In the second part of Pit Debrief‘s exclusive interview with Steve Hallam, we spoke to the British engineer about working with 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen.
Although the 21-time Grand Prix winner won his World Championship with Scuderia Ferrari, many would say the best period of his career came at McLaren.
Räikkönen was lightning fast in his five seasons at McLaren after he replaced the retiring Mika Häkkinen. He was extremely unfortunate not to win the 2003 and 2005 F1 championships as unreliability haunted him.
Hallam discusses what it was like working with Räikkonen
Steve Hallam worked with Kimi Räikkönen across those seasons at McLaren. He explained how direct the Finn was regarding with what he wanted from the car, often with minimal talking.
The driver from Espoo notoriously hated understeer, something which Hallam and Räikkönen’s race engineer Mark Slade quickly learned.
“Kimi was great.
“So, Kimi came into an era in Formula 1 where the data systems were so sophisticated that we knew an awful lot about the car, even before the drivers sat down to talk to us about it.
“Kimi was a man of few words. A lot of Finns are, to be honest. Not all, but a lot of Finns are.
“But we very quickly learned that when Kimi did say something, it was important to listen. Kimi was one of those drivers that didn’t get into the nitty-gritty detail of the car.
“He would tell Mark Slade that ‘if you reduce the understeer, I will go faster’. And Mark would reduce the understeer like he could, and Kimi would go faster.
“Once Kimi was established at McLaren, and I think 2005 was a great year for Kimi, he often said by the end of Saturday morning practice, ‘the car is really good Mark, just leave it to me now’. And whenever he said that, we could put money on the fact that he was going to be on pole.”
Hallam on the human side of Räikkönen
The British engineer talked about the qualities of Räikkönen on a human level as well, praising the Finn for how he was as a person. Many in the paddock have credited the 2007 World Champion for not playing politics and always being direct and honest.
“He deserves all of the accolades that he has about his speed, about his minimalistic approach to conversations, about everything that goes with it.
“He was a super, super chap to work with, he was easy. There was no side to him. Most of the time he was happy. I’m getting a bit Kimi-like here, but not being overly verbose, he was a good guy.
“Even when he left us to go to Ferrari, and when he had his brief sojourn in rallying, then went back [to F1], it was the same Kimi.
“But by then the whole world loved him.”
The incredible 2005 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka
As Steve Hallam mentioned previously, Kimi Räikkönen had an outstanding year in 2005. He won seven races that season. In fact, unreliability cost him reaching double figures, and more importantly it lost him the Drivers’ Championship.
The last win of that campaign and in his time McLaren was at Suzuka, arguably his greatest of all. October will mark 20 years since the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix, one of the all-time great races in the history of F1.
At the end of qualifying, Räikkönen, Alonso, Montoya and Michael Schumacher found themselves at the back of the grid as torrential rain hit them near the end. It was a one-shot effort back then.
The Finn was P17 on the grid. Nonetheless, this did not dampen his spirits according to Hallam.
“We were doing single lap qualifying in that era, and the qualifying session, we were going to be last but one for qualifying. Qualifying was starting on a damp track and then it rained [very hard] on us, so we were at the back of the grid.
“There would be some drivers that felt that would be the end of the world. Not Kimi. Not that Kimi was saying, ‘I can win this’. He was not like that at all.
“But he just, he was very matter-of-fact. He said, ‘well, we’ll do our best’. That was classic Kimi. I’ll do my best.”
An astonishing win with a last-lap pass to do it
McLaren fuelled Räikkönen long in anticipation of the heavy rain falling at the end of qualifying. By lap 13 he was in the points, although he was behind Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.
Critically he jumped Alonso in the Renault through the first round of fuel stops as he ran longer. He quickly cleared Schumacher after they pitted for the first time on the same lap.
However, victory looked lost as he got tucked up behind Mark Webber and Jenson Button, dropping to 20s behind Giancarlo Fisichella in the other Renault who was comfortably leading.
Räikkönen did not give up however. He pushed like a maniac before his final stop, setting a lap record in the process. The McLaren driver came out in P2 and hunted down the Italian driver.
Fisichella defended into the final chicane, giving Räikkönen a chance on the exit. He got in the slipstream and passed the Renault around the outside into turn 1. The McLaren garage and pitwall was in raptures.
Steve Hallam was on the radio to Räikkönen on that famous day in Suzuka and he explained all the emotions of that day.
“We went into that race and it, he started moving up the field.
“And over the last three or four laps, I was actually calling out to Kimi over the radio, the sector gaps, because he was closing on Fisichella, and he was taking big chunks out of him in each of the three sectors.
“I really wanted to keep his momentum going. Not that he needed encouraging, but I wanted him to know what the time gap was.
“And when he came into view around out of the chicane to start the last lap, he actually took Fisichella going into turn one. I think even Ron [Dennis] was in tears.
“I mean, it was just a friggin awesome drive. You were just happy to have been a part of because he was such a good guy, he was a brilliant driver. And he was just non plussed, ‘oh, good, won, another one’. We were just over the moon for him. It was awesome.
“But the good thing about Kimi, he knew how to celebrate as well.”
