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For many years Kimi Raikkonen earned his living - and a very good living at that - as a Formula One pilot.
Now he is a rally driver. That is a good profession for a young man.
I must ask the 2007 Formula One World Champion one thing: my friend’s mother is a bus driver. She prefers the winding back roads of the Tampere suburb of Teisko to motorways. Do you share her sentiments?
“Not really. In rally driving there are major and minor roads. It is slightly different”, Räikkönen smiles in a conference room of a Lapland hotel.
On Thursday of last week Räikkönen held a press conference in the northern city of Rovaniemi, where he was about to take part in the 45th Arctic Lapland Rally as a Citroën WRC pilot.
For nine years, Räikkönen was a Formula One driver, securing the F1 World Championship in 2007, and winning several Grand Prix races with the glamorous McLaren and Ferrari stables.
At the beginning of the year the magazine Red Bulletin asked Räikkönen if there was a single moment that he valued above all others.
"In F1, every lap is more or less the same. It’s more difficult if it rains, but otherwise it soon becomes routine. In rallying, every corner or hill might be different from what you expected. The most fun I’ve had in recent years was fooling around with friends on snow-scooters, for example. I’d find it difficult to pick a single moment from the last nine years”, was Räikkönen’s thorough answer to the publication of his current sponsor [Red Bull].
Räikkönen is like the prodigal son, who has finally returned from the concrete jungle back to the forest.
In rally driving the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. Even the combination of skateboard trainers, a hoodie, and a baseball cap favoured by Räikkönen is closer to being overdressed rather than underdressed.
The now 30-year-old Räikkönen has said that thanks to rally driving he is finding a bit of the young and hungry Kimi in him again.
Having said that, Räikkönen may still return to the Formula One circus in the future.
“I have no contract of any kind in any direction for the season after this one. I have a long year ahead of me. One can never know what will happen”, Räikkönen says.
Räikkönen is fond of ice hockey. The Iltalehti late-edition tabloid recently wrote that Räikkönen would be interested in buying the team with a glorious past that is currently in the last place in the SM-Liiga, Finland's premier ice hockey league.
Räikkönen vehemently denies such rumours.
“Of course I know people from there”, he admits, but the rumours are just that and nothing more.
But you bought your nephews a quad bike. Would this not be the time to splash out and treat yourself to the legendary Tampere Ilves hockey team?
“That is a no go for me. It is a fine hobby, but I have not been in touch with anybody regarding such matters.”
Räikkönen is a superstar. This time, however, he knows perfectly well that he is not yet racing for victory, for he still has a lot to learn.
Räikkönen is only now acquainting himself with the ways of what is a new world for him.
“I am not really nervous. It will be nice to get to drive. It will be a flow of new things. But when you compete for the first time and immediately you are supposed to go fast… well, that is the issue. How will it go when I do not have that many rallies under my belt?”
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.1.2010
It didn't go too badly. Räikkönen had one excursion into a snowdrift that blighted his chances of finishing among the leaders in the Arctic Lapland Rally, but his times were otherwise quite promising. He will be taking part in the WRC Rally of Sweden from February 11th-14th.
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