After the release of Kimi Raikkonen’s autobiography in Finnish and Swedish languages, the English version will be released in October.
‘The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen’ is written by Kari Hotakainen, who is an award-winning Finnish novelist and author. He has written 22 books, most of which has been adopted into a movie. Raikkonen’s autobiography is his first work in non-fiction category.
The Finnish and Swedish version titled ‘Tuntematon Kimi Raikkonen’ was released on August 16 at Restaurant Wallis in Helsinki in the presence of Raikkonen, his wife Minttu and Hotakainen. The event was streamed live by Finnish broadcaster MTV3.
The English version of the much-awaited book is set to be released on October 18, a day after his 39th birthday by Simon & Schuster. The book contains all about his life in general, his ideology, racing journey, family and also unseen pictures.
Early review of the book from Finland and Sweden seems positive with several episodes from his life and racing discussed which were never spoken about in public. He has talked about his drinking habit, which he reckons calms himself to do his job.
He has revealed about the time he was in military service when he was punished for drinking and indiscipline character. He also admits he never liked schooling and that he abandoned studies to get to Netherlands to kick-start his racing career.
On the topic of alcohol, the 2007 champion revealed a time from 2012 when he partied for nearly 16 days in a row and headed to the Spanish GP where he finished third when driving for Lotus upon his return to Formula 1. He thinks alcohol de-stresses him.
The 38-year-old also talked about his rivals, career and tales from the race weekends. He is dyslexic because of which he has to use audio books sometimes. The autobiography shows the side of the ‘Iceman’ in a totally unknown avatar.
