Kimi Raikkonen Trades His F1 Car For A Fuel Cell Bus

Posted by www.eMercedesBenz.com on March 30, 2006 at 10:20 AM CST

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 photos of our main man Kimi by visiting  
www.eMercedesBenz.com 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.

For more Mercedes-Benz news and information, visit  
www.eMercedesBenz.com.