Kimi Raikkonen confounded the sceptics in 2012 and proved that he certainly did still "know what I'm doing" during a brilliant comeback year to Formula 1.
After two-year sabbatical away from the unrelenting world of F1 in the World Rally Championship, Raikkonen's decision to return to single-seaters was accompanied by many questions over his motivation levels after apparently falling out of love with the sport at the end of 2009.
But in characteristic Kimi style he answered those doubters, not with clichéd soundbites, but with consistently impressive results on track - a season which culminated in a 19th career win and third place in the Drivers' Championship.
The 'Iceman' is very much back.
The Finn has always held the reputation of a cool customer but his arrival on the F1 scene in 2001 received an even frostier reception. He had competed in just 23 car races when offered a deal by Sauber and his inexperience left other drivers wary of accepting someone with so few miles under his belt. Raikkonen proved his critics wrong.
His debut season with Sauber was sensational, the youngster proving within just a handful of races that he was a special talent.
By the time Mika Hakkinen told Ron Dennis that he was thinking of taking a sabbatical in 2002, the race was on to sign the younger Finn - a race won by McLaren.
He finished the 2002 season in sixth place but began 2003 in dominant fashion, taking the chequered flag for a maiden win in Malaysia and the early points lead, despite having to race with a development version of the previous year's McLaren. The Championship fight went to the wire in Japan, but a win for Rubens Barrichello guaranteed another title for Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher.
Hopes were high that Kimi could go one better in 2004 but McLaren endured a disappointing season while, in 2005, despite seven wins and an additional five podium finishes, the Finn had to settle for second place behind Fernando Alonso in the drivers' battle as reliability woes struck.
A winless 2006 followed for McLaren and at the end of the season Raikkonen had defected to great rivals Ferrari, the team having pinpointed him as the retiring Schumacher's successor.
He won on his debut in red in Australia but it wasn't until the summer that what had been a badly faltering title bid gained serious traction and Raikkonen seriously took the fight to McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Alonso.
Despite being 17 points behind with only 20 to play for, the Finn somehow won the title against the odds with back-to-back wins in China and Brazil, thus finally becoming World Champion.
Many expected him to go on to further successes with Ferrari but that is as good as things would get as in 2008 he played second fiddle to Massa and then in 2009, amid a disappointing season in general for Ferrari, he claimed just one race victory, in Belgium, and four additional podium finishes.
It still came as a shock to many when Ferrari announced that they would part ways with Raikkonen by mutual agreement for 2010, the Finn paid off for the final year of his deal to make way for the incoming Alonso. Despite talks over a return to McLaren, Raikkonen opted to turn his back on F1 and headed to rallying - a two-year sojourn in which he experienced mixed success.
After on-off speculation that he would eventually come back to F1, Lotus announced at the end of 2011 that he would drive for them the following season, with Raikkonen quickly insisting that he was fully motivated for a return.
Although his initial steps were somewhat shaky - a mistake on his qualifying return in Melbourne saw him drop out in Q1 - Raikkonen steadily got back up to speed and China proved the only race out of 20 in which he failed to score points.
After several near misses, a comeback race victory was finally achieved in Abu Dhabi - although arguably the most memorable aspect of Raikkonen's race was his increasingly agitated radio messages to his race engineer when being given instructions!
Certainly, 2012 underlined that Raikkonen remains as formidable a force as ever, and with Lotus targeting a further step forward this time round, a more serious title challenge might yet not be out of the question.
