15 years have passed since Kimi Räikkönen’s world championship. IL ARCHIVE
On Friday, November 21, it was exactly 15 years since Kimi Raikkonen drove his Ferrari to the formula world championship. In Brazil’s Interlagos, the taciturn Iceman crossed the checkered flag first and overtook McLaren’s reigning world champion in the points table Fernando Alonso and rookie driver Lewis Hamilton with only one single point.
Räikkönen only led the World Series after the opening race in Australia and the final race in Brazil. During the season, at worst, 26 points behind the leaders, the Espoo native rose to the world championship as if by miracle. Before the race in Brazil, especially the British media believed in rookie driver Lewis Hamilton’s championship, but in the final race the young driver fell to seventh place.
Ferrari and Räikkösen had bad luck during the season, but there were also driving mistakes. For example, the Spanish GP was interrupted due to an electrical fault in the car, and in Monaco a small mistake in qualifying took away the opportunities. Räikkönen won six races during the season.
– There must not have been many people who believed in my world championship during the season. There were many interruptions during the season, but we managed to work with the team and believe in victory. Today it all paid off. The feeling is completely unbelievable now, Räikkönen told Iltalehti in an interview in Brazil in 2007.
This was the front page of Iltalehti after Kim’s championship was decided. You can enlarge the picture by clicking. IL ARCHIVE
Räikkönen’s teammate, Brazilian Felipe Massa hoped to see a Finn doing samba. The Finn promised to celebrate his championship, but during the interview he could not say with which dance moves.
– There will definitely be a big party here in Brazil. And next week too, Räikkönen laughed.
Räikkönen continued his celebrations in Italy and then in Helsinki. His wife at the time Jenni Dahlman had organized a secret party in the nightclub Bläki. 50 guests were invited and instructed to keep the party to themselves.
Räikkönen and Dahlman were the most popular couple at the next Linna party. However, the visit to the Independence Day celebrations was cut short as they had to fly to Monaco the next morning.
The story continues after the picture
Kimi Räikkönen celebrated his championship until dawn. IL ARCHIVE
Kimi Räikkönen and Jenni Dahlman were invited to the 2007 Linna party. However, the visit was short due to the morning flight. Magazine photo
Italy messed up
Ferrari fans celebrated in Italy 15 years ago. PDO
In Ferrari’s home country of Italy, the Finn’s incredible rise to the World Championship victory was watched with keen eyes. Italy’s larger sports magazines had already piled up large Kimi packages, which were immediately uploaded to the internet after the race.
The Italians have not been so enthusiastic about sports performance until, at most, during the football championships. The headlines of the bigger magazines read in Italian “Red miracle”, “Mailman toppupu” and, of course, “World Champion!”
The 2007 season ended in a fairytale for Ferrari. Expectations grew for the following years, but even though Ferrari’s steering wheel has been turned after 2007 by, among others, Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Charles LecrlecRäikkönen is still the last driver to win the world championship with Ferrari.
Did you know that in Iltalehti’s magazine archive you can view loose issues of Iltalehti from the very first issue of IL’s history? You can access the newspaper archive from this link.
Ferrari flags were flying on the streets of Italy after the last world championship. PDO