Iceman Kimi Räikkönen thaws when it comes to the Netherlands: “A lot thanks to my time there”
Bah. That is F1 driver Kimi Räikkönen’s usual answer to just about any question. But if you ask the Finn a question about the Netherlands, the Iceman will thaw.
In conversation with The Telegraph tells the veteran why our country is important to him. This is where he started his career as a racer, in the kart team of Peter de Bruijn.
“My connection with Peter started in 1997,” says the Alfa Romeo Racing driver. “I remember it well, during the European championship in Genk,” says Räikkönen. “He allowed me to borrow a bike and it was much better than the bikes I had myself. The following year Peter started his own team, PDB, and he asked if I wanted to ride for him.”
“I did everything alone and now I ended up in a kind of factory team. So that in the Netherlands has been important and important for the further course of my career.”
Vlaardingen
Because of his job at PDB, the Finn also lived in the Netherlands, in Vlaardingen. “I have really good memories of that. During the week I often worked on the karts that Peter sold. First I lived alone, then with mechanic Arie and later my Finnish mechanic came to live with me. I still enjoy being in The Netherlands and Belgium, where I have my own motocross team in Lommel.”