Mika
Salo

Mika Salo was born in Helsinki on 30 November 1966. He raced in British Formula 3 for Alan Docking Racing in 1989 and stayed with the team in 1990, finishing runner-up in a Ralt to his fellow Finn Mika Häkkinen. Before his Formula One debut he spent several years racing in Japan.

Salo made his Formula One debut at the penultimate round of 1994 in Japan, driving for Lotus, and also started the finale in Australia. He drove for Tyrrell from 1995 to 1997 and scored points several times. At the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix he completed the race without a pit stop for fuel and finished fifth. He raced for Arrows in 1998, but had no full-time seat for 1999.

That year he first replaced the injured Ricardo Zonta at BAR and took seventh place at San Marino, the team's best result of the season. After Michael Schumacher broke his leg at the British Grand Prix, Ferrari brought Salo in as his stand-in alongside Eddie Irvine. In Germany he led for part of the race, but team orders required him to hand the lead to Irvine, who was fighting for the title. At Monza he finished third, ahead of Irvine. With two podiums and ten points he ended the year tenth in the standings and helped Ferrari win the constructors' championship.

In 2000 he drove for Sauber and finished eleventh in the championship. He then joined Toyota, who entered Formula One in 2002, and he finished sixth in their opening race in Australia. His Formula One career ended after 2002, with 109 starts and two podiums, but no wins.

Salo then drove four CART races for PK Racing in 2003 and was third in Miami. In 2004 he made his FIA GT debut, driving the Maserati MC12 among other cars. With Risi Competizione he won the 2007 American Le Mans Series GT2 title alongside Jaime Melo. He took GT2 class victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2008 and 2009. In 2014 he won the Bathurst 12 Hour in a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 with Craig Lowndes, John Bowe and Peter Edwards. From 2005 he also commentated on several Formula One races for MTV Oy.

Source: Wikipedia, “Mika Salo”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.