The Revival of the Lotus Formula 1 Team has a Name: Kimi Raikkonen

by - 2/16/2013 08:30:00 p.m.


The Lotus F1 Team, which has gone by a few different names over time, had been in a coma since their last Formula 1 Driver’s Championship and Constructor’s Championship win in 1978 with Mario Andretti in the cockpit. That changed during the 2012 season though, as Lotus saw their popularity as well as their competitiveness soar, and there is a very simple explanation as to why: Kimi Raikkonen.
 Raikkonen is a longtime fan favorite in F1. He is known for his extravagant post-race “Kimi Parties” as well as not being a big fan of media interviews. He is a driver’s driver and tends to be very blunt and to the point in interviews. The Iceman has better things to do.
He got his start in Formula 1 when Sauber gave the then 22 year old Raikkonen a seat for the 2001 season. He scored nine Driver’s Championship points in his debut year, which was good enough to impress McLaren, who he would drive for from 2002-2006. Raikkonen then moved to Ferrari from 2007-2009, where he won the Driver’s Championship in his first year with the team. He took two years away from F1 in 2010 and 2011 to flirt with Rallying and NASCAR before coming back to his roots in Formula 1.
When it became public knowledge that Raikkonen would be returning to F1 speculation swirled as to which team he would land with. Initially it was rumored that he would be driving for Williams F1, but those whispers were proven false. Many thought Red Bull Racing would make room for him since he raced for Red Bull’s Rally team, but with both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber on multi-year contracts at the time Red Bull had to pass on the Iceman. There was talk of him finding a home back with McLaren or Ferrari, but in the end it was Lotus, who had just wrapped up a dispute over naming rights in 2011, who snagged Raikkonen on a two-year deal.

Read more at http://www.rantsports.com/nascar/2013/01/15/the-revival-of-the-lotus-formula-1-team-has-a-name-kimi-raikkonen/?7jK64eybUsQu2J5W.99

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