Career

EARLY YEARS
Räikkönen was born in Espoo. He had a long line of success in karting from the age of ten. His first race outside Finland was in Monaco when he was 15 years old. During the race, the steering wheel broke, but he continued, informing his mechanic by frantically waving the steering wheel in the air on the home straight. Räikkönen's next Monaco race was also memorable; he was thrown on the wrong side of the safety fence in a first lap collision but continued driving until running out of road. Undeterred, he lifted his kart back on to the track and continued to race. His mechanic thought Räikkönen had retired, but he eventually caught up with the other competitors and finished third. In 1998 he was 1st in the Nordic (karting) Championship at Varna in Norway. In 1999, Räikkönen placed second in the European Formula Super A championship, and also competed in the Formula Ford Euro Cup.

By the age of twenty, he had won the British Formula Renault winter series of 1999, winning the first four races of the year. In 2000, he won seven out of ten events in the Formula Renault UK Championship. Combined, over these two series of Formula Renault, he won 13 out of 23 events – a 56% win rate.


FORMULA 1
Räikkönen entered Formula 1 as a regular driver for Sauber-Petronas in 2001. Having previously only raced in very junior open-wheel categories, he was given his Super Licence from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after a performance delivery promise by his team boss, Peter Sauber.

He joined McLaren Mercedes in 2002, and became a title contender by finishing runner-up in the 2003 and 2005 championships to Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, respectively. Räikkönen's 2003 and 2005 seasons were plagued by severe unreliability from his McLaren cars.

Räikkönen switched to Ferrari in 2007, becoming the highest paid driver in motor sport with an estimated wage of $51 million per year. His move to Ferrari saw him secure his first Formula One World Drivers' Championship, beating McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by one point, as well as becoming one of the very few drivers to win in their first season at Ferrari.

In 2008, he equaled the record for fastest laps in a season for the second time. However, with Ferrari's desire to get Fernando Alonso in the team with his Santander sponsorship, Kimi left the sport and Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team in 2009.



WRC – NASCAR
Kimi then went into WRC to drive a Citroën C4 WRC for the Citroën Junior Team in the World Rally Championship for 2010.

Along with rallying, Räikkönen also competed in NASCAR and made his debut for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

RETURN TO FORMULA 1
Räikkönen made his return to F1 when he signed a 2-year deal with Lotus starting with the 2012 Formula 1 season. In his comeback season, he won the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His consistent performances allowed him to end the season 3rd in the Drivers' Championship.

CAREER SUMMARY

Main source: Wikipedia