Feature: Iceman is F1's Hot Property

In the strength-sapping heat and humidity of Malaysia, Formula One's "Iceman" Kimi Raikkonen is one driver who will keep his cool.

It is only a matter of time before the McLaren driver takes his first win and all the signs from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix suggest that day is drawing ever nearer. Few would rule out the cool young Finn taking the big step up next weekend at Malaysia's glistening Sepang circuit, a sweltering arena where drivers sweat kilos in the cockpit.

Although his staccato speech was likened unflatteringly to a Phillip Island penguin by one Melbourne newspaper after he finished third last week, Raikkonen is Formula One's Mr Unflappable.

The way in which he dealt with Michael Schumacher at Albert Park, slamming shut the door on the Ferrari champion when he attempted to squeeze past, left no doubt about Raikkonen's mental toughness and determination. The icy nickname, painted on his helmet, accurately described his temperament with barely a flicker of emotion on his face even as delighted team bosses clapped him on the back.

Had he not been hit by a drive-through penalty for being a mere 1.1 km/h over the speed limit during a pitstop, due to no fault of his own, Raikkonen would have been celebrating a dream start to the season.

"Raikkonen was very unlucky not to win," said International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley after the Finn had led from laps 17 to 33, despite starting from the pitlane with a full load of fuel.

Oil Slick

It was not the first time that the 23-year-old Raikkonen had had the better of five-times champion Schumacher, who is a favourite to bounce back in Malaysia after his fourth place in Melbourne pushed him off the podium for the first time in 20 races.

In France last year, in only his second season in Formula One, Raikkonen was heading for victory when he skidded on oil with just six laps remaining. The lapse handed Schumacher the race and a fifth world title. That race still ranks as his best finish and worst memory, a second place that should have been first.

The Finn also boosted his reputation in Belgium last September with his first front-row start and pulled a great manoeuvre on Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in Hungary after a stirring battle with the Williams driver in Germany.

"We saw from Kimi last year that he is more than capable of racing wheel to wheel. He had some great battles with Montoya last year," said teammate David Coulthard after winning in Australia.

"I wouldn't expect him to give an inch on the track unless he absolutely had to. And that is great because when you are racing against someone like Michael you know they are not going to give you an inch."

Comparisons to compatriot and double champion Mika Hakkinen, Schumacher's great rival and the man he replaced at McLaren alongside Briton Coulthard at the start of last season, are inevitable if not particularly welcome.

Hakkinen went for 95 races before his first win in Jerez opened the floodgates at the end of 1997. Raikkonen has so far started just 35.

"Kimi's hunger to win is remarkable and it reminds me of Mika because he came so close so often before getting his first win," said McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh, who has been tipping Raikkonen as a future champion since last year.

"Schumacher was breathing down his neck and Kimi dealt with him...there's definitely the potential for wins in Malaysia and Brazil," he added.

Experience Tells

Former Grand Prix driver Martin Brundle, who also advises Coulthard, had no doubt after Spa last year that Raikkonen was the face of the future.

"A few years from now the World Championship is going to be between Kimi Raikkonen, probably Montoya and some other fresh names we've not yet heard of," he said then.

Whitmarsh said the same last September: "He is going to win. You can see and sense it in the team, you sense it in Kimi, that there is a win that is going to happen there and it's going to be very soon."

That potential has been picked up by others, with Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper saying last week that "the more time passes, the more this insignificant Finn with the robotic voice grows in stature".

Coulthard, now in his eighth season at McLaren, still has the edge over Raikkonen in terms of experience but he also knows it is a dwindling asset as well as a mixed blessing.

"I have got the experience and I've got the speed. And he's got the speed and not the experience," said the Scot before the start of the season. "Somewhere down the line that's going to help him because what you don't know, you don't worry about...and in other scenarios he may pop it in the wall because it's a long road to winning a Grand Prix in Monaco."