S3 E7: Raikkonen's controversial F1 arrival

Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories

The Race Media Ltd

Sports

4.9 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2021

⏱️ 76 minutes

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Summary

SPECIAL GUEST: Kimi Raikkonen's Sauber engineer from 2001 - Jacky Eeckelaert! Sauber made waves over the winter of 2000-01 when it decided to sign a young Finn straight out of Formula Renault, with only 23 car races to his name. In the space of 12 months Kimi Raikkonen went from testing an F1 car for the first time - and impressing Michael Schumacher in the process - to signing for McLaren to replace two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen. Jacky Eeckelaert shares stories from inside Sauber, from the moment the team first gave Raikkonen a run-out at Mugello, to all the fuss about him being granted a superlicence - and why FIA president Max Mosley voted against it. Jacky also explains how big a mark Raikkonen made from the first time he sat in an F1 car, why Sauber never had any doubts about him being ready for F1 despite his lack of experience, how quickly he settled in during his rookie season - plus the story of how he tried to reattach his steering wheel when it came off at Imola, and kept his foot flat on the accelerator the whole time while doing so!We then plot the inevitability of Raikkonen's departure from Sauber just one year into a three-year deal, as McLaren and Ferrari went to battle for his services. Mark Hughes joins Jacky and host Glenn Freeman to explain what made Raikkonen stand out as soon as he joined the F1 grid, and why choosing silver over red was the right move for 2002. We also look at the other McLaren-contracted drivers who thought they were in with a shot of that drive, including one man who was told the seat was his before Raikkonen signed! ASK US ANYTHING: Get your questions in for our series finale on anything to do with F1 from 1989-2005 by using #BringBackV10s on Twitter, or leave us a five-star podcast review and ask your question there!

Transcript

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0:00.0	When Salbus signed Kimi Reichenen to make his F1 debut in 2001, he'd only been out of
0:10.9	carts for a year and had 23 car races and a Formula Renault UK title under his belt.
0:17.3	It was a controversial signing and one that the FIA president tried and failed to block.
0:23.0	On this episode of Bring Back V10s, we'll tell the inside story of Rikkon's arrival to F1 with
0:28.4	the help of someone who was there to witness it all from first-hand inside Saaba.
0:33.0	But before we get to that, remember to get your questions in for our series finale, or
0:37.2	you can ask us anything
0:38.1	about F1 from 1989 to 2005, simply by using the hashtag Bring Back V10s on Twitter, or by
0:45.2	leaving us a five-star podcast review if you feel so inclined. Before we get to our guests today,
0:50.6	we'll do a quick shout out to some of our latest reviewers, so thank you very much to
0:55.2	202 to Heathrow, AB Fitness 81, Richmond Tom and Twitch 1089. We really appreciate all the
1:03.0	reviews that are flying in at the moment and I'll do my best over the remaining episodes of this
1:07.5	series to catch up with the rest of them. But now let's get onto today's subject
1:11.8	and we'll start with our special guest who should have an inside story or two for us from
1:16.6	Reichenen's first year in F1. So it's a very special welcome to the show to Reikinen's engineer
1:21.8	from that season, Jackie Echler. Jackie, thanks for coming along. You're welcome. Now, we always
1:27.2	start these shows with the same first question, so I'll throw it to you first,
1:32.3	which is quite simply, when you think back to Reichen's arrival in Formula One, what's
1:38.3	the first thing that comes to mind?
1:40.3	Well, of course, maybe I first can tell you how we came up with the idea of Kimi.
1:48.2	I mean, it was actually in the year 2000, Saabur had two drivers, Micah Sauer and Pedro Dini.
1:55.8	I think Pedro decided to quit F1 and Mika was offered a drive by Toyota who entered F1 and okay let's say the offer of Toyota was a bit too much to make a counteroffer from the cyber site.
	...

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