Monday, March 03, 2008
could it be magic?
kimi makes or breaks my day come F1 season. he's the reason why i'm a ferrari fan. hamilton and alonso don't stand a chance with me, they are great but kimi is the greatest. and here's one more reason why i love my kimi, read on:You see it on the podium too. No jumps. No fist-punches. No dances. Just Kimi, quiet and happy to have won another motor race. To have done what he loves doing more than anything else in the world.
And to reflect - maybe, perhaps once in a decade, in special moments - that it's been a long, hard road. His family were not well-off - but his upbringing, clearly, was well-grounded. Many in his situation have wallowed in materialism the instant they have tasted money and power; Kimi stayed - and remains - low-profile. He isn't a big spender. He lives quietly and stays away from the glitz- unless the glitz (and tabloids) finds him, of course. He's his own man, doing things his own way.
After Brazil, I interviewed Kimi for Speed TV before switching, as one does, to Felipe and Fernando. It was while I was talking to Fernando, camera running, that Kimi reappeared in the corner of my eye. He was waving a hand and mouthing something I couldn't quite grasp. I raised my hand to say "Wait a second", finished the chat with Fernando, then asked Kimi what he wanted.
"I forgot to say something," he said. "Start the camera again." We did - whereupon Kimi went into a lovely little soliloquy about just wanting to say hi to his parents and grandparents, who he knew would be watching right now, without whom he would never be where he is, etc...
And it struck me, clearly, for the first time: Kimi, perhaps more than any front-running driver on the grid, has been a loner all these years. His wife and his close family attend races infrequently. There are the Robertsons... but they, too, are low-profile. No. Kimi is just Kimi - and he's at his best when he does what he does from the heart, without reference to anyone around him or to anyone who has stepped there before him. He is unique. The genuine article.
And he is, therefore, a great racing driver in the truest sense of the word.
so for people like me and Peter Windsor (the author of the article), with kimi, everything's magic =)
(4:02 PM) ♥ tal
