Jun 23, 2008

Formula One - Go Kimi

Today let's talk about F-1 racing.

I started watching F-1 in 2002. The eye-catching McLaren artwork immediately caught my eyes. They put their drivers' first name on the side of the race car, so big that you know who's in it. And they got a youngster named Kimi.

I was never a Ferrari fan. The main reason is that Michael Schumacher just does not act sincere enough as an established multiple time World Champion. Therefore I quickly rooted for someone that was capable of beating Ferrari, and that was McLaren.

A little bit of research gave me an idea about their glorious past with Senna and Prost. And Kimi was definitely given the permission to win without noticeable obstruction from DC. He quickly outpaced his teammates and started to win races in 2003. Through his years with McLaren, his championship hope was always plagued by the performance of the race car, or persistant bad luck.

Everyone knows he is the quickest, most talented driver in F-1, but his bad fortune gave him twice as runner-up in driver's championship, one lost to MS and the other to FA. His signature drive so far is the 2005 Japanese GP at Suzaka, in which he started at 17th on grid but fought his way up and eventually passed Fisichella at the first corner of the final lap, and went on to win the race!

In 2007 he switched to Ferrari to take the open seat left by MS. Before the last race in Brazil, he was 7 points behind LH, and 3 points behind FA, credited to McLaren's long traditioned driver equality. Thanks to his marvelous drive with some help from his teammate Massa taking 2nd place, FA taking 3rd place, and LH's mistake which giving him 7th, Kimi finally won his first championship by only 1 point advantage against both LH and FA. A championship long overdued, but thankfully he managed to join the elites.

Kimi does not speak much, not to mention excuse. He lets his driving do the talking, and everyone else shuts up and listens. That is the way I like about him.

No comments: