I'm sure you all know Kimi Raikkonen as the insanely talented McLaren Mercedes F1 driver - the man who started the first F1 race of the season in last place on the grid, only to come back and capture the third spot on the podium... but have you ever wondered what the Finnish superstar does in his off-time?

Well recently, the answer to that question was piloting a DaimlerChrysler zero emissions fuel cell bus.

While taking a break from his preparations for the upcoming Melbourne race, Kimi stopped by the Australian Mercedes-Benz headquarters for a meet-and-greet with some of the company's employees.  After signing autographs and discussing his outlook on the Melbourne race, Kimi took his turn behind the wheel of the fuel cell bus, which is one of two brought from Perth specifically for the Melbourne Grand Prix.

Unfortunately for Kimi, the fun didn't last long.  In what appeared to be a dramatic re-enactment of the Malaysian race, F1 competitor Christian Klien came out of nowhere, piloting his own bus courtesy of Red Bull Racing.  As the two drivers entered the parking lot's turn five, Klien again rear-ended Kimi, damaging his rear suspension and forcing him to retire early from the test run. Klien declined to comment on the matter, noting only that it may have had something to do with the consumption of 7 Jäger bombs an hour prior to the incident.

I'm kidding. I've consumed way too much coffee, I'm hopped up on caffeine, and I made the entire last paragraph up. It's not true. Please don't send hate mail to Chris Klien, unless you want to, in which case do as you please.

Now excuse me while I go have another espresso.

For more info, you can see another photo of our main man Kimi as well as details of the Australian fuel cell bus program in the press release below.  Goda.



OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


F1 Australia: Kimi Räikkönen swaps race car for fuel cell bus



Melbourne, Mar 30, 2006
Kimi Räikkönen visited the Australian headquarters of Mercedes-Benz where he met employees. They had the opportunity to hear Räikkönen talk about the team’s preparations for Sunday’s Grand Prix as well as get hold of an autograph.

Afterwards, Räikkönen drove a zero-emission fuel cell bus that is being used throughout this week’s Australian Grand Prix for VIP track tours. The bus is one of two brought from Perth to Melbourne for the Grand Prix, to showcase environmentally friendly urban transport.

The zero emission fuel cell bus is part of a two year trial in Perth, Australia, which involves three Mercedes-Benz Citaro city buses with fuel cell drive by DaimlerChrysler. They have been operated by Path Transit, the local public transport authorities since September 2004, allowing commuters in the city to ride the zero-emission buses each day.

Fuel cell vehicles operating all over the world

The CUTE project was launched at the end of 2001 by DaimlerChrysler, the European cities of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Porto, Stockholm and Stuttgart, and several infrastructure companies. Three more Mercedes-Benz fuel cell buses have been operating in Reykjavik as part of the ECTOS project, which is also funded by the EU. In addition, the public transport systems of Beijing, China, and Perth, Australia, now also include three fuel cell buses each. By the end of December 2005, these 36 buses had been in operation for more than 75,000 hours and covered almost 1.1 million kilometers in all.

Copyright © 2006, DaimlerChrysler AG