F1 Special Column - F1 Hails King Kimi
22/10/2007
Kimi Raikkonen won the first and the last race of 2007. Inbetween, the Ferrari driver endured a roller-coaster ride that saw him come to the final round in Brazil as the least likely of the three contenders to take the title.
In the end, the Finn not only became world champion, he did it by taking more wins than either Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton at the end of a perfect day for Ferrari.
It had been a long time coming. Raikkonen had been close to the title twice before when racing for McLaren. It seemed, when he arrived in Sao Paulo seven points behind Hamilton, that he would be thwarted yet again.
But a supremely professional performance by Raikkonen and Felipe Massa in their Ferraris – and a gearbox glitch for Hamilton – ensured that Raikkonen would win by a single point at the end of his 122nd grand prix.
"The start of the season was good,’ said Raikkonen. ‘For sure, we had some hard times this season, we had some reliability problems and we lost quite a lot of points."
"At one point, people were saying that we weren’t in the championship anymore but we’ve shown them that they were wrong. We were able to come back, and we came back strongly in the end."
Raikkonen retired with electrical trouble while lying third in Spain and lost the same number of points when the hydraulics caused trouble in Germany. Despite having won back-to-back races in France and Britain, it seemed his chance of taking the title had gone.
But then he began a run of seven podium finishes, including wins in Belgium, China and, finally, Brazil. Raikkonen won six races to four for both Hamilton and Alonso.
‘It’s difficult to put my feelings into words,’ said Raikkonen. ‘Finland wasn’t the best place to start in racing. I came from pretty much nothing but the family put in a lot of effort. Our friends, our cousins and all the sponsors in the beginning helped us to get there."
"But it was a long time ago. I’ve had great people behind me; great managers to help me. I have been close to the championship a few times but I was never really there at the right moment."
"This year looked like it was getting away again, but we have a great team. Probably nobody was thinking about us any more but we knew we still had a chance. We worked and worked and I need to thank the team."
"I have had such a good time with Ferrari. This win in Brazil has been fantastic. If we wanted to go faster, we could have done. The pace was there all the time. The car was great and the Bridgestone tyres worked really well. Everything was perfect."
‘It’s difficult to say which of the six wins was the best this year. For sure, this one was the most important. We won the championship with this one-two. So, okay, every win is important but you have to say that the one that decides everything has to be the best."
"All of these wins and the relations I have with the team and sponsors has helped me enjoy this season more than any other."
Maurice Hamilton is BBC Radio Five Live's Formula 1 commentator, and covers Formula 1 for The Observer newspaper, CAR Magazine in the UK and Racer Magazine in America. His work is published in the USA, South Africa, Australia, Columbia and Ireland.