The Notorious Side of Kimi Raikkonen in His Pre F1 Days

There are many fascinating stories about F1 veteran Kimi Raikkonen, especially after the release of his autobiography. A few stories are from his racing days, while others shed light on his personal life and tell us about Kimi Raikkonen the man. One story opens up on his brief stint in the Finnish military services.

In several European countries, many young children undergo mandatory military service for a certain period. Raikkonen also went through the same in his native Finland during the early stages of his motorsport career. At the time, the young Finn was not yet in Formula One, but raced in the Formula UK championship.

Admittedly, Kimi Raikkonen managed to effectively juggle military service along with his development as a motorsport driver. However, there were also some hilarious stories about the Finnish old dog, especially when he has had a few too many drinks.

One of the funniest and most bizarre incidents in his life took place during his military stint, and once again involved a dead drunk Raikkonen. He and a friend snuck out of the camp to go bar-hopping and by the time they were done, they were late and drunk. Since there was a curfew, using the main entrance was out of the question so the two decided to climb over the fence and sneak in that way.

Unfortunately, his friend was caught, and Raikkonen’s stealth skills were pushed to their limit after he hid in a ditch to escape authorities. He successfully scaled over the fence and hid under his bed. The bad news was that his friend sang like a canary and ratted him out.

When they asked him how he snuck inside, he replied, “That’s what you teach us here, we are scouts”. Needless to say, his superiors did not find his response amusing in the slighted and confined him to barracks, alone, for about 20 days which was the new unofficial record.