Mika Salo

Mika Salo

Mika Salo in 2009
Born	30 November 1966 (1966-11-30) (age 44)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Finnish
Active years	1994–2000, 2002
Teams	Lotus, Tyrrell, Arrows, BAR, Ferrari, Sauber, Toyota
Races	111 (109 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Career points	33
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1994 Japanese Grand Prix
Last race	2002 Japanese Grand Prix

Mika Juhani Salo (born November 30, 1966 in Helsinki) is a Finnish racing driver. He competed in Formula One between 1994 and 2002. His best ranking was 10th in the world championship in 1999. He also won the GT2 class in the 2008 and 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Career

Formula Three and Japanese racing

In 1989, Salo competed in the British Formula Three Championship, racing for Alan Docking Racing. He raced with the Reynard Toyota package which was not the season's best. Staying with Alan Docking Racing for 1990 and moving to a more competitive Ralt chassis, he raced against countryman and fierce rival Mika Häkkinen in F3, finishing second to him. In 1990, Salo was caught driving under the influence in London.^[1] Subsequently the chance of him gaining a FIA Super Licence necessary to compete in Formula One was destroyed in the short-term. He then moved to Japan in an attempt to revive his damaged reputation.

Formula One

1994 – 1998: Lotus, Tyrrell and Arrows

"I think it was six days before the race they said, 'Do you think you can drive it next weekend with no testing'. I'd never driven a Formula One car before in my life; that's what I've always wanted, so I said yes. I know the circuit so I don't think it's a problem. The next two nights I lay in my bed smiling, so happy it was happening."

Salo commenting on his first race for Lotus.^[2]

After a few years racing in Japan he made his first F1 start at the penultimate round of the 1994 season in Japan for the ailing Lotus team. He was kept on for the season's finale in Australia. Following the collapse of Lotus following the end of the season, Salo moved to Tyrrell for 1995. He was to spend three years with the team, scoring points several times. In the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix he completed the whole (rain-shortened and -slowed) race without refuelling, taking fifth place ahead of the faster Giancarlo Fisichella as a result.^[3] Despite a promising 1998 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in 1999.

1999: British American Racing and Ferrari

Salo driving for Tyrrell at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

Salo testing for Ferrari at Monza in 1999.

Following an injury to BAR driver Ricardo Zonta, Salo did get a short-term drive with the team for three races whilst the Brazilian recovered. However a greater opportunity arose when Michael Schumacher broke his leg at a crash during the 1999 British Grand Prix. Salo was selected as his substitute to partner Eddie Irvine at Ferrari. In his second race in Ferrari at the 1999 German Grand Prix Salo led for part of the race and would have scored a Grand Prix win but team orders demanded that he give the lead to Irvine, who at the time was fighting for the championship with Mika Häkkinen.^[4] Following the race, Irvine handed his victory trophy over to Salo as a gesture to show his gratitude. He also finished third at Monza, ahead of Irvine.

2000 – 2002: Sauber and Toyota

Salo was back full-time in 2000 with Sauber, taking 11th in the championship, although he left the team at the end of the season to join the new Toyota team in preparation for its F1 entry in 2002. He scored two points for Toyota in their first season, becoming the first driver since JJ Lehto at the 1993 South African Grand Prix to score points on a team's debut by finishing sixth at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. He retired from Formula One at the end of 2002, after surprisingly getting fired from Toyota.

During his Formula One career, he achieved two podiums, and scored a total of 33 championship points.

Post-Formula One

His first post-F1 race came at the 2003 12 Hours of Sebring, driving the UK-entered Audi R8, the same car he was due to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans if it had not run out of fuel already after the first hour. He raced in four CART races for PK Racing during the same year, his best finish being third in Miami in his second series start.

Because of his strong links with Ferrari he was picked up to be part of the development program of the Maserati MC12 GT racer. He made his FIA GT debut in 2004, narrowly losing the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in a Ferrari 575. After that he entered the last four races of the season in the Maserati, winning two races and finishing second once.^{[citation needed]}

2005 was a year somewhat lost in the doldrums with only two participations with the Maserati MC12 in the ALMS GTS-class, a competition where the car turned out to be not even half as competitive as in the FIA GT series.

For 2006, Salo returned to racing full-time, signing with AF Corse in the FIA GT to drive the Ferrari F430 and later on in the year with Risi Competizione in the ALMS. He was victorious in class in the 24 Hours of Spa and finished 3rd in the FIA GT2 Drivers' Championship with 61 points, while his efforts in the ALMS contributed to Risi's Teams' Championship cup. In the following year he continued with Risi Competizione in the ALMS and took the GT2 class honors in the 12 Hours of Sebring and the championship along with teammate Jaime Melo. They won a total of eight races out of twelve in the class. In addition, he won the RAC Tourist Trophy with Thomas Biagi when substituting for Michael Bartels, driving a Maserati MC12 once more.

Salo and Melo with Risi Competizione earned the first team At-Large honours on the 2007 All-American Racing Team, as voted for by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters (AARWBA).^[5] Salo raced again in the ALMS for Risi Competizione in 2008. Although he was not successful in defending his previous year's titles, he won the GT2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, coming in 18th overall.

In 2009, he joined the Risi Ferrari team at the blue-riband races only, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans event, winning all three of them. Having won these enduro races all more than once, Salo feels he is ready for a new challenge. He has set his mind on NASCAR, having recently had his first test with Michael Waltrip Racing at the half-mile New Smyrna Speedway.^[6]

Personal

He currently resides in Monaco and he has two children with Noriko Salo (Endo), son Max and daughter Mai. His godson Jesse Krohn competes in Formula Renault, both in Scandinavia and the UK.

Like fellow Finns Keke Rosberg and JJ Lehto, both former F1 drivers, Salo has commentated on several F1 races on MTV3 and the pay-channel MTV3 MAX. During the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix, he walked out of the commentator's booth in mid-race after the Michelin teams refused to race.

He has rejoined the MTV3 F1 report crew for the 2011 season, providing expert commentary on races thus replacing Erkki Mustakari as Oskari Saari's co-commentator.

Helmet

Salo's helmet was originally dark blue with a white halo on the top (with a red line inside), 2 white stripes (with a red line inside) going from the rear going down diagonally to the sides of the helmet and a white trapezoidal shape on the chin area (with blue outline), slightly based on Prost's helmet. When he raced in Formula One, he changed the helmet from dark blue to sky blue with the rest of the elements intact.

Racing record

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1994	Team Lotus	Lotus 109	Mugen Honda V10	BRA	PAC	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN 10	AUS Ret		NC	0
1995	Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 023	Yamaha V10	BRA 7	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 10	MON Ret	CAN 7	FRA 15	GBR 8	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 8	ITA 5	POR 13	EUR 10	PAC 12	JPN 6	AUS 5	15th	5
1996	Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 024	Yamaha V10	AUS 6	BRA 5	ARG Ret	EUR DSQ	SMR Ret	MON 5	ESP DSQ	CAN Ret	FRA 10	GBR 7	GER 9	HUN Ret	BEL 7	ITA Ret	POR 11	JPN Ret		13th	5
1997	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 025	Ford V8	AUS Ret	BRA 13	ARG 8	SMR 9	MON 5	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 13	BEL 11	ITA Ret	AUT Ret	LUX 10	JPN Ret	EUR 12	17th	2
1998	Danka Zepter Arrows	Arrows A19	Arrows V10	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	SMR 9	ESP Ret	MON 4	CAN Ret	FRA 13	GBR Ret	AUT Ret	GER 14	HUN Ret	BEL DNS	ITA Ret	LUX 14	JPN Ret		13th	3
1999	British American Racing	BAR 01	Supertec V10	AUS	BRA	SMR 7	MON Ret	ESP 8	CAN	FRA	GBR										10th	10
	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F399	Ferrari V10									AUT 9	GER 2	HUN 12	BEL 7	ITA 3	EUR Ret	MAL	JPN
2000	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C19	Petronas V10	AUS DSQ	BRA DNS	SMR 6	GBR 8	ESP 7	EUR Ret	MON 5	CAN Ret	FRA 10	AUT 6	GER 5	HUN 10	BEL 9	ITA 7	USA Ret	JPN 10	MAL 8	11th	6
2002	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF102	Toyota V10	AUS 6	MAL 12	BRA 6	SMR Ret	ESP 9	AUT 8	MON Ret	CAN Ret	EUR Ret	GBR Ret	FRA Ret	GER 9	HUN 15	BEL 7	ITA 11	USA 14	JPN 8	17th	2

Complete CART results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2003	PK Racing	STP	MTY	LBH	BRH	LAU	MIL	LS	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	MDO	MTL	DEN 14	MIA 3	MXC 5	SRF 11	FON C †	16th	26

† Cancelled due to California Fires

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2010	Mad-Croc Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	ABU QR Ret	ABU CR 15	SIL QR	SIL CR	BRN QR 19	BRN CR 12	PRI QR	PRI CR	SPA QR	SPA CR	NÜR QR 15	NÜR CR 23	ALG QR	ALG CR	NAV QR	NAV CR	INT QR	INT CR	SAN QR	SAN CR	52nd	0

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2003	LMP900	10	M	Audi R8 Audi 3.6L Turbo V8	Audi Sport UK Arena Motorsport	Frank Biela Perry McCarthy	28	DNF	DNF
2007	LMGT2	97	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	Risi Competizione	Johnny Mowlem Jaime Melo	223	DNF	DNF
2008	LMGT2	82	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	Risi Competizione	Gianmaria Bruni Jaime Melo	326	19th	1st
2009	LMGT2	82	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo Pierre Kaffer	329	18th	1st
2010	LMGT2	96	M	Ferrari F430 GT2 Ferrari 4.0L V8	AF Corse SRL	Luís Pérez Companc Matías Russo	0	DNS	DNS

Complete V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	Final Pos	Points
2010	Bundaberg Red Racing	YMC R1	YMC R2	BHR R3	BHR R4	ADE R5	ADE R6	HAM R7	HAM R8	QLD R9	QLD R10	WIN R11	WIN R12	HDV R13	HDV R14	TOW R15	TOW R16	PHI R17	BAT R18	SUR R19 Ret	SUR R20 Ret	SYM R21	SYM R22	SAN R23	SAN R24	SYD R25	SYD R26			NC	0 +
2011	Ford Performance Racing	YMC R1	YMC R2	ADE R3	ADE R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	PER R7	PER R8	PER R9	WIN R10	WIN R11	HDV R12	HDV R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	QLD R18	PHI R19	BAT R20	SUR R21 2	SUR R22 14	SYM R23	SYM R24	SAN R25	SAN R26	SYD R27	SYD R28	52nd	201

+ Not Eligible for points

References

1. ^ "Mika Salo". MTV3. http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f12007/suomalaiset.shtml/100636?mika. Retrieved 2008-09-22.  (Finnish)
2. ^ FIA Formula 1 World Championship – 1995 Season Review (VHS). Duke Video. 1995-12-11. Event occurs at 13:00–14:00. ISBN 5-017559-034955. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Formula-Grand-Prix-Review-1995/dp/B00004CRI7. Retrieved 2008-08-20. 
3. ^ http://www.f1complete.com/content/view/424/273/
4. ^ 1999 German Grand Prix www.grandprix.com Retrieved June 21, 2007
5. ^ NHRA News: AARWBA All-America team includes new champs, Anderson, others (12/8/2007)
6. ^ Salo relishing NASCAR chance (17/11/2009)

Persondata
Name	Salo, Mika
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 30, 1966
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death