Today the F1 world lost somebody who is a bit unknown but still a remarkable person.
The first finnish F1 driver Leo Kinnunen! He drove in 1974 at the age of 30-31 so most of you readers didn't even follow the sport back then. I know that some of you did but probably still don't remember him. Here's a little reminder or a info package....
Kinnunen was close to moving to Formula One already for the 1971 season. With the help of world champion Jochen Rindt he was negotiating for a race seat with Team Lotus, which was controlling the series at the time and eventually won the World Constructors' Championship that season. After Rindt's sudden death at Monza, the negotiations came to a halt. According to Kinnunen, Bernie Ecclestone wanted him to drive for free. Kinnunen turned down the offer and demanded a wage for his services, as he was a professional racer. This ended his Formula One career even before it had actually started, and he went to drive in the Interserie instead.
In 1974, Kinnunen was looking for a job and John Surtees offered him one of his new Formula One cars, Surtees TS16, on lease. Kinnunen accepted the offer since the Surtees TS14 had done well the previous season. After finally finding sponsorship, Kinnunen entered the series with a new team and a Cosworth DFV V8 3.0 litre engine. Antti Aarnio-Wihuri allowed the team to use the name AAW Racing Team, which was recognized and had a good reputation in racing circles.
AAW Racing's first Grand Prix at Nivelles turned out to be a disaster. The TS16 arrived in time for the race weekend, but Kinnunen had never even sat in the car before. It also turned out that the car had been used as a mobile testbed by the factory, and it already had a damaged monocoque and rear suspension. On top of that, it was 80 kilos overweight, the engine lacked power and the team was not allowed to get the top quality tires all the top teams had. When Kinnunen took the car on track, its gearbox broke after three laps. The team, consisting of only three mechanics, had no spare parts and repairing it turned out to be unsuccessful, as the gearbox broke again in qualifying, leaving Kinnunen without a recorded time and the only driver not to qualify for the race.
After Nivelles, the team concentrated on testing and fixing the car. They did not travel to Monaco but entered the next race in Sweden. Kinnunen managed to qualify 25th. Actually, only 24 cars were qualified for start but due his good relations within the Swedish motor sport circles Kinnunen was allowed to start the race. So was Vern Schuppan who qualified 26th. Schuppan finished the race 12th but was disqualified from the results.
The AAW team knew that the car would not last the whole race, so they fueled it for only ten laps in order to make a quick press run. This compensated the overweight of their TS16 and Kinnunen managed to overtake five cars in eight laps before a spark plug problem forced him to retire. Kinnunen later told that one spark plug thread in the cylinder head had been stripped. A Ferrari mechanic loaned them a threaded insert kit to fix it but the Finns did not master the method and the plug never seated properly.
The rest of the season did not go well for the team either. They were not allowed to take part in the Dutch Grand Prix and did not qualify for the races in France, Great Britain, Italy and Austria. Lack of funding then forced the team to retire from Formula One.
Today he passed away but we shall always remember him in Finland as the first flying Finn. Rest in peace.
