The early 2000s were the playground for the likes of Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen in F1. While Button made his debut a year before Raikkonen, the Finnish racing ace tasted success before the Briton could. Yet, the 2009 world champion looks back on Raikkonen’s early career with awe.
“Racing against Kimi was awesome. And to see what he achieved at McLaren — that was for me the best time, his best time in F1 was at McLaren. He just blew us all away with his skill and what he could do with the car,” Button said as seen on YouTube in a 2023 interview.
The #7 driver’s stint with the Woking-based team saw him collect nine Grand Prix wins between 2002 and 2006. Raikkonen came excruciatingly close to interrupting Michael Schumacher’s title run with Ferrari in 2003 when he finished as the vice-champion, just two points away from the Red Baron.
Throughout his time with McLaren, Raikkonen showcased his supreme skill, with his greatest performance coming at the 2005 Japanese GP where he won the race on the last lap after mounting an immense recovery drive from 17th on the grid.
However, the Iceman finished second again in 2005, losing the title by 21 points, way behind the champion Alonso in the standings, despite winning seven Grands Prix in the season.
Let’s take you back to Suzuka in 2005, when Kimi Raikkonen produced one of the most incredible drives of his career #JapaneseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/TSgDiGqPai
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 5, 2022
His exploits with the iconic British team never really materialized into a title. This was because whilst the Adrian Newey-designed cars were fast, they were very unreliable, giving the likes of Fernando Alonso and Schumacher the edge in their respective title-winning years.
How Raikkonen finally lifted the coveted driver’s title in 2007
After a disappointing 2006 season, which saw him go winless for the first time since 2003, Raikkonen left McLaren to pursue glory with Ferrari. Filing in for the now-retired Schumacher, the Finn started the season in style in Australia with his first victory since Suzuka, 2005.
But the 2007 season was to be dominated by a newcomer by the name of Lewis Hamilton. In only his rookie season, the McLaren driver was obliterating the field and was the favorite to win the title. But his pit-lane gaffe at the penultimate round in Shanghai, where he beached his car in the gravel, threw the title into Raikkonen’s hands.
The last race of the season saw the flying F1 circus take to the Interlagos circuit for the Brazilian GP where the Iceman took the chequered flag in P1 — thus, handing him the title over the likes of Hamilton and Alonso by just one point.
It was poetic justice for Raikkonen, after his agonizing loss in 2003 and suffering with the unreliability of the McLaren MP4-20 in 2005, when Alonso took the crown.
