Finnish F1 drivers: Mika Salo

I started a series of Finnish F1 drivers earlier this month and I had to stop for a while because my computer broke and most of the stuff I had prepared were lost. Now I will continue with the next Finn after Mika Häkkinen who is the other Mika (Salo).

After a few years racing in Japan he made his first Formula One start at the penultimate round of the 1994 season in Japan for the ailing Lotus team. He was kept on for the season's finale in Australia. Following the collapse of Lotus following the end of the season, Salo moved to Tyrrell for 1995. He was to spend three years with the team, scoring points several times. In the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix he completed the whole (rain-shortened and -slowed) race without refuelling, taking fifth place ahead of the faster Giancarlo Fisichella as a result. Despite a promising 1998 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in 1999.

Following an injury to BAR driver Ricardo Zonta, Salo took his place for three races whilst the Brazilian recovered. However a greater opportunity arose when Michael Schumacher broke his leg in a crash during the 1999 British Grand Prix. Salo was selected as his substitute to partner Eddie Irvine at Ferrari. In his second race in Ferrari at the 1999 German Grand Prix Salo led for part 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 of gratitude. He also finished third at Monza, ahead of Irvine.

Salo 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 Formula One entry in 2002. He scored two points for Toyota in their first season, becoming the first driver since JJ Lehto at the 1993 South African Grand Prix to score points on a team's debut by finishing sixth at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix. He retired from Formula One at the end of 2002, after surprisingly getting fired from Toyota.

2013 United States Grand Prix review

Vettel won again but the race was still interesting in many ways. The most interesting things for me were Räikkönen's replacement Heikki Kovalainen and the young rookie Valtteri Bottas.

Williams has had one of the worst season of the teams history. Pastor Maldonado has scored only one point this season and now Bottas was 8th at the USGP. That was good news not only for Williams but for the young Finn as well. He really showed that he is able to overtake when the car has what it takes to compete.

Right at the start he overtook Kovalainen and then later Esteban Gutierrez in a high speed chase.

I was very impressed with Bottas! And yes I have said many times that he is a pro driver waiting for his chance.

Have also promised that I will stop talking about him until he actually does something. That didn't take long when I made that promise in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago.

Heikki Kovalainen was a big disappointment right from the start, but when I heard that the problems was because of his KERS, front wing/lack of down force and tire temperatures I understood that it wasn't his fault. I really thought at first that he is a bit rusty but don't think so anymore. His speed in the practice sessions and qualifying was very similar to Kimi Räikkönen so it can't be that bad.

Even Davide Valsecchi who at first said that Kovalainen was a bad choice changed his mind about him.

It takes a racing driver to see how good Kovalainen was performing. But all in all I was still very disappointed with his results. I really wanted to see him higher up fighting with the other top drivers.

Both of the Ferrari's were very slow. Even Alonso had problems keeping Nico Hulkenberg behind him but that is also because Hulkenberg is an awesome driver and not just the lack of Ferrari's speed.

Then I thought that I should mention the name of Romain Grosjean who drove almost like Räikkönen would have driven. It was probably a big relief for Team Lotus when they weren't sure if their two drivers could bring same kind of points home as Räikkönen usually does.

Mika Salo asked Eric Boullier before the race if Grosjean could fight for 2nd place. Boullier answered right away by saying "No, no, no. The Red Bulls will be first and second". It seems that the result was a bit better than even he could have expected. At least when we talk about Grosjean. In Kovalainen's case everything was wrong. Even the first "normal" pit stop was 2 seconds slower than Grosjeans. What was taking so long guys?

And like I always do at the end of the reviews - Here are the guesses from the preview and the actual results:

Pole position: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT

Race:

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - ONLY WRONG GUESS IN THE TOP3. LH WAS 4TH AND GROSJEAN WAS 2ND.
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull - CORRECT

Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - CORRECT

Surprise: Heikki Kovalainen seems to be a mystery to many but I believe that he will be higher up than Grosjean. This guy is better than many may think. Keep an eye on him if you haven't already done that.

He has been good in the practice sessions so far and is performing stronger than his teammate.

He performed better in the long runs than Grosjean at the practice sessions but then after that everything started going downhill for the former Caterham pilot. I really hoped that he wouldn't retire from the race and he didn't but the problems that he had were almost the same thing.

The biggest surprise for me was the new speed found in the Williams cars. Unfortunately only Bottas could take advantage of the new setups. Maldonado was held up in the qualifying session by Max Chilton and Esteban Gutierrez. Maldonado's position was 18th when Bottas was 9th.

Maldonado had earlier even complained that Williams has been favoring Bottas and making his (Maldonado's) time there more difficult on purpose.

That is a stupid thing to say because Williams needs every point they can get. Valtteri Bottas said that he is going to fight for some more points next weekend at Interlagos. Let's hope that will happen.

Tomorrow I will post the 2013 Brazilian GP preview which is the last preview of the season.

Mika Salo: Kovalainen would be the best choice to replace Räikkönen

Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham

The former F1 driver Mika Salo from Finland has stated to MTV3 that the best choice to replace Kimi Räikkönen at Lotus would be Heikki Kovalainen. Mika Salo got a chance at Ferrari by replacing Michael Schumacher in 1999 so this situation is a bit similar.

Lotus has Davide Valsecchi as reserve driver, but Mika Salo has an opinion that it would be wiser to use a driver who has already competed at the two remaining tracks last year.

Kovalainen has also driven practice sessions for Caterham this season so he should be in good shape for the job. The Finn has also much more experience than Valsecchi and Lotus doesn't have time for him to learn the new tracks.

Caterham also uses Renault engines which is also an aspect that links Heikki to the Lotus team.

Mika Salo also stated that the only better choice would be if they could use their next years driver but that is not very easy to arrange when the decisions haven't been made yet.

A clip from the 2000 San Marino qualifying in finnish with subtitles

Matti Kyllönen

I have been talking about the Finnish people being very patriotic and crazy about their Formula One drivers. There are a lot of videos on YouTube that are recorded from Finnish TV. Unfortunately the non-Finnish people can't understand a single word they are saying. 

Now we have a video with subtitles!

I made these subtitles myself a little while a go so you better enjoy this video!

The commentators in this video are named Matti Kyllönen and Erkki Mustakari. Matti Kyllönen is the Murray Walker of Finland. He quit a few years ago but we can still enjoy his commentating thanks to YouTube.

I started following F1 in 1991-1992 and I watched the races from Euro Sport in english. Later I watched them from Finland's MTV3 and I could not go back to Euro Sport after I heard this Matti Kyllönen commentating. He was great!

Press play and see what it is to be Finnish and how the Finns watch Formula One.

WAIT UNTILL HÄKKINEN CROSSES THE FINISH LINE!