#heidfeld's hand on his face...

[helianoemeria]

imagine telling them they don't talk anymore

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 30/288

2008 Belgian GP

Recap + GIFs

What the fxck was even that. Not far from being the most chaotic last 2 laps that I have ever seen so far.

Lewis is on pole, Massa is 2nd. So of course, we’re talking about how he stated he would never let him overtake him from the outside again or whatever. It’s overcast at the moment but it’s been raining. Most drivers if not all will start on the inters as some parts of the track are still wet. It’s also cold.

Lewis said of Massa that he is a talented driver on top of his game who is leading his team.

Formation lap.

And they’re racing!

Ooouh it’s difficult. All the cars seem to struggle at the start, it’s very slow. Two lock-ups right away. One more in the first corner as several cars go wide, including Massa. Kovalainen has had a terrible start. Now it’s Raikkonen and Massa battling for second place while Lewis is flying away. Raikkonen has been told that if he didn’t finish first that race, Ferrari would back up Massa for the WDC for the rest of the season. So there’s high stakes. Oh no. While we were looking at the midfield, something’s happened at the front, they’re waving yellow flags. When we get back to it, Lewis is barely in front of a Ferrari, he must have spun. Raikkonen overtakes him and takes the lead.

But what happened? Oh yeah, he did spin in the corner and found himself facing the wrong way for a fraction of a second. Thankfully he’s still close to Raikkonen, he might get his spot back?

10 laps in, the situation at the front is unchanged. Kovalainen however is charging through the midfield making up for his bad start. He’s really doing a good job there. Oops. He just crashed into Webber, though he managed to get away with it for now. Lewis pits, it’s gonna be difficult to catch up to Raikkonen now. He comes back out just behind Kovalainen who’s handed a drive-through penalty. Massa also pits. Kovalainen pits but he can’t do his drive-through at the same time so he’s gonna have to pit a second time right away I guess? It’s a bit weird. Now Piquet crashed.

About 20 laps in, nothing much to say, Lewis is 6 seconds behind. Then later, with 20 laps to go, both Lewis and Raikkonen pit at the same time. Now they both have about the same amount of fuel and hard tyres. They’re back out in the same order. But what’s the gap? We don’t know because they suck at showing data on TV at the time. Lewis is famously good on these tyres though and he’s gaining on Raikkonen now.

With 10 laps to go, he’s only 2.3 seconds behind, and there might be rain coming. 1.6 seconds. 7 laps to go, it’s starting to drizzle. 5 laps to go. He’s almost there, he’s just done his fastest lap. He’s closing on him! COME ON! 0.9 seconds. Oh no, slight lock up. Arrrg he’s lost time. It’s raining for real now, it’s slippery. Should he keep pushing or lift up? 3 laps to go! He’s closing in again omg OH NO RAIKKONEN CLOSED THE DOOR ON HIM AND PUSHED HIM OUT, THEY MADE CONTACT!

Lewis cuts the corner and is in front but he’s gonna have to let him go, which he does now, but only to overtake him again right away, very Max Verstappen in 2021 Jeddah style, imho, minus the brake testing of course. And they touch again!

He’s back in the lead but that’s clearly controversial. The grip is terrible now. Then Raikkonen runs wide. They’re both struggling so bad, please don’t crash. WHAT WAS THAT? THEY GOT CAUGHT UP WITH A WILLIAMS AND RAIKKONEN IS BACK IN THE LEAD WHILE LEWIS IS ON THE GRASS!

NOW RAIKKONEN SPINS, OMG, WHAT IS GOING ON?! LEWIS BACK IN THE LEAD!

AND RAIKKONEN NOW IN THE WALL! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! LEWIS SLOW DOWN DON’T CRASH ISTG oh there you go, he’s going very very slow now, there’s only one lap to go. AND HE ALMOST CRASHED INTO A REDBULL I’M SO STRESSED PLEASE

And it’s the end of the race! THANK GOD.

He’s won. Kovalainen has had to stop by the side of the track? Massa is 2nd, Heidfeld 3rd. He’s one of two who pitted for inters when it started raining and it definitely paid off.

In the cool down room Lewis is explaining to the others what happened. He’s like a child.

Oh-ho. No. Raikkonen and Lewis are under investigation... In the press conference, Lewis deems the race “an experience and a half”. He says he was praying for rain.

He saw Raikkonen start to brake earlier than he used to at turn 8 and knew that’s where the fight would happen. He talks about how they almost crashed into that Williams, who he thinks was Rosberg, and then how he went on the grass and Raikkonen spun. “Then it was pretty straight-forward.” But “extremely tough”. But “great” lol. He says about the chicane incident that Raikkonen pushed him wide and claims he let him past but then got in his tow and overtook him again.

Ted Kravitz is with Ron Dennis who says they don’t know what the investigation would be about but assume it was the chicane incident where Lewis got pushed wide. He says Charlie agreed that they had complied as the regulations require but of course he’s not the stewards. (See that’s interesting because at the time Charlie is race director but it’s agreed that he doesn’t take stewarding decisions, and that wasn’t as clear with Masi right?) Well, that’s the end of the broadcast, let me see what happened after that. Yep. Lewis got a 25s. penalty for cutting the corner, even though McLaren claimed he gave back the place after that. It’s equivalent to a drive-through penalty. It sounds very severe to me though. When Max brake-tested Lewis in Jeddah in a similar incident he got a 10s. penalty. Anyway, in the end, Lewis was 3rd, then.

[crystalracing]

Archive: How unflappable rookie Raikkonen took F1 by stormBy:

Jonathan Noble

Sep 26, 2021, 12:25 PM

Kimi Raikkonen is officially on his Formula 1 farewell tour, having announced his retirement at the end of this season. It will bring down the curtain on F1's longest career, currently standing at 341 race starts, a feat few could have imagined when he sat down with Autosport to discuss his rookie season for the 16 August 2001 magazine

Early January. The sun has already set at Ferrari’s test track. Darkness is descending very quickly, but Kimi Raikkonen still wants to get his first taste of the 2001 Sauber. The team put in enough fuel for 10 laps, although with visibility disappearing rapidly there is no way he will be able to complete them all.

The Petronas-badged Ferrari engine is fired up, and the young Finn exits the pits, disappearing into the darkness for his first experience with the new car. The wail of the screaming V10 is heard coming under the bridge near the pits as Raikkonen flies past, flat-out, before again disappearing into the darkness of the first corner. He cannot be seen until the braking zone, when the flames from the exhaust briefly light up the darkness.

After a handful of laps, he is within tenths of the time set by Nick Heidfeld earlier in the day, then he radios to the pits to say he cannot see enough to continue driving. There is incredulity at his performance.

The ease with which he is so instantly on the limit leaves smiles across the faces of all the Sauber people present. But the finishing touch to Raikkonen’s night run only became evident when he returned to the pits. He had been so fearless, so quick and so committed wearing a dark-tinted visor on his helmet.

The manner of that first test has continued throughout his debut season, when solid performances have singled him out as a huge future star. When it first became apparent that he was being courted by the Sauber boss late last year, he was not even expected to get a superlicence. Now Raikkonen has become the man of the moment.

At almost every track this year, but especially the ones at which teams do not test, he is invariably among the top five during the first few laps on Friday. That shows a man able to get himself and his car on the limit very quickly – something that Michael Schumacher does with aplomb. Yes, Juan Pablo Montoya has grabbed more headlines, but the young, slim, blond Finn has got more tongues wagging.

Raikkonen immediately got on with the business of impressing in his rookie year

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Despite the plaudits, Raikkonen remains something of an enigma. If people thought they had a difficult time enticing words out of Mika Hakkinen during his early F1 career, then they have yet to meet the new boy at Sauber. He is renowned for his one-word answers, his lack of charisma in press conferences and his reluctance to mix it with the other drivers.

But he does not care. As far as he is concerned, he was put on earth to drive racing cars very quickly. When asked what he thinks about life in the paddock, meeting fans, signing autographs and speaking to all the F1 journalists, his answer is swift and to the point.

“It is a bit boring,” he says. “I don’t like the paddock. I just want to get on with my work.”

"Sometimes I think things have happened too quickly, but at the end of the day I was in the right place at the right time with the right people behind me" Kimi Raikkonen

Raikkonen really does like nothing more than being in the car. He is the ultimate efficient racing driver – all speed, no talk. He is as happy testing as he is getting results, and he has been completely unfazed by all the attention around him. He has been mentioned no end of times as the eventual successor to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, but he has let none of the comments go to his head.

PLUS: Why the time is right for Raikkonen to hang up his F1 helmet

He even admits that he does sit back sometimes and feel amazed at how he has gone from Formula Renault front-runner to one of F1’s biggest stars in just 12 months.

“Sometimes I think things have happened too quickly, but at the end of the day I was in the right place at the right time with the right people behind me,” he says. “I would never have thought last year that I would be in F1 now.”

Despite Raikkonen’s cool exterior, things have not been so easy for him this year. He may not want to explain how tough the adaption to F1 has been, but he does not pretend that his achievements have been a walk in the park.

“It has been hard, especially because I didn’t really have any expectations this year,” he says. “There is not really one thing that has surprised me, because everything has been hard. There is not one things I have learned specifically, because I’ve had to learn everything. But it is quite a bit like I expected.

“For sure, for the first three or four races it was difficult in qualifying, and I didn’t really get the best out of the car. That was really the most difficult thing. But the season has been better than I was hoping for. I think the team has been surprised. It’s good.”

Circumstances have certainly helped Raikkonen in his jump to F1 with Sauber. Not only has the team enjoyed something of a renaissance this year, but the family atmosphere and the lack of driver politics have made it much easier for him to make his mark.

His set-up is similar to that of his team-mate, Heidfeld. The telemetry traces show Raikkonen sometimes has an advantage in the quick corners, but that Heidfeld is more consistent in the slow stuff.

“It has helped being here with Nick, because it is better than having to do it all by myself,” he admits. “it has been easier being here, with a family team, than go to a bigger team. Here the people are nicer, and that helps.”

But the real test for Raikkonen will come next year. Jacques Villeneuve said recently that it was very easy for a new driver to maintain performance in the first year of F1, when all the newness gives a racer lots of energy and carries them through. The problem comes in the second year, when it is much harder to improve - but expectations are so much higher. Ask Raikkonen if he is worried about the Jenson Button syndrome and he is at his most candid.

“No, not really. I think for him [Jenson] it is more difficult because he was with one the top teams, and now he is not. It is more difficult because if the car is not right then you need to do more with the car.

“I am not worried about it. For sure I have enough energy to keep pushing, and next year I’ll be stronger because I’ll have some experience. I know from this year what I need to do, and it will be easier because I will know what is happening.”

Raikkonen was heavily linked with a move to Ferrari, although it seemed he would have to bide his time a while longer at Sauber

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Speculation links Raikkonen with Ferrari in the long term – although it is almost certain he will stay at Sauber until the end of 2003, when his current contract ends. But ask Raikkonen about Ferrari and he claims there is no attraction other than the fact that it is the most competitive team at the moment. He does not care where he gets to drive in the future, as long as it is with a winning team.

“It is nice to hear Ferrari stories, but I don’t really follow that,” he says. “I would be happy in one of the top teams, and I don’t really mind which it is. I guess it doesn’t matter if it is McLaren, Williams or Ferrari. It is where you have the best chance to win.

Rinland remembers vividly the Finn’s first test in the Sauber at Mugello in Italy last September. His lap times were not that spectacular, but it was clear from the way he got down to work with the car that he was something special

“You never know if Ferrari are going to go down the order, or who is going to come up and who will win. Maybe it just won’t be those three teams in the future, because we have seen how Williams have moved down and then come back up again.”

Raikkonen’s long-term future is open, and the fight for his services when his Sauber contract ends will be fascinating. Anyone who has seen him drive at close quarters knows all about his abilities.

Top 10: Kimi Raikkonen’s greatest F1 races ranked

Sauber’s former chief designer, Sergio Rinland, left the team at the start of the year, and he does not mind admitting that his biggest loss in the move is not being able to work with young Raikkonen.

Rinland remembers vividly the Finn’s first test in the Sauber at Mugello in Italy last September. His lap times were not that spectacular, but it was clear from the way he got down to work with the car that he was something special.

“It was just amazing,” remembers Rinland. “You could see it in his eyes that he was the man. He probably didn’t do a very quick lap time, but in sectors of the track you could see the difference between a good driver and someone who was trying very hard. The telemetry showed that in some sectors he was right on it.”

Willingness to push from the off impressed engineer Rinland

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Rinland remembers going out to the back of the Mugello circuit during the test to stand on the banking and observe Raikkonen in action. Michael Schumacher joined him and was instantly impressed by the style and speed of the young Finn.

Schumacher rarely compliments other drivers, but there was no doubting his feelings then. The world champion said: “I observed him, and I evaluated his lap times, and I could see he could be a champion.”

Is this young talents Ferrari’s next champion? Maybe. Is he a future champion? Almost certainly.

Raikkonen got his chance in a top car sooner than expected, when he replaced Hakkinen at McLaren for 2002

Photo by: Motorsport Images

What happened next?

Just one month later, Raikkonen's future was decided - and in that moment, he couldn't have been further away from Ferrari.

With double world champion Hakkinen losing motivation and on course to retire - his so-called 'sabbatical' would become a permanent one, barring a comeback test at Barcelona in 2007 - McLaren was in the market for a replacement.

Heidfeld, who had won the International F3000 title as a McLaren-supported driver in 1999, was widely expected to be the man who took the seat, while McLaren tester Alex Wurz was also in the frame.

PLUS: How Raikkonen's rapid rise stalled his team-mate's F1 career climb

But the man McLaren boss Ron Dennis wanted was Raikkonen. Dennis negotiated the Finn's exit from his deal at Hinwil - the severance package allowing the team to build a state-of-the-art windtunnel - and he duly lined up alongside David Coulthard for the 2002 season, coming close to a maiden win at Magny-Cours until slipping wide on oil to allow Schumacher through.

The breakthrough win duly came at Malaysia the following year as Raikkonen almost won the 2003 title with a year-old car, but his two-point deficit to Schumacher would be the closest he'd get to title success at McLaren. The team produced F1's fastest car in 2005, but poor reliability handed the title to the more consistent Fernando Alonso.

And so it was to Ferrari that Raikkonen eventually headed for 2007, fulfilling the prophesy in 2001 that he would take up Schumacher's mantle. The seven-time world champion was effectively forced aside to make space for the Finn, who won the title at the first time of asking in one of F1's most legendary comebacks against the McLarens of Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

Archive: The ups and downs of Raikkonen's 2007 F1 title triumph

Forced out after two disappointing seasons in 2008 and 2009 to make room for Alonso, Raikkonen took a two-year sabbatical in the World Rally Championship before making a winning return with Lotus in 2012. That parlayed into a remarkable Ferrari return for 2014.

Only one more win would come, in the 2018 US GP, before he was replaced for 2019 by Charles Leclerc to see out the remainder of his career in the midfield - back where it all began at the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber team.

[pierregasly]

Hey presley, how you doin'? i wanna do a request to! i would do it in spanish because, yea i need to practice my spanish in somewhere lol: Podrias hacer por favor una historia sobre JEV and André algo como un SpyAu! o algo por el estilo? Gracias por tus fics que son geniales ♥

Gracias! Here you go, I wrote it all up for you. I hope it’s not too long for your liking? It’s not my best work :( Anyone can feel free to request anything! This is also posted here on ao3. Hope you like it:

__________________________

          Andre’s lips always taste like bullets. It is mixed with the stiff scent of his cologne and, of course, a lingering aftertaste of gunpowder or sweat. But it is strange that despite everything that occurs, he always stays the same. A part of him wishes that he could match that type of consistency. JEV understands he has a tendency to overthink things, not just his actions, but it is his overwhelming sense to save the lives everyone around him. These are the thoughts that paint him when the filth of the day is stripped from himself and he lies on the bed. This time, it occurs for him while Andre is away in the shower and JEV is quietly humming underneath his breath as he watches the ceiling.  

         The mattress he is laying on squeaks beneath him with every shift of his weight, there isn’t any coffee and he despises the Russian cold. He’s usually been quite good with timezones, but for now, his eyes are wide and alert with every footfall in the narrow hallway. JEV hears the water shut off and rolls over onto his side to make room. A few minutes later, Andre emerges with a towel wrapped around his waist. Amused, JEV leans on his elbow and passes an almost flirtatious grin.

         “Finished?”, he mutters, shivering at a cold chill that gusts from underneath the crack in the wooden door.

         Andre smirks smally, “да.” He moves to take a shirt from his bag on the floor. “You need to work on your Russian, моя любовь,” he tugs it over his head. JEV knows the language plenty well, but it is his French accent that digs out beneath every word

         “Why?”, he raises an eyebrow, “I am never sent out to mingle anyways.”

         Andre follows him from the corner of his eye for a moment, disregarding his belongings and stepping towards the bed. Cheap motel, Di Grassi, JEV thinks disdainfully. The frigid weather nips at his nose and Andre is surprisingly warm to the touch when he reaches to place his hands on either side of his shoulder. JEV enjoys this, small moments with only eye contact to sustain the long occasions they are otherwise apart. Andre touches his face with his fingertips, leaning over and his lips brush his shortly, “But it’s safer.” He pulls away and JEV lets out a whimper of annoyance. He digs into the bag for a second and tosses a pair of pants over. “Put some pants on,” Andre suggests, “You’re going to freeze to death and then I’ll have no one.”

         JEV pauses briefly and these words cause him to think more than he believes they were supposed to. Then I’ll have no one. He himself feels that he could’ve said the same. “You’ll have Lucas still,” he mumbles before crawling back underneath the sheets.

         “I suppose,” Andre shifts in besides him and his face is warm against the back of his neck as he tosses an arm over his waist. “But then again,” and his breath brings a heat to his spirit, “He’s not you, милая.”

         It was dangerous of them, to do with each other this way. JEV had promised himself he wouldn’t fall too deeply into things this time, a second chance. He only hopes Antonio will bring the equipment quick enough tomorrow. He falls asleep frozen, exhausted, with Andre’s breathing to lull him into sleep. He ponders:

         Life is too short, moments such as these too rare.

         It is a warm belief.

____________________________

         The both of them get three hours of sleep before Antonio barges into the room, shuts the curtains and flicks on the light. Immediately, Andre shoots upright, stretching to the bedside table for his weapon.

         “Chill!”, Antonio raises both of his arms defensively and Andre has to blink momentarily before setting it back on the table. JEV rubs his eyes, he hadn’t noticed he was gripping Andre’s upper arm until Antonio raised a brow at them. “You guys didn’t fuck did you?”, he grins and pressing his elbow down on the bed, releasing the pressure as the olden springs scrape together. “You would’ve blown our cover with your noises,” he rolls his eyes. Embarrassed, JEV pulls his hand away and places them into his lap.

         “Shut up, de Costa,” Andre growls, slipping out of the bed into the chill of the four am morning air. “You couldn’t of knocked?”, he whispered, shutting the crack in the drapes.

         “Nope,” he draws it out and then smiles cheekily. Antonio’s attention shifts to JEV and his brows arch high on his forehead once again, “Where is your gun?”

         JEV doesn’t want to talk about his last mission. There is a brief minute where his throat closes and his hands begin to quiver. There is an image that comes with this; sometimes he peers under his nails and he still believes that there is blood caked in the cracks. Andre notices this moment of discomfort and chimes in. “Skills testing,” he interrupts before changing the subject, “Di Grassi asked for it.”

          In actuality, Di Grassi asked for my gun, six months of deskwork and almost my certification.

         Antonio has a short attention span and loses interest soon after not receiving a reply. “Why the porra is it so cold?”, he moans, complaining and turning around the undo the technology onto the corner desk.

         “Ask Di Grassi to assign us to Spain next time,” JEV mutters, not like we have any choice. “Mortara and Engel are in Italy, Piquet in Nicaragua, Prost and Buemi in South Africa…”, he drones as though nobody cares.

         “We always get the winter,” Andre chorals in good humor, “Sweden, Finland, D.C. and now Moscow? Even Frijins and Bird are in Lisbon for Christ’s sake!” A momentary lapse of uncomfortable silence transform the air. It feels soft on his cheeks, the cold, as though it were preparing himself for something. Antonio respites amidst that reticence and his back remains turned. An audible sigh leaves him. “Da Costa?”, Andre edges carefully, glancing to JEV with a hint of confusion in his eye. Neither of them approach and the normal, easy-going air has left the atmosphere.

         “Antonio?”, JEV stiffens, “What is it?”

         They can practically hear the gears in his head shifting. “I heard only just before I arrived,” he started quietly.

         JEV’s heart race kicks up, spilling messily into his breath. “Heard what?”, he pushes.

         “There was a problem in Lisbon.”

         “What kind of problem?”

         “Robin Frijins is dead.”

         The words don’t hit him immediately. Andre’s eyes fall to him but JEV cannot do anything for stare at an empty corner of the room where the carpet is molding. He had just seen him, just before the plane to Russia, Robin had slapped his back and congratulated him on the end of his detention in office buildings. It steals the breath straight from his lungs and he suddenly feels extremely sick. JEV only wishes that the information would’ve left him with at least one lung with which to inhale with.

         “That’s not the end of it,” Antonio finally wheels around to face them and his eyes are dull beads bleeding out from their absence of light or excitement.

         Andre swallows, sitting calmly on the edge of the bed. “What-what do you mean?”, his voice breaks and JEV can hear the sound of him chewing on his inner cheek to contain himself.

         Antonio sighs, “Bird is missing.”

         JEV sucks in a pulse of air and shifts his focus from his absent stares to a small crack in the window where the night sky folds out over the horizon. “Why the hell weren’t we notified?”, Andre growls, his jaw moving upwards.

         “We only found out an hour ago. They missed their reconnaissent, Di Grassi sent Heidfeld to check and…”, he alters his gaze away nervously biting on his lip.

         JEV doesn’t want to imagine what that was like for Nick to see. But he remembers Lynn leaving his certification on Di Grassi’s table all those months ago. Perhaps it is more haunting than the failed mission, the lifeless gaze and Alex’s disheveled appearance. It was standing in that hallway with the memories of a phantom’s last breath in his arms. Blue lips, stiff eyes and cold hands at their sides. Sam once mentioned to him that Alex still wears his ring even after everything had happened. Maybe I’m not ready for field work again, JEV muses.

         “Why are we here then?”, Andre demands, his tone taking a sharp tone that is only occasionally heard. “We should be out there looking for him,” Antonio steals a step away from him cautiously and deviates the subject even though JEV can see that his hands are visibly shaking.

         “Come on,” Antonio begins to set up the pieces of two microphones together on the table, clearing his throat, “You two need to get ready.”

         With an empty gaze, both JEV and Andre peer to each other. There is a hint of clarity in how their eyes branch together. His soul shows itself itself to the sun, shows to the rain. There isn’t anything covering his open, disillusioned thoughts. There is a pale streak of early morning light that shines through muffled curtain. He can’t help it then, but he thinks of Robin. He hates not the loss, but the remembering most of all.

         Slowly, Andre nods in confirmation and broadens his stance once again. “Okay,” he sighs.

         JEV only studied the blue tint of light fade father away from Robin…

________________________

         Andre maintains a cautious air around him until they get into the car and Antonio is absent. He nudges his shoulder gently with his own, “You’re thinking of him, aren’t you?”

         JEV peels his eyes down to the hands in his lap. He flips them over and over again but still there isn’t any blood underneath the nails as he imagines there should be. “Which one?”, he grumbles.

         “The first one,” Andre replies.

         “No.”

         “Don’t lie to me, please.”

         “Fine,” JEV shifts uncomfortably in his suit, “I am.”

         Andre exhales, reaching over discretely and sliding a hand over his knee. JEV looks to it, he should tell him to stop that, he could buck it off. But he doesn’t. It fills him with an odd sense of comfort as he leans to put his hand over the interaction. “You’ve heard this a lot, but it was not your fault and you know that, right?”, his tone begs him to look to his face but JEV doesn’t.

         “I know,” and he sounds tired like he has aged a century in only two months.

         “When’s your next meeting with your therapist?”

         “I haven’t scheduled it,” he leans his head on his elbow, his forehead meeting the glass of the vehicle.

         “Why?”

         “I didn’t know when I would be coming back. Or if…”, to not upset Andre he hushes to a stop but the magnitude is enough.

         Andre’s grip on his knee tightens and JEV sees the carved veins of his wrist pop out under the tanned flesh. “Don’t say that,” he hisses, “Don’t ever say that, JEV.”

         My last partner was supposed to get married in a month.

         Eventually, in a small movement, JEV moves his head up and their eyes meet. It is calm, serene almost, witnessing the little sun behind his shadowed eyes suddenly burst into life. “J’aime,” he murmurs discreetly into his hair.

         Andre grins and then removes his hand from his thigh. The reply of, “Moi aussi,” blends into the scenery as the car begins to move.

         JEV wonders where Mitch is right now. He hopes Alex knows that he is sorry.

________________________

         “Caralho sagrado! Did someone just get shot?!”

         “You’re not helping, Antonio!”, Andre objects angrily, ducking his head with a shove to JEV’s back as they pass into a long hallway.

         “Seriously, are you guys okay?!“

         JEV has learned to expect the unexpected in this job. He hadn’t imagined he’d be losing his hair and thining up, but he has through these years. It’s strange that he peers into the mirror and finds that he recognizes himself less and less with everyday. It was a simple mission: Andre sweet talks himself with a glass of champagne rolling lazily in his hand into a group of the Russian political elite. Dmitri Raskolnikov (the last name was actually Nico’s idea).

         “Why the hell do I get to be called Александр?”, JEV groaned a week earlier, leaning back in his chair, “That’s a boring name.”

         Nico scoffs, “Are you really going to be picky about your alias? ”

         Robin had bumped JEV’s shoulder playfully behind him, “What are you talking about? He is always picky! Why do you think he never drinks the coffee here?”

         Robin was alive then.

         JEV’s mouth is dry and his hands stiff in front of him as he sprints. It’s a long marble hallway, little reflections of the tile glisten of the ceiling. If, perhaps, he wasn’t being shot at, then he could’ve thought that it was beautiful. He sweats beneath the collar of his suit and his fingers are beginning to quake. The footsteps and shouts follow them with a peculiar whizz of bullets dashing into the stone. Suddenly, hands wrap over the back of his neckline, tugging him backwards. JEV chokes, stumbling backwards and reaching for his throat.

         “Be quiet,” Andre demands, ripping him into an open doorway along the hallway. The footsteps still beat down in the hall towards them. The only thing JEV thinks un-ironically is: Блядь. Andre’s hand clasps over his mouth, tugging him into his chest. “I have another pistol on my calf,” he whispers, “Reach down and get it.”

         JEV realizes it is against the rules, considering he doesn’t even have him own weapon with him at the moment. He nods and he Andre’s frantic heartbeat beats through his chest to his skin. Swallowing, he unloops himself, crouching down in the shadowed room. JEV reaches his hand up his pant leg out of the holster. At that precise moment, the shouting picks up again and a stray bullet splinters the wooden frame of the doorway. JEV throws an arm over Andre, ducking his head at the splinters fraying into his hair.

         “Andre!”, JEV shouts, a white noise ringing in his eardrums. His eyes press shut, his hand rubbing over the side of his hand. Baise, that hurt.

         “JEV, what is going on?!”, Antonio’s voice shatters in his earpiece.

         Andre groans underneath him, his back folded from the ceiling and his body hunched. “Andre?”, JEV swallows thickly, blinking his eyes through the dust and caressing a hand over their spine. At this slight contact, they crumple, sliding to the floor with his head in between his knees. He almost appears like a small child crying out. JEV lowers himself, meeting both of his hands and planting them onto his shoulders. “Please,” he quivers, prodding him, “Talk to me.” A finger taps underneath their chin, lifts his attention to his eyes. His dark pupils are wide, blown and this skin is stiff with a certain shock. JEV’s attention falls to their shoulder, “Why are you holding yourself? Show me.” Hesitantly, eyes squinting, Andre removes his hand from underneath his waistcoat. JEV has experienced his world crumpling quite a few times. He felt it when he watched Mitch’s eyes fade, when he saw Alex in that long hallway, and now as he kneels on the ground beside Andre. “What is that on your hand?”, he trembles, everything slowing.

         Andre peers into his eyes and it is perhaps the only time he has ever seemed afraid.

         JEV knows then what it is.

         It’s blood.

____________________________

         Less than thirty minutes ago, JEV had been able to sneak himself out of the eye’s view into the backroom at the top of the stairs, stripped the hard drive and hidden it into his coat pocket as though it never had happened.

         “Do you have it?”, Antonio questioned quietly.

         “Yes,” JEV whispers, searching both ways. There must have been a silent alarm because seconds later he is on his knees with a pistol to his skull. The cold metal stabs into the outage of his neck. He is of few who doesn’t believe it’s cowardly to close your eyes when you believe you are going to die. If he closes his eyes, he could imagine anything he pleases: he chooses what he sees last. That’s what he envisions, a two story house with green fields and a setting sun. There is a sensation of ardor like no other and Andre is dressed up in these colors, all of these hues as though they were specifically for him and him alone. The gunfire goes off and JEV laments: I must be dead. Something thumps to the ground.

         “JEV!”, a voice hollers in the space.

         He parts his eyes and Andre is standing above looking into him. “Andre?”, he edges, nictating widely.

         “We don’t have much time,” he grabs the pads of his shoulders and tugs him onto his feet, “We have to run.” The confidence in his voice causes JEV nod and reach for his hand.

         This is my confession.

         I am dark.

         And you will always find those lighter pieces of me.

         All of my pieces.

         Just for you.

         Andre moans again and JEV snaps back to his attention. “Lotterer has been hit,” he stammers and his eyes spy about wildly.

         “Is he–is he…”

         “No,” JEV interrupts and Andre’s eyes are slits, his head reclined back and his features tight.

         “Plan B–”

         “No,” JEV snaps and Andre smirks slightly, a bit of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “We have to get him out of here,” he barks.

         “You have a mission.”

         “Andre has a life!”, he shouts frantically, his face heating and rising with every drip of energy. JEV can’t stand the thought of coffins, or funerals. He’s lost too many in his years, too many. For a moment, Robin snaps into his mind but he quickly shakes it away. “I can’t–”, he can hear the voices approaching, “We can’t lose another.”

         There is a recess as if all of the activity in the world as ceased. A breath, “Then do your job.”

         JEV’s fist pounds into the floor and he rubs his face roughly. “JEV…”, Andre whimpers and he immediately spins towards him.

         “Yes?”, he uses the pad of his thumb to wipe away the blood. “Just keep pressing there,” he directs his hand to the wound in his collar.

         “Take this.”

         Something chilled, hard and metal drops into his hand. It takes JEV a second to want to look away from Andre’s face. “You’ll need this,” he beams softly and the light bulb in the chandelier flickers and wanes like a candle across the sweaty grime of his face. It’s a pistol. It’s his pistol. “Remind us all of why you deserve this,” he nods.

         “Andre–”

         “Go,” he demands, shooing him away, “Go save us.”

         Andre always tastes like bullets.

         A ticking time bomb.

         The both of them are fumbling to cut the right wires.

         JEV slides along the tile, scampering at the sting of bullets erupting behind him. One crumbles the marble above his head. “Which way?”, he huffs, the adrenaline coursing through his veins causing him to be suddenly aware of everything in his surroundings.

         “Right. At the end you’ll get to the staircase.”

         It’s oddly quiet at this end.

         Andre once told him: “I’m not a marrying man.”

         JEV had believed the same thing. But for now, as he dodges life and death for the first time in six months, he believes that his hand looks rather naked without a gold band on his left finger. There is a box on the door. “What is the code?”, he frantics, panning over his shoulder and then back again

         “1-9-1-8.”

         Ironic and tragic.

         He punches in the code with a shaking finger and the door buzzes.

         “Now, go up the stairs and Lopez–”

         JEV’s hand tugs open the door. But then something makes him pause on the first step. Andre. “No,” he strides away, the door crashed shut behind.

         “Vergne, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

         “I’m not leaving Andre,” he purses his lips. The cuff of his sleeve is ripped, the collar of his shirt is patent at the neck. “I am not losing another person,” the ear piece irritates him and he contemplates taking it out as he passes back the way that he had come through a maze of marble hallways and doors. His heartbeat drums in his ears.

         “Listen to me,” and it causes JEV to stop, his hand catching on the wall to steady himself. “You can’t save everyone,” and those eyes, they are there glaring into his, lifeless and dull. “You’re risking your life, your risking the life of others. He isn’t Mitch, JEV, Andre isn’t Mitch. You didn’t know what was going to happen that day. No one of us did. Robin was on that mission, Bruno was there too, you aren’t the only person at fault,” a sting pierces into his core, prodding at the very sense of who it is he is.

         “Robin is dead. Bruno retired. I am all that is left,” his throat closes.

         A slow draw of air arrives from the other end. “Come home,” and the last sentence shatters his illusion.

         His bones ease together. “Have you ever seen someone become more and more beautiful everytime that you saw that them?”

         “Where are you going with this?”

         “You can’t live without them.“ He reaches towards his ear, “I can’t live without him.” He tugs out the earpiece, “I can’t make the same mistake I did before. I’m sorry.” And, in the end, not a part of him feels guilty.

         Andre’s eyes are closed when he arrives again. JEV gasps, sliding to the ground and his arm folds underneath his arms. “Can you stand?”, he whispers, struggling to lift his weight up. The tufts of his brown hair tickle up underneath his chin. “You’re going to be okay, Andre,” he ushers him out of the doorway.

         “JEV…”, he stumbles at a corner, fighting to regain his balance.

         “We are almost there,” JEV soothes, rubbing circles into his back.

         “I need to ask you something.”

         “Please,” he begs, “Don’t speak.”

         “No,” Andre frowns, his mouth twisting firmly in pain, “I have to ask you.”

         “What?”, the door is just a few meters away now.

         “Will you marry me one day?”

         JEV doubletakes and his body freezes involuntarily. The image is there once again, the nature and the sun. Everything that makes the world so beautiful in the end. His future plays like a spell in the back of his mind. He shakes it off and continues, “Why are you asking right now?”

         “Just in case.”

         “You’re not going to die,” JEV darts, his hand shifting over the keypad and the door closes behind them.

         “Please,” his whimpers. His voice is so tiny under his shoulder as he drags him up the staircase.

         “Lopez is waiting with the helicopter.”

         “Jean-Eric.”

         The breath catches in his throat. A ball of matted words clinging to his tongue. “I-”, he swallows, “I will. I’ll marry you one day.”

         Andre chuckles lightly, his head tipping forward and his feet dragging, catching on the edges of the steps. “I knew you would,” he simpers. Their eyes close just before they reach the roof, his body crumpling.

         “Andre? Andre! Hold on, love, just hold on for me.”

______________________________

         JEV hates hospitals. He despises the way that they smell, the sensory they give him. But he’s sitting beside Andre on a bed as they pick and prod at his wound. Because he is too nice, Andre doesn’t snap, he only digs his nails into the palm of JEV’s hand to contain the pain. In a simple moment of clarity, he turns to him, his attention blinking faintly into his.

         “Do you still want to get married one day?”

         The doctor holds back a laugh, “Where do you guys work?”

         JEV peers down at his clothing: his torn suit and haggard appearance. A headache throbs deeply behind his brow and bags weight heavily on his cheeks. The clock on the wall ticks past five in the morning and his vision blurs as his eyes drip for the need of sleep. “We’re lawyers,” he lies.

         Andre raises a curious brow and his face is pale, pallid in the fluorescent lighting. “Yes,” he confirms, nodding slowly, “We are lawyers.”

         The Doctor hums. “You do a lot of shooting as lawyers?”

         “Of course,” JEV chimes.

         “Absolutely.“

         The curtain around them shuffles and Heidfeld’s head peers through the parting, catching everyone’s attention. “Sorry to interrupt,” he ruffles his blonde hair with his hand and glares to JEV. “Di Grassi wants to see you.”

         Oh boy.

________________________________

         JEV would prefer if he could go back to the hospital with Andre’s kisses on his forehead and crawl in beside him after a long shower. The disgust is heavy upon his wretched soul. Antonio is exiting the office as he enters. There is a still moment of tension and contact before he glances to the ground and brushes past him in the doorway. Lucas stands with his head down staring at a stack of papers and he glances up at the knock gently rapping at the frame. But he doesn’t smile. He only gestures to the chair in front of his desk with a low, unruly gaze. JEV sits, his long limbs crouching and knocking together in the tiny office space.

         “You disobeyed the plan,” Lucas stiffs out. The only thing JEV notices is that they forgot to brush their hair that morning.

         JEV leans back in the chair, “I know.”

         “You could’ve gotten yourself killed,” Lucas’s vision narrows, his shadowed eyes staring out at him from behind his desk.

         “I know.”

         “You sacrificed not only your team members for yourself or your own personal agenda.”

         He rises heatedly, “But–”

         “But,” Lucas lingers, his fingers unlacing from in front of him. “You did get the hard drive, and you saved your partner successfully with a clear head.” Lucas is the type of man to draw in dramatics, the theater type nearly.

         “And…”

         He squints and then reaches into his desk drawer. A leather badge glistens the light. “You can have your certification and your gun back.” JEV blinks blankly for a moment before reaching for it. Sliding it across the table closer towards himself and peering around it. Just the same as it was before, cracked, fraying from years of work and the weapon with his fingerprints planted all over it.

         “What are we doing to get Sam back?”

         Lucas recesses, licking at his lips in thought. “Da Costa told me you want somewhere warmer?”, he raises a brow.

         JEV shrugs, “Sure.”

         There is a pause. “How do you feel about Portugal?”

         “Why Portugal?”

         Lucas smiles sadly, “So you can murder the sons of bitches who took Sam Bird.”

         Andre told him something before he had left the hospital in between swears of agony and broken sentences:

         “Not everything is terrible in the end, isn’t it? The world isn’t so frightening after all.”

         JEV had shut his eyes and leaned his head on his shoulder.

         Especially with you, love. Especially with you.

[crystalracing]

Archive: The ups and downs of Raikkonen's 2007 F1 title triumphBy:

Adam Cooper

Sep 1, 2021, 8:53 PM

With two races to go in the 2007 Formula 1 season, Kimi Raikkonen appeared down and out. His recovery of a 17-point deficit as McLaren's challenge imploded is one of the greatest comebacks in F1's history and, on the occasion of the Finn announcing his retirement, we dug out the 25 October 2007 Autosport magazine feature explaining his remarkable title season

It took a long time but Kimi Raikkonen has finally won the world championship title that he so clearly deserves. And, of course, it came at the expense of McLaren after his own two near misses with the British team in 2003 and '05.

This was an extraordinary season for the Finn that began with an oh-so-easy victory in Australia that proved to be a false dawn. It was followed by a series of frustrating races that even led some to speculate his future with the team was in doubt. Yet, once everything clicked, Raikkonen was more often than not the man to beat, a position that was obscured by the headline-grabbing battle between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

He had a lot of catching up to do. It's hard to believe now that he was as much as 17 points behind Hamilton at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix, with only 20 up for grabs over the final two races. And a few laps into that race, when he languished at the back after a disastrous strategy gamble by the team, he was staring at a title-losing 23-point deficit.

It's easy to overlook how much is involved when a frontrunning driver changes teams. Raikkonen had, after all, spent five full seasons at McLaren, and was used to the Woking team's systems and way of doing things. Moving over from Renault, the team he'd grown up with, Alonso faced similar challenges.

But Raikkonen undoubtedly had the more difficult job, for he was also filling the shoes of Michael Schumacher. In addition, the departure of Ross Brawn meant he was joining a team that was under serious pressure to maintain its equilibrium, and had also lost the advantages conferred by its special relationship with Bridgestone.

Raikkonen was also up against a team-mate who not only had a year's head start, but enjoyed a special relationship with the team boss. It could all have gone horribly wrong - like it did for Alonso - and the fact it didn't was a reflection of Raikkonen's ability to focus on what really matters.

Alonso had a slight advantage over Raikkonen in that he had a day in a McLaren in December, which accelerated the getting-to-know-each-other process. Kimi had to wait until January until he was free to drive a red car for the first time.

There was a limited amount of testing before Melbourne, and a great deal to learn. And perhaps trickiest of all was the transition from Michelin to Bridgestone, something that caught out many drivers.

"The Bridgestones were like playing on a different field," says David Robertson, who co-managed Raikkonen with son Steve. "Kimi and Alonso struggled. Lewis [Hamilton] when he was on the Michelins [in his early McLaren testing] struggled like hell - he couldn't do anything. He went to the Bridgestones, and it was 'this is it!', because that's the playing field he was used to being on. That's what we all believe, that's what Kimi believed."

Raikkonen left the winter-headline grabbing to others, but when he got to Australia things could hardly have gone any better in terms of making his mark with both the team and the tifosi: pole position, victory and fastest lap. Michael who? But he was flattered by circumstances, not least the fact team-mate Felipe Massa had a problem in qualifying and had to fight through the field.

Things got tougher in Malaysia, where the car's performance was compromised, but he took third and some useful points. Massa's early excursion suggested that Raikkonen had already established himself as de facto team leader.

"The Michelins were quite a bit different when you approached the corner and, in order to avoid understeer, you had to use the tyres in quite an aggressive way. With Bridgestone it's completely the opposite so, if you want to avoid the understeer, you need to be more gentle on turn-in" Luca Baldisserri

That perception changed abruptly in Bahrain, where Massa scored an impressive win, and Raikkonen was some way behind in third. "Australia just stunned us all, I think," says his Aussie engineer Chris Dyer. "It was just such an easy weekend. And really you kind of know that that's not going to last. We came back down to earth with a bit of a thud in Malaysia, especially with Kimi struggling there with the engine, so he was pretty much fighting with one hand tied behind his back. And then Bahrain wasn't glorious."

That weekend at the Sakhir circuit had put a negative focus on Raikkonen, and it was evident that all was not well.

"The problems started more in qualifying, to be honest," says Ferrari engineering chief Luca Baldisserri, "because he was not able to put the lap time together. Even in Brazil he was still struggling a little bit. Then he had problems to understand all our systems, to understand the tyres. At that stage we were not fantastic in terms of starts, and we improved quite a lot.

"The Michelins were quite a bit different when you approached the corner and, in order to avoid understeer, you had to use the tyres in quite an aggressive way. With Bridgestone it's completely the opposite so, if you want to avoid the understeer, you need to be more gentle on turn-in. And that is what he learned. We did some tuning of the set-up, plus he adjusted his style."

That process was still being explored in Spain, the first of a run of four races during which Raikkonen was to earn just 10 points. At Barcelona he suffered a failure after just nine laps, the first retirement among any of the top runners to date.

Another Massa win confirmed that the Brazilian was on the ascendancy. "That was a pretty bad run," says Dyer. "Spain was an electrical problem - we would have been second or third. We probably wouldn't have beaten Felipe there, but I'm pretty sure it was an easy third, with a probable second."

Having been frustrated by the unreliability at McLaren, Raikkonen was hardly impressed. Keen to get home to Switzerland to watch the ice hockey world championship final on TV, he bailed out of the circuit early. The team had let him go of course, but it created the wrong impression at a bad time. Schumacher would never have done that, we observed. Indeed, that very day Schuey left the paddock three hours after the race - and he hadn't even been driving.

The former world champion was a regular presence at that stage of the season, and there's little doubt that Raikkonen was probably as confused as everyone else about his predecessor's exact role. The Finn clearly bristled at naive questions about how much Michael was helping him. After all, he didn't need any fatherly advice from Mika Hakkinen when he started at McLaren and, at that stage, he had just one year's F1 experience behind him.

Early in Q2 in Monaco, Raikkonen made his most costly mistake of the season, clipping the Swimming Pool barrier with the front right after the back had stepped out on him. A trackrod was broken and a wishbone cracked, and he demonstrated his bravery to the team by insisting he still wanted to go out, and would take responsibility. He was overruled, and forced to start 16th. In a race of low attrition, he made laboured progressed up to eighth.

"That was the mistake he made," says Robertson. "Until that point he was right there. I'd say Monaco was the turning point, despite the mistake. He felt he'd conquered it."

Dyer adds: "Monaco was a strange weekend, with an unforced error. He's been looking pretty good up to then, really comfortable all weekend, really happy with the car. A small mistake, and you pay the price.

"Obviously he was disappointed. We're all disappointed when we make mistakes. We're disappointed when the car breaks down on him, we're disappointed when we don't give him quite the right set-up, and he's disappointed when he doesn't do the job."

The pace of the McLarens was such that Raikkonen would probably have been racing for third in Monaco and there was a similar performance deficit in Canada. This time Raikkonen edged out Massa in qualifying, but he had another poor start, and made life difficult for himself by damaging his front wing on the Brazilian's rear tyre. Later he picked up some of Robert Kubica's crash debris, and he was also delayed by having to wait behind his team-mate at the first stops under the safety car. He eventually finished fifth, after what was outwardly another unconvincing performance. The team felt differently.

"To be honest we weren't that bad in Canada," says Dyer. "We had a dreadful start, and then we got screwed like everybody else by the safety car, so it was never going to be glorious. But the signs through the race were that things weren't as bad as they looked."

Indianapolis a week later was to be even better. It didn't look too promising when Raikkonen made yet another bad start and got stuck behind Nick Heidfeld and Heikki Kovalainen but, in the late stages, he showed impressive speed and set the fastest lap as he salvaged fourth, behind Massa.

"Canada and Indy weren't good results," admits Dyer. "But we would see signs we were making progress."

"The really great thing about Kimi is he suffers for about one hour, and then it's all behind him. It's simple philosophy - and I couldn't do it - which is to say, 'That's behind me now, I can't do anything about it. Let's go forward'" David Robertson

Steve Robertson agrees the US race was significant: "In all honesty, it really clicked at the race at Indianapolis. I think he found his feet there in terms of a car he really enjoyed, and was more to his liking. And from then on I don't think anyone can question the fact that Kimi has been the strongest driver. You can't argue with that."

Nevertheless, after Indy, Raikkonen was 26 points behind Hamilton, and at that stage there seemed to be little hope of stopping the McLaren steamroller. But then things began to swing in his favour. At Magny-Cours he qualified only third, but he got ahead of Hamilton at the start and then made the most of the pit strategy to leapfrog poleman Massa. It was a critical race in many ways, not least because it featured him getting the upper hand on his frustrated team-mate.

"We struggled a little bit earlier in the year with the starts," says Dyer. "And, since Magny-Cours, Kimi's starts have been spot-on. I don't think he's lost a place since then, and more often than not he's gained places. The guys have done a fantastic job with the rest of what's required for the start."

Another win seven days later at Silverstone suggested that Raikkonen might be gaining enough momentum for a title challenge, but Nurburgring was to change that. Significantly, he took his first pole since Melbourne, but then the first-lap rain created a lottery. Raikkonen made his life difficult by understeering out of the pit entry back onto the track, and had to run an extra lap on dry tyres.

Once things calmed down, he was destined for a useful helping of points when he suffered a hydraulic glitch, at the very same track where retirements had cost him two titles at McLaren. It was his second failure of the season - the only other DNF to that point among the top four was Massa's self-inflicted black flag at Montreal.

"It was really gutting for me," Dyer admits. "I'd seen him lose two championships before due to reliability, and it's always been one of our strong points. I was not very happy to think that maybe he was going to lose another one here to reliability."

Robertson says the man himself was unfazed: "The really great thing about Kimi is he suffers for about one hour, and then it's all behind him. It's simple philosophy - and I couldn't do it - which is to say, 'That's behind me now, I can't do anything about it. Let's go forward'."

The next three races featured some efficient points-gathering: an unexpectedly close second to Hamilton in Hungary, another second, to Massa, in Istanbul and a third at Monza on a day when McLaren humbled Ferrari at home.

Baldisserri thinks Raikkonen would have beaten Hamilton in Hungary had he not lost a crucial few seconds when he ran off the road: "He lost two seconds behind Hamilton that didn't allow us to change the strategy in the pitstop, which I think we could have done differently."

Then came Spa, where Raikkonen had won the previous two races for McLaren. He took his third (and final) pole of the season and put in a masterful performance that showed beyond all doubt he was on top of his game.

Top 10: Kimi Raikkonen’s greatest F1 races ranked

A season is fought over 17 races, of course, but arguably it was Fuji that ultimately won Raikkonen the title. After three laps, it looked like he was well out of the game after the team's ill-advised (and, as it turned out, illegal) decision to start on intermediate tyres.

"We took the decision that we took," says Baldisserri. "Until the mathematics put you out of the game, our team spirit is to try, and it was the right approach."

Helped by the safety car, but mostly by a largely unsung virtuoso performance that humbled his struggling team-mate, Raikkonen fought back to third place. He was still in the title picture, but... 17 points in two races?

The impossible dream became a little more likely in China, where he hustled his way past the struggling Hamilton - after keeping his tyres in better shape - and logged a superb wet/dry win. And then came Brazil, where there was only one target: a win, with Massa riding shotgun. Incredibly, all the cards fell into place, and Massa played his supporting role. With six wins to the four of each of the McLaren drivers, no one can deny Raikkonen's claim to the title.

"He did everything right when everybody else was spouting off and saying this or that. He just kept his head down, got on and delivered. That's why Ferrari got him, and I know they're thrilled that he managed to do it" David Robertson

"He's put in some fantastic drives this year," smiles Dyer. "He hasn't let us down, but we've let him down a few times. He's gone from strength to strength, the car's been good, and he hasn't really made any errors in the last two thirds of the season. He's cool and he's fast and he just gets on and does the job."

Robertson adds: "He really is a giant - the right man has won this. He did everything right when everybody else was spouting off and saying this or that. He just kept his head down, got on and delivered. That's why Ferrari got him, and I know they're thrilled that he managed to do it."

Baldisserri offers a fascinating footnote to the season: "Michael had input into the team; he was a lot closer to the team. Kimi has a completely different approach, and he tends to accept what we give to him. It's a lot more complicated for us to understand what he needs. With Michael it was a bit easier. And Kimi drove a very good car this year. Michael showed that even with a car that was not so competitive, he could win. With Kimi, I don't know yet."

Wt happened next?

While Raikkonen's talents have never been questioned, it is remarkable to note since his F1 title-clinching Brazilian GP triumph in 2007, he has gone on to claim a further six grand prix victories, the same total he achieved across his title-winning year.

Despite this, and with the exception of his two years out of F1 in 2010 and 2011, the Finn has never been far away from the sharp end of the F1 grid until his second departure from Ferrari in 2018 to move back to the Sauber-run Alfa Romeo squad.

Raikkonen continues to make F1 history through his longevity. After surpassing Rubens Barrichello's record tally at the 2020 Eifel GP, the Finn made his 341st start in last week's washout Belgian GP and assuming the current TBC 21 November date is filled will end his career on 351 race starts.

PLUS: Why the time is right for Raikkonen to hang up his F1 helmet

While Raikkonen may have never hit the heights of 2007 since, his record remains outstanding in F1 to cement his place as an all-time great.