Mika Salo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mika Salo | |
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.JPG/200px-Mika_Salo_2007_(crop).JPG) |
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| Mika Salo in 2007. | |
Nationality  Finnish |
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| Formula One World Championship career | |
| Active years | 1994–2000, 2002 |
| Teams | Lotus, Tyrrell, Arrows, British American Racing, Ferrari, Sauber, Toyota |
| Races | 111 (109 starts) |
| Championships | 0 |
| Wins | 0 |
| Podium finishes | 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.
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[edit] Formula 3 and Early F1 career
In 1989, Salo competed in the British Formula 3 championship racing for Alan Docking Racing. He raced with the Reynard Toyota package which was not the seasons 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 Formula 3, finishing 2nd to him. During the months following the 1990 season, Salo was caught driving under the influence in the UK. Subsequently the chance of him gaining a Formula One superlicence were destroyed. He then moved to Japan in an attempt to revive his damaged reputation. After a few years racing in Japan he made his first F1 start at the penultimate round of the 1994 season in Suzuka, Japan for the dying Lotus team. He was kept on for the seasons finale in Adelaide, Australia. Salo competed in F1 at Tyrrell the year after. He was to spend 3 years with the team, scoring points several times, most notably by running the whole of the wet 1997 Monaco Grand Prix without a pit stop (and with a damaged front wing), the only driver to do this since refuelling was reintroduced in 1994.[citation needed] Despite a promising 1998 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in 1999.
[edit] Substitute for Ferrari
Following an injury to BAR driver Ricardo Zonta, Salo did get a short-term drive for 1999, for three races. However, when Michael Schumacher broke his leg at a crash during the 1999 British Grand Prix Salo was selected as his long-term substitute to partner Eddie Irvine at Ferrari. In his second race in Ferrari at the 1999 German Grand Prix Salo led for much 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.[1] 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.
[edit] Ferrari to Sauber
He 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 2 points for Toyota in their first season, becoming only the 2nd driver to score points on a team's debut in the modern era finishing 6th at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix (the other being fellow Finn, JJ Lehto for Sauber in 1993). He retired from Formula One at the end of 2002, after surprisingly getting fired from Toyota. Rumours said that the reason for Salo's release was personal problems with staff working for Toyota, but this has not been confirmed.
During his Formula One career, he achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 33 championship points.
[edit] After F1
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 ran 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.
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, Mika returned to racing full-time, signing with Risi Competizione in the ALMS and with AF Corse in the FIA GT to drive the Ferrari 430. He finished 3rd in the Drivers' Championship with 61 points. In the following year he continued with the same team and took the GT2 class championship along with teammate Jaime Melo. They won a total of eight races out of twelve in the class.
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).[2]
He currently resides in Monaco with his Japanese wife Noriko Salo (born Endo) and their two children, son Max and daughter Mai.
Like fellow Finns Keke Rosberg and JJ Lehto, both former F1 drivers, Salo has commentated on several F1 races on MTV3. 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.
[edit] Complete Formula One results
(key)
[edit] References
- ^ 1999 German Grand Prix www.grandprix.com Retrieved 21 June 2007
- ^ NHRA News: AARWBA All-America team includes new champs, Anderson, others (12/8/2007)
