Coming Of Age

Even as Adam Gilchrist was wading into the Indians in Johannesburg and layingthe foundation for their departure, another athlete, in another continent, inanother sport, was announcing his arrival on the big stage.

Race car driver KimiRaikkonen is called the ‘The Iceman’, as much for where he comes from(Finland) as for his demeanour (cool and stoic). On a sizzling Sunday afternoonin Sepang, Raikkonen kept his cool in his silver McLaren-Mercedes, set ascorching pace at the Malaysian Grand Prix, and coasted home to his maidenFormula 1 race win.

It was an emphatic victory all right, but one had to search hard for tracesof emotion on the 23-year-old’s face or in his words on his accomplishment. Atthe post-race conference, Raikkonen, when he wasn’t literally swallowing hisown words, mumbled something about it being a good win, something about his racecrew doing a good job and a couple more done-to-death sporting clichés  --butnothing, absolutely nothing that would swirl in the memory or capture theenormity of the occasion. Other than nonchalance, there was nothing visible onthat frosty exterior. The Iceman.

Perhaps, in private, after the euphoria had died down, Raikkonen might havelet down his guard, smiled unabashedly and said to himself, "This is something".Perhaps, while coasting back to the pits after taking the chequered flag, stillstrapped in the intimate confines of his car, his mind must have wandered backin time, to around two years ago, to his formative days in Formula 1. He mighthave thought about the harsh words of his detractors on his early initiation inthe sport, and he might have chuckled to himself.

You see, back then, while acknowledging his awesome natural talent to drivefast and with control, they had warned Raikkonen wasn’t ready for the bigleague. They said that, at 21, he was too young to drive and compete in Formula1. They said, with just 20-odd drives in the lower rungs of car racing, he wastoo fresh and inexperienced to bang wheels against some of the best drivers inthe world in the pinnacle of motor sport. All things considered, the sport’sgoverning body gave him four races to prove he belonged in the sport. He neededjust one.

In his first race, driving for Sauber, Raikkonen finished sixth. He continuedto blossom through his rookie season, and helped the unheralded Sauber team comehome fourth -- the best of the rest. Soon, he had been snapped up by McLaren, oneof the three front-running teams. He continued to provide generous trailers ofhis promise during the 2002 season, but consistency -- and race wins -- continuedto elude him. Still, most people agreed, it was only a matter of time beforeRaikkonen started winning races.

Twice, the Finn flirted with luck and botched it up. At the French Grand Prixlast year, he was done in by experience, rather the lack of it. Leading MichaelSchumacher with four laps to go, he failed to notice the streak of oil on theracing line left by a misfiring car, slipped and ran wide, and let Schumithrough. At this year’s Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2003season, when leading Schumacher again and looking set for a race win, he wascalled in for speeding in the pit lane, and eventually had to settle for thirdplace.

With such blunders piling up on his McLaren dossier, it was little surprisethat as Raikkonen was steering his car around the track for those last few lapsat Sepang, Ron Dennis, the unflappable team boss, clutched his head in his handsand stole precious glances at the TV screen on the pit wall.

In the end,Raikkonen got his much-deserved maiden win and Dennis was a much-relieved man.Dennis would say after the race: "It’s his first win. I can’t tell youhow important a first win is for a grand prix driver. The weight it takes offhis shoulders and how much he (Raikkonen) deserves it. It was a faultlessdrive."

For a race car driver, a first win is an important psychological barrierclimbed. It’s a bit like a batsman’s first century, or a striker’s firstgoal, or a tennis player’s first tournament win. For Raikkonen, who had twicebeen run-out in the nineties, to continue with the cricketing analogy, it musthave been a defining moment in his short career. Still, the question must beasked, does one race victory merit such accolades to be heaped on one soundistinguished and unproven in his profession?

In the case of Raikkonen, it probably does, as the Finn has progressivelyshown that he has the nuts and bolts to become a world champion in Formula 1.And, given a competitive car, that might just come about in the not too distantfuture. Right from the moment he stepped into Formula 1, he was earmarked as afuture champion, the one who would take the baton from Schumacher Sr, the onewho would follow in the slipstream of fellow Finn Mika Hakkinen. This win, andhis recent pugnacious drives in Formula 1, are signs of bigger and better thingsto come for the quiet Finn.

Perhaps, more than Malaysia, it was at the previous grand prix, in Australia,that Raikkonen really showed that he had come of age. Speeding down Albert Park,pursued by the flame red Ferrari of Schumacher, impatient to get through,Raikkonen not only held his own, he took the battle to the German. He rubbedwheels with Schumacher, kissed the kerbs, hustled him into the grass, and cameout ahead.

Over the past few years, driving wheel to wheel with Schumacher has come tobe seen as the sternest test of character for any Formula 1 driver. Only ahandful of drivers have been seen to be unfazed by this duel.

Among the currentlot, Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams and Jacques Villeneuve (in a good car); Ifhe wasn’t a Ferrari driver, Rubens Barrichello might also make the cut. Byshowing that he wasn’t intimidated by the prospect of racing Schumacher oneven terms, Raikkonen had made a case for admittance to that league. Defendingis one thing, attacking is quite another. It remains to be seen, though, ifRaikkonen has got what it takes to overtake Schumacher in a race situation.

Such steely resolve is the reason why Raikkonen is likely to steal a marchover McLaren team-mate David Coulthard, who is extremely prolific at picking upthe pieces but not so much in creating race victories for himself. Aconservative approach like that, bereft of controlled bravado, dynamism andrisk-taking, will win points and occasionally races, but not championships. Sucha strategy has a hollow ring to it. It’s fitting that, right through Formula 1history, the hallmark of champions has been their ability to set the pace,intimidate the opposition and manufacture race victories.

With a race win under his belt, much will change in the way the F1 fraternitylooks at Raikkonen. Now that he’s broken the victory jinx and is leading thedriver’s championship, the team’s expectations from him are bound toincrease manifold. No more will he escape scathing criticism for mishaps andmistakes on the grounds that he’s a young man finding his feet. Each time, hestraps up on the grid, he’ll be expected to outpace the Ferraris and theWilliams. Raikkonen is the sort of guy who strives for that kind of billing.

Raikkonen’s speedy progress and the qualifying-driven shakeouts of thefirst two races have made this year’s championship the most interesting sincethe mid-nineties, when Ferrari were playing catch-up with their rivals. It’sstill very early days in the year to call it a three-horse race between Ferrari,McLaren and Williams. To even suggest that the reign of Ferrari and Schumacheris over is foolhardy.

Going by the evidence at hand and the performance in the first two races,Ferrari still has the fastest cars in the paddocks and Schumacher remains thequickest driver. And they have something in reserve. Ferrari’s new car,expected to be significantly quicker than the current car, is likely to startburning the race tracks when the Formula 1 circus hits Europe, two races downthe line.

This far, the Italian team has been hard done by the fickle weatherand rare driving errors. But as the season unfolds, such factors tend todisappear or even out, and therefore one would expect Ferrari to make a strongsurge in the points table, and finish another year on the top.

Ferrari remain the favourites, but even they will closely watch theirrear-view mirrors for the chasing pack, which has probably found a new permanentmember in the silver McLaren-Mercedes of Raikkonen. For this quiet, young manfrom Finland, who sports a small tattoo of a smiling sun on his right wrist,things are indeed looking bright.