Räikkönen had a long line of success in karting from the age of ten. His first race outside his home country was in Monaco when he was 15 years old. His steering wheel broke during the race and he informed his mechanic about the problem by waving the steering wheel in the air on the home straight. Räikkönen's next Monaco race was also memorable as he was thrown on the wrong side of the Read more...

On the basis of these results, Peter Sauber gave the Finn a test with the Sauber Formula One team in September of 2000 at the Mugello Circuit. After further tests in Jerez and Barcelona, Sauber signed Räikkönen for the 2001 season. However, some critics (including FIA president Max Mosley) voiced concerns over granting an F1 Super Licence to such an inexperienced driver: Räikkönen had Read more...

Räikkönen, long linked to Sauber's engine supplier Ferrari, instead sufficiently impressed McLaren to earn a race seat in Ron Dennis's team for 2002, taking the seat left vacant by double-world champion (and fellow Finn) Mika Häkkinen's sabbatical.

Räikkönen was always known to be extremely fast but his infamous technical failures did not bring the results that was his due. Read more...