Kimi Raikkonen is most famous for his no-nonsense, blunt personality. As well as his personality he is also very famous for being an all round motorsport athlete. As well as F1 Kimi Raikkonen has raced in Nascar and the World Rally Championship.
It is no secret that Kimi Raikkonen is one of the most iconic and talented motorists of a generation. He has 1 won F1 world championship, won 21 races and has 103 podiums. In Formula 1 he has raced for the likes of Sauber, Ferrari, Mclaren, Alfa Romeo and Lotus. It is the Lotus stint of his career that this article will explore.
After leaving Ferrari after the 2009 season with 1 year left on his contract, he was replaced by Fernando Alonso. In his years out of F1, he would focus on Rally while also taking part in some NASCAR events.
By the end of the 2011 season, it was announced that Kimi Raikkonen would return to F1 with Lotus. This would be the first season that Lotus would be in F1 since its rebrand from Renault. When the 2012 season came about there was a lot of hype around him and the team. Come the first round in Australia, all eyes were on him. He would finish a 7th place after starting 18th.
This was an impressive result, but for the team, this was a frustrating weekend with Grosjean starting 3rd and not finishing at all. His first podium would come in round 4 in Bahrain with a 2nd place finish. He would follow this up with a third-place finish in the next round in Spain.
Later in the season, Kimi Raikkonen went on an incredibly exciting run of form. From round 8 at the European GP, he would finish in the podium places 4 times in 5 races. It wouldn’t be until Abu Dhabi, the 3rd last race that he got his first win.
By the end of the season, he would finish an unexpected yet incredible 3rd place in the driver’s standings. He would finish with 207 points. His junior teammate finished 8th with 96 points. It became clear that Kimi Raikkonen’s experience was vital to the team’s success.
Embed from Getty ImagesBy the 2013 season, Kimi Raikkonen continued to prove it was not a first-season fluke by winning the opening race of the season in Australia by 12.4 seconds. Kimi Raikkonen would go on a 3 race podium streak from rounds 3 to 5.
This yet again reaffirmed that Kimi Raikkonen’s return was not a fluke. He would go on to score 8 podiums in the races he competed in. However by round 12 in Italy, it became apparent Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus had increasing tensions. He would announce he is leaving the team and returning to Ferrari at the end of the season. However, he would leave the team 2 races early.
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Kimi Raikkonen’s contract agreement put immense pressure on the finances of the team. It was reported that he would earn 50,000 Euros per point he scored. In two years at Lotus, Kimi Raikkonen scored a total of 390 points.
Using that math, he would have brought in a total of 19.5m euros in bonuses. It was by no means expected that Kimi Raikkonen would have done as well as he did. The unexpected amount paid out in bonuses was made worse by sponsors of the team not paying the team on time.
These mounting issues within the team put enormous pressure on finance and sustainability. Kimi Raikkonen would leave the team due to non-payment of his contract agreements.
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Kimi Rakkonen was an outstanding driver