Mika Salo

Mika Salo

Caption	Mika Salo in 2007
Nationality	Finnish
Years	F1 1994, 2000, 2002
Team(s)	Lotus, Tyrrell, Arrows, British American Racing, Ferrari, Sauber, Toyota
Races	111 (109 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Points	33
Poles	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 former Formula One driver. His best ranking was 10th in the world championship in 1999.

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 an Formula 1 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 Formula 1 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. Despite a promising 1998 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in 1999.

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. 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.

Ferrari to Sauber

He was back full-time in 2000 with Sauber, taking 11th in the championship, although he left the team for 2001 to help the new Toyota team prepare for its entry in 2002. He scored 2 points for them in their first season, becoming only the 2nd driver to score points on a team's debut in the modern era by finishing 6th at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix (the other being fellow Finn, JJ Lehto for Sauber in 1993). He retired from Formula 1 at the end of this season, 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.

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 supposed 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 twice 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 is back full-time, having signed 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.

He currently resides in Monaco with his Japanese wife Noriko Salo (born Endo) and their son, Max and daughter Mai.

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		-	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
1999	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F399	Ferrari V10									AUT 9	GER 2	HUN 12	BEL 7	ITA 3	EUR Ret	MAL	JPN		10th	10
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