title and even if he did win that race shumi's eighth place finish wrapped up the title anyway kimmy perhaps may have had a better shot of the title if at the nurburgring his engine didn't go bang or if the chicken flag dropped a little earlier at interlagos or if ferrari didn't winch to the fia about the thai legality on a mclaren which is hardly a new thing but ultimately it was a great run from kimi although 2004 was a total show mclaren really didn't deliver macarthur worthy of carrying him to a title run even if ferrari hadn't turned up with that goliath of a car slow unreliable up until the revisions helped the car's performance enough to give him a win and spy being at least some creme of comfort i suppose 2005 however would bring with it was that a change of fortunes well well from one aspect it was the new car was how could i put this all right the mp420 was much like jeremy clarkson's mitsubishi starring it was mind-bogglingly fast overtaking everything in existence right up until it died so that year was fraught with mechanical failures which in turn influenced the outcome of some results with kimmy winning seven out of the 19 races that year regardless he definitely had the speed to win that title raw speed that is like our qualifying alonso by half a second at monaco kind of proved that and his performance at suzuka which we'll get to later but on the whole fate intervened as many would say kimi in this time was arguably the best driver in the world even with the likes of michael schumacher still fighting for world titles and the lord of the eyebrows making his ascent up to the top of the world in 2006 they finally fixed the reliability problems but they then inherited a new issue and that the car wasn't that brilliant and when neither kimi or montoya can get the car working for you yeah the issue may not be down to the drivers you get me montoya skipped town midway through the year whilst kimmy had to make do with podiums and pole positions but no wins as the season drew to a close and schumacher had announced his retirement from formula one ferrari signed iceman up to fill the void for 2007. to some this would seem like a daft move considering the force that mclaren would become in that year the car was certainly better that year but to those thinking all of this you are aware of what happened that year eh [Music] round one in melbourne proposition fastest lap race winner boom it was a fantastic start for kimi although he did struggle to make something of the new ties and thus started to fall away from the leaders as the season drew on by the seventh round of the year he was 26 points behind lewis hamilton in the standings but then he won at many core and again at silverstone these two grand prix wins meant that he was now just 18 points behind lewis quite a ways granted but it wasn't impossible to win this thing he failed to finish the boat race at the nurburgring but from there on in he would score a podium in every remaining race that season remarkable consistency and great for his championship cause even if lewis had it totally sewn up there was no way he was gonna blow a 12 point lead with two rounds remaining at least one would have thought that before he found out that the canvas of the tyres don't have much grip and so for the final round that year in interlagos seven points separated louis and kimmy still kind of implausible but then again you never know what may happen and what happened was some gearbox issues were lewis early in the race this threw him down the order and would eventually come home in seventh place kimi meanwhile would scythe on through to take the win with teammate felipe massa acting as a rear gunner so what did this mean well you guessed it kimi raikkonen became the world champion by one point a little tighter than he would have liked shut up but he was the world champion and it was thoroughly deserved adding to finland's already large array of world champions kk rosberg tommy mackinnon juha kangan mika hakkonen marcus gronholm and now kimi raikkonen but what was perhaps the most amazing thing about that was that despite this being a long overdue championship win for him this would be the only time he'd win a title because for 2008 his title defense was kind of munted although i must admit it started well after the fourth round in spain he was leading the title race by nine points over lewis and 11 points over his teammate it was early days though and eventually kimmy began to fade away as the year drew on there was some bad luck that year including an exhaust failure at manny core and louis yeeting into him at montreal but some of those poor results were down to him and i know how that may sound but sometimes even the best make mistakes he scored three podiums to cap off the year but the inconsistent results pretty much killed his title homes finishing third that year behind his teammate 2009 and ferrari had turned up with an average car that kemi and felipe struggled to make sense of once the improvements came however the results started to pick up too but as martin brundle had pointed out maybe kimmy wasn't as motivated to be driving in formula one anymore sounds kind of incredulous to say that but when ferrari announced alonso would replace him for 2010 this left many people to wonder where he may be going returning to mclaren joining mercedes joined stefan grand prix provided you know that the owner would stop bull he can actually do something well nah instead kimmy would touch upon an ambition that he had harbored for a while he was going to drive in the world rally championship he would also try his hand at nascar albeit only briefly he drove a couple of races at charlotte and neither of them yielded much of a result on the rally front though things were a little bit more successful albeit only a little more after a couple of years in the wrc he conjured up some respectable results although with the dudes so used to winning perhaps this is where the temptation came from to get back into formula one and when he was spotted snooping around the williams premises people were starting to lose their minds the prodigal son is returning to formula one well he would just just not with williams instead he would sign a contract with lotus which was ironic given that he had previously land busted the team after they had cut rumors of him going to their team for 2010 for publicity reasons supposedly i don't know kimmy may have had magnum induced brain freeze on that one but in any case he would be teamed up with roman grosjean for his f1 return in 2012. if that year proved anything it was that he still had it and this was best exemplified at the final round in abu dhabi where he knew what the he was doing and it's this kind of attitude that indeed him to the fans that take no attitude his calm demeanor his hatred of interviews the blunt responses to almost every question thrown his way kimmy what happened the only thing is that in recent years it seems that that's all anyone's ever talked about with kimmy they never seem to refer to us on track stuff which is why we're all here after all and after finishing in p3 in the standings in his f1 return in 2012 he would kick off 2013 remarkably well winning the race in melbourne with the fastest lap however despite finishing second 89 million times that year things within the team weren't so hot f1 drivers are already paid an absurd amount of money but as part of kimmy's contract with lotus he would be paid 50 000 euros for every point that he scored in the two years that he was there he scored 390 points now i ain't a mathematician but when you add that up it works out to 19 million 500 euros owed and rumors abound he wasn't being paid there were also other internal problems with verbal fits being flung around and the threat of finland waging war with western europe should he be asked to roll over for grosjean such was the tension within the team that he almost didn't bother racing in abu dhabi at all and when he ended up retiring from that race he just left poof he claimed he missed the last two rounds due to back surgery but who knows anyway having left in stone he found his way back to marinello where ferrari gave felipe master the old heave hoe and looking to reignite the success they had before with iceman fernando alonso and kimi raikkonen teamed up at ferrari oh boy that's tantalizing but what they didn't account for was the heap of rubbish that ferrari attempted to call a formula one car that had been thrust upon their drivers alonso won nothing that yeah and kemi didn't even get a podium ow struggling to get to grips with the break by wire system and with the car behaving like a dog with worms this was not the kimmy we wanted to see and it sure wasn't what ferrari were expecting when sebastian vettel came in in 2015 things did not get a hell of a lot easier for kimmy there on in truth be told in the four years they were teammates it was clear who had the upper hand there not that he didn't have his moments and his last year with the scuderia kimmy performed valiantly at monza scoring poll against the might of the merc soloist combo to the delight of the tafozi and in austin he would take his first win since 2013 fending off hamilton and fine style however even this wasn't enough for 2019 ferrari would bring on their protege charles clare while kimi went back to his old team at salba now known as alfa romeo the team was never going to deliver him a card worthy of the kimi we know but this move kind of signaled the beginning of the end in a way he's still put in some heroic performances but how long was he going to put up battling for 12th on the grid the answer came in 2021 when he announced his retirement from formula one and so on the eve of his final race in formula one we reflect upon what he's done in this board looking at the last few years doesn't help the fun side of kenny the memetastic side i guess you could say was always put at the forefront when it came to media or yeah media whether it's his radio messages bringing up his ice cream fetish his knack for finding the drink when he's not in the car or tails of times like 2006 monaco where after being conked out of the race he just went straight to his yacht and put his feet up complete lack of given to his team for the debrief which kind of sucks for we know that prime kimi raikkonen was indomitable the best example of this suzuka 2005 thanks to a rain-affected qualifying session and a lemon milk engine he started that race from 17th on the grid the objective really was to get points for mclaren for the constructor's title montoya took no heat of this and proceeded to smash his car into the barrier reichena meanwhile was joining alonso in their ascent up the running order siding through the field taking names with alonso sweeping past shumi on the outside of 130r which sent james allen into an explosion of ecstasy although that was probably down to the stash that frank montagne brought along that weekend he eventually worked his way into the league but tend to go before coming in for his final pit stop by then giancarlo fizzy keller was now in the lead kimmy had it all to do now it was a run to the finish with three laps to go kenny was right on fissy's gearbox but for however awesome the circuit is at suzuka passing on that circuit is tricky at the best of times fissy though was fighting tooth and nail to keep kimmy behind but that one piece of open door for kimi was all that he needed on the final lap of the race on the approach to term one kimmy went for it around the outside and made it stick from 17th on the grid to win the race by passing around the outside going into turn one this one summed up kimmy as a driver just really damn fast so much raw speed and it was hardly a one-off it's what immortalized him as a great driver for a lot of people it is why people say that prime kimi raikkonen was the best driver in the world yeah he's a great personality and will miss the hell out of him but this guy this guy the dude who performed all those heroics back in the day as he chased after his world championship that is the kimmy i'll remember it's the kimmy i'm gonna miss that we'll all miss anyways thank you all for watching drop a comment below subscribe to the channel if you're awesome and always remember keep it respectful be wholesome don't be a minus and as always i'll see you all later [Music] you

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 106,014

Rating: 4.9757109 out of 5

Keywords: F1, Formula 1, 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Raikkonen, Kimi Raikkonen, Räikkönen, Finland

Id: 84rAifz3lnQ

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 08 2021