Book Review: The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen by Kari Hotakainen

Aside from the sad news of Niki Lauda’s passing, this weekend’s Monaco GP marked Kimi Räikkönen’s 300th GP – although fans may have been hoping for better than P17. Late last year, an English version of his authorised “biography” by Kari Hotakainen titled “The Unknown Kimi Räikkönen” was released. Kimi is famous for his dislike of media – with his short, dry and uncensored (sometimes dis-interested) comments. Is it possible to write a decent biography based on selected interviews with Kimi Raikkonen and tagging along with his entourage?

I’m not sure whether its Finnish culture, the English translation or just the author’s style but the pacing and sequencing of the book sometimes is a little difficult to follow. Some readers might find this book frustrating to read in parts when it jumps around from different topics and includes random interviews with Kimi followers. If you’re a diehard Kimi fan you will likely pickup a few bits and pieces of interesting insights into his personal story and attitudes.

For a F1 driver’s biography (a world champion no less), this book contains surprisingly little content about actual driver strategy, race seasons or clashes with team-mates or other F1 personalities – the stuff most F1 fans like to read about. There are no interviews with other drivers – its just interviews with Kimi, his trainer and close associates (Sami Visa his PR manager, his management team of Dave and Steve Robertson) and a few quotes from Maurizio Arrivabene, Jean Todt and Sebastian Vettel. The book is actually more about the off-track Kimi – his upbringing, his parents, his close friends, wife Mintuu and his kids. You will learn about Kimi’s early karting career (supplemented by motocross), military service, his famous partying and a few random misadventures.

From a purist F1 fan perspective, the chapters that recount his early rapid karting success to meeting his management team and landing his Sauber and Ferrari drives make intriguing reading. I didn’t realise Kimi’s prowess as an engine mechanic – I’m guessing his car and engine development skills are probably less known. I would have liked more read more about his experiences at McLaren, Lotus and Ferrari. His NASCAR stint is glossed over in a few paragraphs.

The photos are interesting – there are no F1 race cars! There are some colour shots from his karting and motocross racing and some off track shots in the Ferrari garage or in his Ferrari overalls but for the most part its all B&W personal family and private photos away from the track including as a kid, family time, wedding shots and trips with mates.

There is one chapter at the back “Bonus Tracks” which contains a selection of Kimi quotes – similar to the ‘cult’ Mission Winnow book – “Winnow Your Words Kimi’s Book of Haiku”.

The rear of the book includes a table of his F1 race stats from his maiden race with Sauber at the 2001 Australian GP to the 2018 Italian GP.

In many ways, this book is not so much a classic F1 biography but a brief behind the scenes view of Kimi and his personal team at the race track with some family history thrown in.

Wow Factor/Money shot: Lots of photos from the family album. Photo of Kimi’s Finnish military pass

Suitable for: Kimi fans only