Mika Salo

Mika Salo

Nation:	Finland
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1994 Japanese Grand Prix
Last start:	2002 Japanese Grand Prix
Constructors
1994  Lotus  • 1995–1997  Tyrrell  • 1998  Arrows  • 1999  BAR  • 1999  Ferrari  • 2000  Sauber  • 2002  Toyota
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup tenth ( 1999 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 110 - - -
World Cup points :	33
Podiums :	2
Leadership laps :	2 over 12.3 km

Mika Juhani Salo (born November 30, 1966 in Helsinki ) is a Finnish racing driver . Between 1994 and 2002 he started in the highest automobile racing class, Formula 1 . His best season was the Formula 1 World Championship in 1999 , when he replaced the injured Michael Schumacher for six races at Ferrari and scored two podium places.

Career

He started karting at the age of six . In 1978, 1980, 1982 and 1983 he won the Finnish Kart Championship.

Salo then switched to formula racing and achieved great success in Formula Ford 1600. In 1988 he was European, Scandinavian and Finnish champion with 14 out of 14 races as the winner, ten pole positions and lap records on all courses. He continued to drive in British Formula 3 and the All-Japan F3000 until he began his Formula 1 career in Japan in 1994 with Lotus-Mugen-Honda.

Mika Salo in the Tyrrell 023 at the 1995 British Grand Prix

Tyrrell secured the Finnish talent for three years after Lotus retired from Formula 1. After only twelve points in the defeated Tyrrell, Salo switched to Arrows in 1998 and tried his luck there. At the Monaco Grand Prix he achieved his best result to date with fourth place. Nevertheless, Salo could not prevail at Arrows and found no more place in Formula 1 for 1999.

But the Finn had established himself in the premier class, which is why the new BAR team called on him when regular driver Ricardo Zonta injured himself. Salo drove three races alongside Jacques Villeneuve , with whom he was friends.

Salo got the chance of his life when Ferrari contacted him to use him for the injured Michael Schumacher . Salo used his chance at the Scuderia and drove sensationally to second place in Hockenheim (team-mate Eddie Irvine had won the race by placing an order ). At the home game in Monza he was third. After six missions Salo gave way again for Schumacher. The 10 World Championship points achieved by Salo helped Ferrari win the Constructors World Championship at the end of the season.

Since Ferrari had already signed Rubens Barrichello for the 2000 season , there was no more space for Salo. But due to the good contacts with the Sauber team (Ferrari supplied the engines), Salo came under with the Swiss. Despite only six points, team boss Peter Sauber wanted to keep Salo in the team beyond 2000.

However, Salo got the offer from Toyota to drive for the new Japanese factory team. Salo chose Toyota, prepared in 2001 as a test driver started before and debuted in the TF102 , finally, in 2002, together with the group in Formula 1. The debut race took the first championship point of better than expected, Salo was the third race in Brazil a sixth again, but then didn't get any more points.

Surprisingly, Toyota parted ways with its two drivers Salo and Allan McNish at the end of the season . This ended Salo's Formula 1 career after eight years.

Salo then contested a few races in the Champ Car World Series and took part in the 24-hour races of Spa-Francorchamps . In winter 2005 he officially started rally competitions in Finland for the first time. In addition, Salo can often be seen in endurance races. He was one of four selected drivers to race the Maserati MC12 for the first time. Since 2006, his name has appeared very often at smaller long-distance events and in the FIA GT championship .

In 2011 Salo was part of the racing project of the American millionaire James Glickenhaus, who had a Ferrari F430 Scuderia converted into a racing car P 4/5 Competizione with the look of the old Ferrari 330P4 in order to take part in various endurance races in Europe. Salo was part of the car's three-man crew.

statistics

Statistics in the Formula 1 World Championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1994	Team Lotus	Lotus 109	Mugen-Honda 3.5 V10	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	32.
1995	Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 023	Yamaha 3.0 V10	17th	-	-	-	-	-	5	15th
1996	Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 024	Yamaha 3.0 V10	16	-	-	-	-	-	5	13.
1997	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 025	Ford ED4 3.0 V8	17th	-	-	-	-	-	2	17th
1998	Danka Zepter Arrows	Arrows A19	Arrows 3.0 V10	16	-	-	-	-	-	3	13.
1999	British American Racing	BAR 01	Supertec 3.0 V10	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	10.
	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F399	Ferrari 3.0 V10	6th	-	1	1	-	-	10
2000	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Clean C19	Petronas 3.0 V10	17th	-	-	-	-	-	6th	11.
2002	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF102	Toyota 3.0 V10	17th	-	-	-	-	-	2	17th
total				110	-	1	1	-	-	33

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1994
															10	DNF
1995
	7th	DNF	DNF	10	DNF	7th	15th	8th	DNF	DNF	8th	5	13	10	12	6th	5
1996
	6th	5	DNF	DNF	DNF	5	DNF	DNF	10	7th	9	DNF	7th	DNF	11	DNF
1997
	DNF	13	8th	9	5	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	13	11	DNF	DNF	10	DNF	12
1998
	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	DNF	4th	DNF	13	DNF	DNF	14th	DNF	DNF	DNF	14th	DNF
1999
			7th	DNF	8th				9	2	12	7th	3	DNF
2000
	DSQ		6th	8th	7th	DNF	5	DNF	10	6th	5	10	9	7th	DNF	10	8th
2002
	6th	12	6th	DNF	9	8th	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	15th	7th	11	14th	8th

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Audi Sport UK	Audi R8	Frank Biela	Perry McCarthy	failure	fuel pump
2007	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT	Johnny Mowlem	Jaime Melo	failure	water pump
2008	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Gianmaria Bruni	Jaime Melo	19th place and class win
2009	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Pierre Kaffer	Jaime Melo	18th place and class win
2014	SMP Racing	Oreca 03	Sergei Zlobin	Anton Ladygin	Rank 37

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Audi Sport UK	Audi R8	Perry McCarthy	Jonny Kane	Rank 6
2007	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GT	Jaime Melo	Johnny Mowlem	Rank 12 and class win
2008	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Jaime Melo	Gianmaria Bruni	failure	accident
2009	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430 GTC	Jaime Melo	Pierre Kaffer	Rank 7 and class win

Web links

Commons : Mika Salo  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mika Salo at Stats F1
• Mika Salo at Racing Sports Cars