Throughout his twenty year stint as a Formula One driver, Kimi Raikkonen has made quite the mark, not only because he is clearly a very talented driver but also because of his mannerisms, candid attitude and the strange (and hilarious) off track activities he gets up to. Here are a few of the funny (and slightly bizarre things) Kimi has done off track over the last 20 years:
Written by Jessi Anderson-Pinder, Edited by Andrea Teo
Going Through an Airport Bag Scanner in Singapore
One evening in 2008, Singapore airport security were faced with a rather strange situation. A man placed his carry-on luggage on the conveyor belt, ready to be x-rayed. The airport security team expected the man to carry on going through without issues, just like most passengers would do. Suddenly, the man jumped onto the conveyor belt behind his bags. Airport security rushed to restrain him in shackles and took him to a room to be interrogated about his prior spontaneous actions. This man was 2007 Formula One World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen.
When asked of his intentions, Kimi revealed he was curious if the scanning equipment would give “an image of the precise details of his body, and his bone structure in particular.”
Sleeping Standing Up Whilst Pretending to be a Ski Jumper.
In the 2003 off-season, Kimi invited friends and some McLaren mechanics to a party at his friend’s place in Levi, Finland. At some point during the night, the clearly very drunk Kimi Raikkonen stumbled across a jumping suit belonging to four-time Olympic gold medalist ski jumper, Matti Nykänen. Kimi decided it would be cool to wear the suit and showcase his jumping abilities by jumping onto pillows from various heights. For the rest of the night, the Iceman paraded around his friend’s property with the suit on, getting soaking wet in the process.
The next day Kimi’s friend found the driver fast asleep standing up in a large drying closet. When Kimi woke up, he explained to the bewildered friends and mechanics that he had somehow managed to get the suit wet at some point and wanted to get it dry. He found a drying closet, set the temperature to 45 degrees and stepped inside, remaining there for 10 hours.
Blue Hands and a Shaved Head
In Marc Priestley’s book ‘The Mechanic’, Marc shared a story from 2006 where he dyed Kimi’s hands bright blue as part of a farewell prank that McLaren used to pull on team members who were leaving. The blue powdered dye was put in Kimi’s gloves before the 2006 Brazillian GP by Marc Priestley and throughout the race as Kimi’s palms got sweaty, his hands were slowly dyed blue. After the race, Kimi vowed to get Marc back for the ‘blue hands’ prank and that is exactly what he did a few weeks later…
Whilst Marc was asleep in Kimi’s manor after a party, Kimi (almost completely bald after shaving his own head) and two of his friends ambushed the mechanic and shaved part of Marc’s hair off. Marc later described the improvised hair cut by the Finn as a ‘reverse mohawk’. Kimi and his two friends staggered out the room, drunk and laughing whilst Marc looked in horror at his ‘reverse mohawk’.
All these stories and more can be found in the book “The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen” by Kari Hotakainen and “The Mechanic” By Marc Priestley.
(sources: ‘The unknown Kimi Raikkonen’ by Kari Hotakainen and ‘The Mechanic’ By Marc Priestley)
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