Dark horses, outsiders, call them what you will, have a fascinating habit of upsetting the odds.
And who in their right mind would ignore the threat they often pose when write-off seems to be the most appropriate phrase to tag on them?
Here, I must make a confession. I am no fan of his and his uncooperative, gloomy, distant, and unsmiling disposition fills me with despair about Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finn with attitude is a Formula One enigma and always has been on both sides of his grand prix career, before he quit for two years to go rallying without success and now that he has come back.
But ignore him at your peril and you cannot fail to admire him because he epitomises the dark-horse syndrome with his ability to spring surprises where it most matters to him — on the race track.
In just a handful of races, the 32-year-old has lifted also-rans Lotus out of their anonymous flounderings and established himself as a real candidate for a second world crown after the one he earned with Ferrari five years ago.
Not even he could have predicted he would be running third in the title chase ahead of the likes of brilliant champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and Red Bull’s Mark Webber.
But his impressive comeback campaign has seen him mount the podium five times and score in every race but China, and his boss Eric Boullier, who took a big chance on him, reckons he is a win waiting to happen. That would be his 18th career triumph.
Not only that, he feels Raikkonen has the ability, the drive and the determination to overtake double champions Fernando Alonso, the current table-topper, and second-placed Sebastian Vettel.
“He is having a nine out of 10 season,” says delighted Frenchman Boullier, “And he is ready to fight for a win to make it 10 out of 10.”
That could well come in Japan this Sunday on the classic figure-of-eight Suzuka circuit, one of his favourites, where he has been a winner, a runner-up and third three times.
And if he does scale the heights in Japan, the likelihood of a rare smile from what would be the eighth different winner from 15 GPs in the most exciting season of all time would be another very, very rare treat. Welcome, too.