Räikkönen began karting aged 10, winning Finnish national titles before his first race outside Finland at Monaco aged 15. He won the British Formula Renault winter series in 1999 and seven of ten events in the 2000 Formula Renault UK Championship. Based on these results, Sauber tested him at Mugello in September 2000; he lapped half a second quicker than regular driver Pedro Diniz and was signed for 2001 despite having only 23 car races to his credit.
Räikkönen scored a championship point on debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix and helped Sauber to a then-best fourth in the Constructors' Championship.
Räikkönen joined McLaren for 2002, replacing Mika Häkkinen. He won his first Grand Prix at the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix. In 2003 he finished second in the championship, two points behind Michael Schumacher. Reliability failures in 2004 restricted him to one win (Belgian GP) and seventh overall. In 2005 he took seven wins but finished runner-up to Fernando Alonso by 21 points. In 2006 he was winless.
Räikkönen joined Ferrari for 2007 and won the World Drivers' Championship by a single point over Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, clinching the title at the final round in Brazil after starting the race third in the standings. He finished third in 2008. In 2009 he won the Belgian Grand Prix; Ferrari replaced him with Alonso for 2010.
Räikkönen re-joined Ferrari for 2014 alongside Alonso. In 2018, his last Ferrari season, he won the US Grand Prix — 114 races after his previous victory — and finished third in the championship. He was replaced by Charles Leclerc for 2019.
Lotus F1 fielded Räikkönen for 2012 and 2013. He won at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (Lotus's only victory in that season) and the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.
Räikkönen debuted in rallying at the 2009 Rally Finland. He competed for the Citroën Junior Team in 2010, taking a stage win at Rallye Deutschland. In 2011 he ran under his own ICE 1 Racing banner using a Citroën DS3 WRC with co-driver Kaj Lindström, finishing tenth in the championship both years.
Räikkönen moved to Alfa Romeo for the 2019 season and remained through 2021, retiring from Formula One aged 42 at the end of 2021.
In 2022 and 2023 he made one-off appearances in the NASCAR Cup Series. From 2022 he has served as team principal of Kawasaki Racing Team in the Motocross World Championship.
Räikkönen is the only driver to win Grands Prix with V10, V8, and V6 turbo-hybrid engine formula cars. His 2007 championship win came after starting the final race third in the standings — only the second such comeback in championship history. He is the third Finnish World Champion after Keke Rosberg and Mika Häkkinen.
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