That young Finnish rookie Kimi Raikkonen was an extreme sports fanatic was not a surprise to anyone, as he demonstrated in 2001 before his first Formula 1 race, when he switched the cockpit of his Sauber for another kind: the cockpit of one of the famous RAAF Roulettes aircraft.
The 21-year old Finn, who made his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix that Sunday, got a ride in the Pilatus PC9 aircraft. The man in charge for Kimi Raikkonen’s flight over the Albert Park Grand Prix circuit was the leader of the Roulettes, Squadron-Leader Sean Bellenger.
For display manoeuvre purposes the Pilatus, capable of 770 km/h, trims its top speed back to 450 km/h about a third faster than Kimi Raikkonen’s Sauber will be travelling on the ground over the Qantas Australian Grand Prix weekend.
Kimi Raikkonen had his feet back on the ground later in the morning, but not for long. The intrepid young Finn was later at the Grand Prix circuit itself to go freestyle motocross jumping with Queenslander Jonathan Porter.
We later found out that Kimi’s mom was worried that he would get a nose bleed in the high altitude, but of Kimi escaped unscathed!
