Max Mosley, president of motor racing's governing body, thought that asking a driver to leap straight from Formula Renault into F1 - thereby by-passing Formulae 3 and 3000 - was too much.

But Raikkonen has proved that if you have the basic talent, then no amount of experience is too little.

And what talent. He has proved quick, fearless, smooth and devastatingly self-confident.

Like Mika Hakkinen, who became something of a father figure, Raikkonen does not say very much. But, also like Hakkinen, he doesn't need to, for his driving is eloquence itself.

Hakkinen was not the only person to spot his potential, for with the older Finn's decision to take at least a year off, Raikkonen has been snapped up by McLaren-Mercedes to replace him.

This did not go down well with Raikkonen's team-mate Nick Heidfeld. The German is not only contracted to McLaren, but also just about edged Raikkonen over the course of 2001.

But Raikkonen will not care about that. He has the single-mindedness and self-regard needed to go all the way in F1 - his 2001 team boss Peter Sauber called him "arrogant".