A Look Back at Kimi Raikkonen’s World Championship Winning Year. A Look Back at Kimi' World Championship Winning Year.

The 2007 World Championships saw Kimi Raikkonen’s thrilling finish to the F1 season, arguably the most successful in the history of the sport. Competing against Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alsonso, all had a chance of lifting the trophy at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix, the final race of the season. But it was the oldest and historically most successful F1 team, Ferrari, that enjoyed the win through Kimi Raikkonen’s efforts.

#FrenchGP memories ❤️ Three consecutive wins with three different drivers
🏆 Schumacher 🇩🇪 – 2006
🏆 Raikkonen 🇫🇮 – 2007
🏆 Massa 🇧🇷 – 2008#essereFerrari 🔴 pic.twitter.com/AHtlKQmMVG

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) June 18, 2019

A legacy to be remembered

The former Ferrari driver only just retired from F1 in 2021. He featured on the opening series of the Netflix show Drive To Survive, a show which, according to the latest ExpressVPN article, has helped the popularity of the sport over the last couple of years.

But in his time competing, Raikkonen won a world championship, and went on to finish third in 2008, 2012, and 2018:  He is an impressive figure within the sport. The Iceman won 21 Grand Prix, had 103 podium finishes, and 1,876 career points when he called an end to his career, making him the greatest Finnish driver in history. He is also likely to enter the sport’s Hall of Fame in the future and it is undoubtedly his 2007 win that remains the highlight of his career.

Opening Year Success with Ferrari

Having finished runner-up in 2003 and 2005, Raikkonen joined Ferrari ahead of the 2007 season from McLaren where he was signed to replace the retired Michael Schumacher. He proved to be an excellent acquisition as he wasted no time adapting to his Ferrari car.

#OnThisDay in 2007 🗓

Lewis Hamilton made a stunning start to his F1 career 🥉
Kimi Raikkonen won his first race for Ferrari 🏆#F1 pic.twitter.com/kg5dhIARkr

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 18, 2022

Due to still being signed up to McLaren, Raikkonen was unable to take part in pre-season testing in November 2006 at the Circuit de Catalunya. That did not impact the Finish driver, as he showed on his debut for the constructor. He led from start to finish in the Australian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen had to wait until round eight for his next victory. He landed the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours. A week later, he took the chequered flag at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix.

Winning six races across the season, Raikkonen proved to be the most consistent. In the final seven races of the campaign, he finished no worse than third place. His only two retirements across the year came in the Spanish Grand Prix and European Grand Prix. Towards the end of the season, he shone, winning three of the last four races of the season to prevail in the F1 Drivers’ Championship, with wins coming in Belgium, China, and the final race, Brazil. 

It has to be remembered that going into that final Grand Prix on the calendar, Raikkonen was in third place, so he had to better both Hamilton and Alonso which was no easy task. He held his nerve to prevail at the end of 71 laps with a time of 1:28:15.270, which gave him 10 points. Alonso finished third, while Hamilton, who suffered a gearbox failure, could only manage seventh place.

In the end, the Finish driver finished on 110 points, just one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. 

Raikkonen spent eight seasons with Ferrari across two spells and despite the clear talents within the team, the 2007 success hasn’t been replicated. The latest drivers at the constructor will be hoping to add their name next to the Finnish driver in the near future by becoming world champions themselves.