Kimi Raikkonen: Net Worth and Former F1 Salaries

How rich is the former Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen?

Kimi Matias Räikkönen, born on October 17, 1979 in Espoo, Finland, who is also known as “Iceman”, is not only one of the most outstanding F1 drivers of our time, but also one of the wealthiest. In 2007, in his first season at Ferrari in which he was also world champion, he earned an impressive 51 million euros and was not only the best-paid F1 driver at the time, but one of the most deserving athletes ever. Despite salary disputes with his former Lotus team and personal factors, will Raikkonen’s fortune is estimated at around 225 million euros. But who is this Finnish racing driver anyway and who is behind the “Iceman”?

Raikkonen’s career – from Kimpa to Iceman

Even Kimpa, which means “little Kimi”, was enthusiastic about everything that has to do with speed and adrenaline in any way and so it happened that he was an enthusiastic kart driver from an early age. But regularly driving a kart on a kart track is expensive – especially in Finland. Therefore, his parents decided not to have their own toilet inside the house so that Kimpa could finance his hobby.

He quickly drove his way up to smaller championships and finally got from there after dominating the British Formula Renault in 2001 to Sauber F1. Since he also demonstrated his great talent and, above all, his maturity with this team, although he only scored 5 points, he only managed to switch to a professional team, namely McLaren Mercedes, one year later.

Although he was very fast and consistently good at McLaren Mercedes, where he was able to gain a foothold unofficially through the recommendation of his friend and compatriot Mika Häkkinen, which he himself had never denied, he was never able to win the world championship due to the lack of technical reliability of his racing car . At that time, he was outside of the Formula 1 world mainly because of his known for numerous advertising deals for TAG Heuer and Mercedes-Benz. He also became known because he always acted closed and cool off the track – hence his nickname “Iceman” – while on the track he showed courage, concentration and determination above all.

2007 world championship title as the highest paid F1 driver of all time

When he switched to Ferrari in 2007 after numerous frustrating races, he won the world championship and the at the same time in the last race of the season unofficial title of the highest earning F1 driver with a salary of $ 51 million. For comparison: the currently best paid F1 drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

After a two-year break (2010 & 2011), in which Kimi had driven for various racing classes outside the premier class, he finally came back for the 2012 season and decided on that Team Lotus F1, which promised him EUR 8 million plus EUR 50,000 per point in a two-year contract. Be it that the team did not expect such frequent podium places or that they simply speculated. The 17.15 million euros due after Kimi had scored 183 points were not paid on time. It is still unclear whether Raikkonen has received part or all of the money in the meantime.

At the start of the 2014 season, Raikkonen returned to Scuderia Ferrari, where he earned the equivalent of 25 million euros per year. However, these 25 million were only his basic salary, which, as with Lotus F1, could increase depending on the placements in the points. At the end of the 2018 season, the Finn left Ferrari because the contract was no longer renewed.

Kimi was replaced by Charles Leclerc and took Leclerc’s place in the cockpit of Alfa Romeo. From the 2019 season he was under contract with Alfa Romeo and earned a basic salary of 4 million euros, which again comes with fat point bonuses. An incredible career came to an end on December 12th, 2021.

Kimi Raikkonen’s possessions

The Iceman owns a large property in Switzerland, not far from his teammate Sebastian Vettel’s property, with which he is friends. Until a few years ago he had a luxury villa near Helsinki on the small island of Kaskisaari. He once paid 11.7 million euros for his Finnish villa, while it was sold for around 14 million euros. He has also owned a luxury property on the holiday island of Phuket since his time at McLaren Mercedes. According to his own statements, he bought the Thai villa for that time of the season when numerous races take place in Asia.

_{Image sources:
Solarpix / PR Photos}