#bucket !!

[bucket-of-f1]

Kimi Räikkönen Bankrupts the British

It's 2011, and everyone's favorite Flying Finn, Kimi Räikkönen, is looking to get back into F1. After a break to do rally (dirt racing, point-to-point stages where the fastest times determine winners), Räikkönen was getting the itch for some track limits defined by kerbs and not spectators.

Williams was originally going to pick him up, but the Lotus F1 team saw a shot to rise up again, and poached Räikkönen for the 2012 season before Williams could finalize a deal.

What you need to know is, Team Lotus's 2011 car? It sucked. They didn't score a single point. And worse, some financial and legal issue behind the scenes meant that Team Lotus withdrew after a single season in F1: the Lotus that Räikkönen ended up driving for? The Renault team, under a different title sponsor: Lotus F1 Team.

Yeah. Team Lotus (Malaysian) and Lotus F1 Team (British) were not the same. Although Renault supplied engines for both teams, back to back.

F1 gets a little weird when it comes to the money side of things. And don't worry. We're about to delve into the money side of things.

Anyway, all this is to say that Räikkönen was being thrown around a little. If Lotus was gonna keep him, they would have to sweeten the deal. Besides his €8,000,000 a year salary (roughly $13,300,000 today), they offered him €50,000 per point scored. That's $82,335 today.

Per. Point.

This is Kimi Räikkönen we're talking about, considered a generational talent on par with Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and Michael Schumacher. So how well did he do?

Kimi scored 2 wins over the two years with Lotus, which doesn't actually sound like a lot. You'd think one of the best drivers of all time would be able to do more than that. But you have to remember. This wasn't per win, or per podium. It was per point. And Kimi Räikkönen is well known for scoring points in cars that had no business doing as well as they did. If Räikkönen could drag the Lotus to two wins, what do you think he did the other 35 races?

2012. 7 Podiums, 11 top five finishes, Räikkönen finished in the points in every race except for one (China, where the tire strategy screwed him over a little bit). He had a total of 19 points finishes. His teammate, Romain Grosjean, finished 8th in the championship, with 96 points. Driving the exact same car, Räikkönen finished 3rd. With 207 points.

This was also the year with the famous "Just leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" quote from Räikkönen, when speaking to his team over the radio.

He won that race.

In 2013, Räikkönen dropped the last two races to undergo surgery for his back, to solve a medical issue causing extreme pain and discomfort through the 2013 season. Did this hinder his performance?

He won the first race of the season.

8 podiums. 10 top five finishes. Of the 16 races he finished, he scored points in every race except for one (Italy, where he was one spot away from points after having to pit on the first lap to replace a damaged front wing). Even dropping the last two races and having two race retirements (where he couldn't score points -- also to note is that neither retirement was his fault), he finished the season with 183 points, 5th in the championship.

In two years, Räikkönen had scored 390 points. At €50,000 per point, they owed him €19,500,000, plus his normal salary for both years, €16,000,000. This equalled measly sum of €35,500,000.

Doing some quick math, adjusting for inflation on the Euro from 2012 and 2013 and converting to USD: I’m todays terms, Lotus owed him the equivalent of $56,683,856.63. Fifty-six million, six hundred eighty-three thousand, eight hundred fifty-six dollars. And sixty-three cents.

That's almost 56.7 million dollars. In two years.

He eventually joined Ferrari for the 2014 season, over monetary disagreements with Lotus. The disagreements at hand?

Lotus... wasn't doing well, funding wise. That (effective) 56.7 million dollar paycheck they'd have to write wasn't exactly...

Well, to put it honestly, it wasn't exactly possible. Lotus didn't have the money.

Luckily for Lotus, Kimi Räikkönen (being the good guy we all know and love) volunteered a solution: he simply wouldn't take the money they owed him in his contract. They paid him what they could, but he refused to take an amount that would cause Lotus to layoff workers.

Unfortunately, Lotus F1 did eventually go under, and it's not a stretch to say that their underestimation of Kimi Räikkönen played a role in that.

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Also... I HAVE BEEN RELEASED.

I have successfully completed my side quest of “College demands your Immediate! and Undivided! attention” and am now able to bother you all with my presence once again.

I know, I know. My absence was nearly too much to bear *dramatic sigh* but fear not!! I am mingle and ready to Pringle.

Something like that.

Love y'all!

[dear-ao3]

bucket here

I’d just like to note that the instant I sent the ask I started writing in the hopes you would say yes and I like actually squeaked I was so happy when you did and also I’ve been writing nonstop since then so bear with me:

*takes deep breath* Safety restrictions were famously lax in F1 until the 1990s. The deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna within days of each other at the 1994 Imola GP sparked a huge movement for new safety systems, especially barrier changes. As Senna and Ratzenburger both died in accidents related to the fact that the safety barriers at the edges of tracks were just CEMENT WALLS, this was a huge push for many teams, drivers, and tracks. No one wanted the death of more legends on their hands. These accidents also inspired additions like headrests in 1996 and the HANS system (head and neck support), put in place in 2003. HANS can be seen when drivers get out of the car — it’s that space-age looking neck brace/strap on their shoulders and helmet.

Some safety systems that are much less talked about are things like the accelerometer, first used in 2014 and placed in the drivers ear. This measures the forces during impacts, and its location in the ear allows both for less invasive placement and accurate data on head/neck movement for drivers. This then leads to better safety systems capable of being studied, reasoned for, and implemented. The addition in 2016 of a camera that faces the driver also allows for safety teams to see exactly how the driver is affected during crashes, as well as giving fans a fun camera angle (which I can rant about as well, camera angles in F1 are a huge thing for me). 

Rapid fire safety systems (there will be a quiz):

Helmets were first introduced in 1952, but not required until 1977.

Seatbelts/racing harnesses required starting 1972.

Fireproof race suits have been required since 1975.

The safety car didn’t even exist until 1993 (trial runs in 1992, first seen in 1973 Canadian GP)

Pit lane speed limit introduced in 1994. Yes, before this they just ripped through as fast as they could; no, the pit crews didn’t stand any further away.

Wheel tethers introduced in 1999 after an unholy amount of incidents going back to pre-1950 (AKA official F1 start) where the wheels just came off and smacked drivers, marshals, and fans, usually killing them instantly.

The most notable safety system recently is the Halo and VSC (virtual safety car). The halo was put in place in 2018 and will hopefully never leave. It has been the savior of hundreds of lives throughout Formula series, but most well known in Formula 1 were Lewis Hamilton (2021 Monza GP, stopped Max Verstappen's car from becoming a permanent fixture in the side of his head) and Romain Grosjean (2020 Bahrain GP, pushed the crash fencing up away from his head as he hit the barriers), as well as possibly Zhou Guanyu (2022 British GP, flipped upside down and up over tire barriers into catch fencing) and Max Verstappen (2021 British GP, incredibly hard hit into a tire barrier — 51G impact at 160 MPH/257 KPH). 

There had been a number of close calls that brought up the possibility of halos, like Fernando Alonso almost having his head removed from this world at Spa in 2012 on lap one, and an incident between Michael Schumacher and Vitantonio Luizzi at Abu Dhabi in 2010 that left Luizzi’s Force India inches from Schumacher’s face.

Unfortunately, it took the horrific death of Jules Bianchi in 2014 at the Japanese GP and a number of junior driver fatalities for the Halo to be finally seriously considered and implimented. Bianchi’s incident also led to the Virtual Safety car, which was put in place in 2015 to keep accidents like his from happening. I can talk more about his incident as well if you’d like. It’s a masterpiece of administrative fuck ups and terrible oversights.

(Ask me about it and camera angles I dare you)

HELLO BUCKET

this is wonderful thank u thank u

i did know a little about the senna crash (tho not the concrete barriers) (i do know that when it happened they were trying to revive the drivers union which is awful) and the bianchi crash (i looked at that quite extensively for update post) but Yeesh yeah the safety stuff is Terrifying. pls. pls tell me about the camera angles.

[bucket-of-f1]

Some History

There have been many Formula One World Driver's Champions.

This is a vast oversimplification: Since 1950, 75 WDC trophies have been awarded, to 34 unique drivers. The full list can be found on Wikipedia, but here's the highlights.

Guiseppe Farina wins the first F1 WDC in 1950, claiming victory in the 7th race of 7 (a far cry from todays 24). Driving an Alfa Romeo, Italian dominance in the sport becomes established.

Juan Manuel Fangio and Alberto Ascari headline 1951-1957. Driving for Ferrari, Maserati, and Mercedes, the two battle until Ascari's death in 1955, Fangio continuing on in the sport until 1958. They walked away with seven titles between them, Ascari with 2 (1952, 1953) and Fangio with five (1951, 1954-57)

Jack Brabham becomes the third driver to win two championships back-to-back, in 1959 and 1960, with Cooper. He won a third title in 1966 with his own racing company, Brabham. And yes, I do mean that Cooper.

Now-famous names like Phill Hill, Graham Hill (no relation), Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, and Emmerson Fittipaldi dominate the 60's and 70's.

Niki Lauda and James Hunt battle throughout 1975, '76, and '77, spawning a huge uptick in interest in the sport as their rivalry reached legendary levels, including rather unfavorable nicknames and an accident that left Niki Lauda scarred for life, through he continued racing for years -- they even made a movie, featuring everyone's favorite lighting-wielding-Asgardian as Hunt and an accent I could listen to all day as Lauda:

Another bout of famous names work their way into the newspapers of the world; Mario Andretti, Jodie Scheckter, Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, and Keke Rosberg (we'll be seeing the Rosberg name again soon); these ones coloring the late 1970's and early 1980's. Niki Lauda's final title is won in 1984, capping him off at three.

In 1982, promising racing driver Gilles Villeneuve dies in a racing accident at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, the unfortunate end to a career that likely would have led to at least one WDC (closest a non-French speaker will get to his name is Sheel Veal-nerve). The Canadian Grand Prix circuit in Montreal is named after him. Fear not! the Villeneuve name will return...

Frenchman Alain Prost breaks into the headlines, winning his first and second WDC's with McLaren in 1985 and 1986, five years after he joined with the very same team to begin his F1 career in 1980. Prost quickly found himself under fire from the Brazilian Bulls, with Nelson Piquet taking 1987 and Ayrton Senna taking 1988, '90, and '91. Prost scraped himself a 1989 victory, all three drivers doing so with McLaren. Piquet and Senna finished their careers with three championships each, Prost claiming his fourth and final in 1993.

From 1984-1991, McLaren built a car that won a driver the world championship seven out of eight years (beaten only by Williams in 1987).

In 1994, Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna lose their lives in accidents during the San Marino Grand Prix weekend (now Imola). Michael Schumacher wins his first World Championship at the Pacific Grand Prix that year with Benneton (who was later bought out by Renault). Schumacher takes 1995 as well.

Damon Hill, son of two-time-WDC Graham Hill (1962, 1968), wins the 1996 championship, the first of two father-son duos to win the WDC.

The Villineage Strikes Back! Jacques Villeneuve wins the 1997 WDC in the 17th round of 17, a hard fight and well earned trophy.

1998-2001 were years characterized by battles between Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen. Häkkinen took 1998 and '99, Schumacher swiping 2000 and '01.

Häkkinen's retirement following the 2001 season led to Schumacher's nearly unchallenged three year run from 2002-2004, cementing himself in history as the record holder of seven WDC's.

Renault discovers that they can, in fact, build a good racing car, and youngster Fernando Alonso wins the 2005 and 2006 season's with them.

Kimi Räikkönen, a favorite around here, wins in 2007 with Ferrari, the first and only of what should have been four world championships for the Finn.

Lewis Hamilton wins in 2008 with McLaren, his first of many WDC's. Jenson Button Wins the year after with Brawn GP, a 2009 victory that will go down in history for it's surprising dominance.

Sebastian Vettel takes 2010-2013, a four-year slew of victories and dominant performances with Red Bull that cement his place as one of the greatest drivers in the sport's history.

2014-2020, also known as the Mercedes Era, the Silver Age, the Silver War, the Arrow's Attack... I made the last one up. But it exists now. Mercedes-built machines dominate the sport so hard we might as well have forgotten there was ever a talking stage. Lewis Hamilton takes every championship in this stage -- except for one year. 2016. A year no F1 fan will ever forget. The year Nico Rosberg (son of Keke Rosberg, 1982 WDC) finally beat his rival and once-friend, Lewis Hamilton. After Rosberg announced his retirement post-2016, Hamilton collected the next three championships, bringing his total up to seven.

2021. I'm not even going to talk about this season. It needs it's own post. All I'll say is, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fought a season-long battle that resulted in a controversial Verstappen title win.

2022-2024: Red Bull (and Max Verstappen) dominance, Verstappen collecting his second, third, and fourth driver's championships, all with Red Bull.

2025: McLaren strength at the end of 2024 carried over into the beginning of the 2025 season, and Oscar Piastri has taken an early lead against his teammate Lando Norris. We'll see how it all plays out...

[bucket-of-f1]

Fernando Alonso

So this guy.

Fernando Alonso of Spain is currently the oldest driver on the Formula One grid. Born on July 29, 1981, he celebrated his 43rd birthday in the middle of last season.

He entered F1 in 2001 and raced until 2018, then joined back in 2021. So 2001-2018, 2021-2025 (and beyond). That's 22 seasons of F1 at 43 years old, so 51% of his life. And let's not forget, he didn't just take a little siesta while he wasn't in F1. This man is a true multi-disciplinary-athlete:

While in a full F1 season No full F1 season

2017: - One race with Mclaren-Honda-Andretti in Indycar

2018: - Full season of WEC (World Endurance Championship) with Toyota Gazoo Racing, together they earned 1st place in the Championship (due to a strange schedule shift, this championship straddled 2018-19, so I'm just going to mention it in the 2019 bullet) - 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota Gazoo Racing (which he WON) - One race with United Autosports in IMSA (American endurance racing)

2019: - WEC 2018-19 season - 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota Gazoo Racing (which he won AGAIN) - One race with Konica Minolta Cadillac in IMSA

2020: - Dakar Rally (even after 2 crashes he ran the second fastest time of the event) (he reportedly wishes to go back to Dakar after his F1 retirement) - One race with Arrow McLaren SP (Indycar)

So yeah. The guy can race. And he's been doing it for over half his life. With as long of an F1 run as he's in, you get some ups and downs.

And boy has he had them.

For instance:

In the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, we were treated to this gem of a shot:

Yep, that is Alonso flipping off a Williams.

Man, that looks like a nasty crash. I wonder if the Williams hit him? I mean, a reaction like that would be warranted by a collision-

Oh.

He just.

Hit the wall.

In his defense, the Williams effectively attempted to defend by hugging the inside of the tunnel section, where Alonso's Renault was obviously faster, and the Williams, driven by Ralf Schumacher, was about to be lapped. This wasn't a fight for position. If passed, Ralf remained in 11th place, as Alonso was in second.

Alonso accused R. Schumacher of dangerous driving. Nothing much came of it, aside from the fantastic screenshot that is Alonso giving Ralf the bird.

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There was also the bit where he passed Michael Schumacher at 130r: because Michael had kids. Here's the clip, then I'll explain.

Japan 2005 - 130R - Alonso passes Schumacher

Alonso, a young driver, had the boldness that most young drivers tend to have. At 24 years old, Alonso wanted the win, and in his way was seven time world champion Michael Schumacher. Something to note is that Alonso had already won the championship. He didn't need the win so badly that a pass as dangerous as this would be considered necessary.

While badass, it should be known that this was incredibly dangerous. Had Schumacher understeered or not backed out, this would have been one of the fastest crashes in Formula One history, and considering the safety innovations that were missing back then, they both likely would have died.

When asked about the pass, Alonso dropped one of the hardest lines in the history of the sport: "I knew he'd brake; he has a wife and two kids at home."

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Mr. V (who I credit and will continue to credit a lot on this blog) made an ELO engine to rank F1 drivers. ELO engines are used to calculate a chess player's skill, and Mr. V coded one for F1 using data against other drivers in equal machinery (teammates). You should watch the video, but long story short:

Alonso is the highest ranking driver in the history of the sport (according to the program, which isn't exactly perfect but still is a cool measure and fact) (at the time of publication, he has updated the ELO engine, although admits it has a host of new issues he's attempting to fix).

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Alonso has also had some really nasty crashes over his career. At 2003 in interlagos, he and Mark Webber were involved in a post race incident leading their cars to look like this:

This crash was so high impact that Alonso wasn't on the podium despite finishing top 3, because the medics were still investigating and hadn't cleared him. Luckily, he and Webber survived (relatively) unscathed:

Start at 1:13 for the Webber/Alonso crash.

That bit left over, the "cockpit" Alonso and Webber sat in, is designed like that on purpose: it's known as the survival cell, and as seen in the crashes above, it's the part that stays together. The car spins apart at high impacts, dispersing the energy from the crash in every direction but the driver themselves.

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He also had a mysterious crash during testing with McLaren in 2015 that was largely… quieted? There’s not a lot of details about how the accident happened — what we do know is that that year’s McLaren was plagued with issues, technical and mechanical. There’s stories of a small explosion, an electrical current shock, memory loss, etc.

The explosion idea is largely chalked up to be a shadow on the side of the car that some people took to be a burn mark. The electrical shock I think has something to do with telemetry or the nature of the accident, not sure exactly where that came from. The memory loss is actually founded in truth: Alonso suffered a concussion from the accident resulting in temporary memory loss — he was reportedly confused to be in a Formula One car, and told doctors that the year was 1995, saying: “I'm Fernando, I'm in karts and want to become Formula 1 driver.”

Here’s some forums from around that time discussing the accident. And yes, you’ll see all kinds of theories on here — F1 has its own conspiracy theorist community and some of them are wild.

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In 2016, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Gutierrez came together down a fast stretch. Alonso mispredicted when Gutierrez would hit the brakes, and the resulting contact at 189 MPH (305 KPH) caused a 45 G rollover crash. Thankfully, though the crash looks terrible, the rollover-nature of the accident meant that the forces exerted upon Alonso were minimal, and he walked away from the accident with little assistance. He later said that he got out of the car as fast as he could so that his mother, who he knew watched his races, would know he was okay.

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And finally, some of my favorite pictures.

After the 8th round of the 2012 season, the European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain, this is what the scoreboards looked like.

Alonso with 111 points, Ferrari with 122.

Alonso raced for Ferrari. 90.98% of their points were from HIM ALONE.

Going into this race, the season had seen a different winner every race for the first seven races. The race saw Alonso's 19th victory and second of the season, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton retirements, and Michael Schumacher's first podium since 2006 (six year gap, although he was on retirement during the 2007-2009 seasons).

The race has some good action, I recommend looking up the highlights.

[bucket-of-f1]

update!!

HI HI I’m in the middle of writing a (fittingly) Kimi Raikkonen post, it should be up within a week, I keep procrastinating on it to deal with school stuff but its like 80% done, I legit just need to edit and post it.

I promise this Bucket is still active. I’m honestly planning on expanding to Insta within the year, I dunno though. I like it here (not that I’d leave).

Okay love ya guys byeee

[bucket-of-f1]

favorite odd and/or little known facts about kimi or schumi? bonus points if its from their pre-f1 motorsports eras, kimis time in sauber or schumis time in jordan and benetton!

okay so the response to this turned into a Raikkonen mega post covering his entire career because I got obsessed with it, but I realized I never answered your initial question:

Favorite Kimi facts:

First race outside of Finland while karting was when he was 15, during which his steering wheel broke — he had to force it into the socket to keep control of the car — and he informed his crew by TAKING THE WHEEL OUT AND WAVING IT AT THEM as he went down the main straight. [citation definitely needed, take all of that with a mild grain of salt]

In another race during his karting days, he was involved in an early race “inchident” that left his car flipped over on the wrong side of the barrier. He then LIFTED THE KART BACK OVER and pulled a 17th to 3rd finish out of it.

He was asleep 30 minutes before his first F1 race.

When he retired from the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, he went to his yacht in the harbor to watch the rest of the race.

[bucket-of-f1]

oh yeah

Huge congratulations to Pierre Gasly for being the first driver in F1 history to go an entire season without costing his team money in repairs! And in the longest season ever, that’s impressive. Combined with Alpines improvements at the end of the season, I’m sure they’ll be glad for the consistency next season.