HS Espoo | Kimi Räikkönen left a sympathetic object at his old school in Espoo – The principal has long waited for the F1 driver to bother to visit

“That Kimik has descended the hill, ”he pointed out Mimmu Hellsten towards the hillside in the parking lot of the Karhusuo school in Espoo.

Hellsten has been the principal of the school in Karhusuo since 1977, and of course Kimi is Kimi Raikkonen, The most famous person in the Karhusuo district.

“Son of my own village,” sums up the thoughts of many of Hellsten’s bear bears.

Author Kari Hotakaisen writing Unknown Kimi Räikkönen The book tells a lot about the childhood of an Espoo-based formula driver and his later stages in Karhusuo.

Although Räikkönen’s home is elsewhere today, the work conveys the care of old home corners.

Let’s get to know Räikkönen termination in the week following the childhood scenery of the F1 driver, where he and his family worked groundwork for years before the doors in the royal class of motorsport opened.

Take a trip to HS Espoo to get to know the old home corners of the formula star!

Karhusuo is located along the old Turuntie a couple of kilometers from Bemböle towards Nuuksio. Although the area is officially a district, its residents talk about their low-rise area as a village and themselves as villagers.

When Räikkönen’s grandfather bought a house in the area in 1952, Karhusuo was still a sparsely populated rural area.

Construction of Finland’s first engines, Tarvontie, began in 1956. In Kimi Räikkönen’s birth in 1979, Tarvontie looked like this in Karupsuo near Nupuri and Gumböle:

Here are proud of bear salinity. Together, a hut was recently built next to the school, but unfortunately its use is still limited due to the corona pandemic.

The school building is no longer the same as in Räikkönen’s time, but has recently been completely renovated due to interior problems. The meadow, where schoolchildren still skied during Kimink’s school days in the 1980s and 1990s, is now a sports field.

But there is still a toboggan run next to the school, as when Räikkönen started the school in the late 1980s, as well as worn wooden stairs, next to which new ones have also been made.

At that time, the school had only primary school children, as they went to high school in Karakallio. That is why Hellsten did not go to school in Karhusuo at the same time as Räikkönen. He was already in eighth grade when Kimi started school.

Hellsten became a teacher and principal in 1997, and Räikkönen was second in the F1 series in 2003 and 2005 and won the world championship in 2007.

Saman the lives of the people of the village are sometimes intertwined in a strange way.

“There have been tourists here who have wanted to sit at Kim’s desk and take a picture of themselves in it,” Hellsten says with a laugh.

The people of the school have then, in their distress, tried to take the supporters who came from far away, even to those main where Räikkönen’s class or desk was. Fans have come from at least Germany and Japan.

Over the years, the Hellsten family has had several au pairs from abroad assisting in childcare and housework.

“One au pair from Germany was such a tough Kimi fan that he wanted to come to us to get close to where Kimi has lived,” Hellsten recalls.

When the old school building had to be demolished, a lot of stuff ended up in the trash. But there is something that was not discarded during the renovation cleaning.

“The brand of swimming candidate is still waiting for his applicant,” the principal says.

The fabric, round and blue-white badge, which many used to sew on a swimsuit, is attached with a paper clip to a certificate issued to Kimi Räikkönen in the spring of 1993.

According to Hellsten’s memoirs, attempts have been made to take information about the brand to the former student on at least a couple of occasions, but a busy professional athlete living abroad has not been reached.

The badge and certificate will be visibly recovered after HS’s visit, and it is hoped that Räikkönen will visit his old school one day to pick it up.

As a guide for HS Karhuuo is also active in the local residents’ association Marjaana Siivola. In 2008, she interviewed Räikkönen’s mother in the association’s magazine and wrote a story about the world champions’ school days.

“Kimi and his brother Rami they also went to the Karhusuo school fairy tale to discharge their energy, ”Siivola wrote at the time.

Numerous children of the same age in the area were much outdoors in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Paula Räikkönen According to Siivola, the often played games were ten sticks on a board or a church rat, the children also played nests and puddles.

Going involved has since made a hockey career Emma Terho (os Laaksonen), who also lived in Karhusuo as a child.

Räikkönen’s parents, mother Paula and father-Mattia is described as a villager among other villagers, people who don’t make a number of themselves and who didn’t get into a hat even after Kimi was already successful on the racetracks. Later the parents moved from Karhusuo to Kirkorkummi to Porkkala.

Räikkönen childhood homes on Kurutie mock the Old Turuntie if you look. The plot also had the childhood home of Matti’s father, who died in 2010, so Räikäs was in many generations.

In this yard, the racing and driving of cars began. The house, which has been empty for a long time, is surrounded by a locked fence that keeps the most enthusiastic Kimi fans at bay, but Räikkönen still reads in the post office on the street.

It already means a lot if you have come here from abroad.

Räikkönen has built a large machine hall next to his old house. The author Hotakainen, who visited it, says in his book that McLaren’s F1 car hangs from the roof of the hall.

Upstairs there is a sauna, a lounge and a small bar. The social space has helmets, pictures, prizes and overalls

The red-and-white cobblestone cobblestones from Aidanrao are like a racetrack. In 1986, the family acquired the first carting car with which Kimi and Brother Rami began to drive on the Bemböle track.

The sport sucked the whole family with them, and for years they toured all over Finland in a van. Dad did three jobs at times to allow the children to continue driving.

Let’s hook up still on the Nupuri side, a couple of minutes drive away and the only restaurant on these corners, La Luna.

The building at Nupurintie 4 has had a long-standing food and beverage outlet – of course, its names have changed over the years.

It is rumored in the village that Räikkönen deviates from the place at least sometimes when visiting Finland.

Is Kim’s pizza on the list? Well, can’t be found, but would visit Bear Special.

Entrepreneur Murat Kosar says that he has lived on these corners since 1994 and remembers several of Räikkönen ‘s visits here, but no more of them now.

Should does the city remember Räikkö from Espoo, who somehow ended his successful F1 career? Own square, as it is in Vantaa Mika Häkkinen after? Kimi Räikkönen street to Karhusuo?

Naming the street according to people is done in honor of the work of life, and in doing so seeks to find a connection between the person and the place. Usually, according to surviving individuals, naming is avoided.

However, after Räikkönen’s F1 championship, Espoo’s decision-makers are considering whether Kulmakorpe – where has long been a planned motorsport track – found the road to Kimi Räikkönen.

According to Hotakainen’s book, at least at that time, Räikkönen did not ignite the idea.

The sources used in the story are: Heikki Kulta: Iceman – Kimi’s Journey (2020), Kari Hotakainen: Unknown Kimi Räikkönen (2018) and Petri Nevalainen: The Portrait of Jäämes – Kimi Räikkönen (2008).

Read more: Kimi Räikkönen said goodbye to his style in a faithful way, but those who followed him noticed the change: “He also felt a little strange”