Mika Salo
Salo could easily have been the forgotten of the two Mika’s following a hard-fought British Formula Three championship in 1990 when the Finn from Helsinki pushed his rival Häkkinen all the way in a two-horse battle for the title. The champion was snapped up by Lotus, while Salo,despite six wins to his credit, was left without sufficient backing even to scrape up a ride in European F3000.
It must have been a choker for the uninhibited Salo, who had an almost unbroken list of successes in karts and FF1600 behind him in Scandinavia, but at least he had the lifeline of employment in Japan testing and racing on behalf of Yokohama. Running on these tyres in the All-Japan F3000 championship failed to produce the most spectacular of results, but in his four-year stay in the Far East Mika built up a massive amount of experience.
He was therefore ideally placed to step into a vacant seat at Lotus for the 1994 Japanese GP and took his big chance to shine in a poor car, finishing tenth in the appalling race conditions without once making an error. From forgotten man he was suddenly in demand and, when it was clear that Lotus had finally closed its doors, Salo joined Tyrrell for the 1995 season.
A sensational debut in Brazil could have yielded points but for his suffering cramp, and he spent the rest of the season generally overshadowing his team-mate Ukyo Katayama. There were plenty of rough edges, and his driving tactics were sometimes a little questionable, but Mika plugged away in a disappointing car to take three points-scoring finishes in the last six races. The maturing Finn undoubtedly had the speed to go much further up the Grand Prix ladder but, after a bright start to the 1996 season, he found himself wondering if he could even finish a race, let alone challenge for a worthwhile result, given the fragility of the Yamaha engine.
Locked into a three-year deal with Tyrrell, Salo was joined in 1997 by the equally hungry Jos Verstappen and the young lions had customer Ford power, which increased reliability but at the price of straightline speed. When circumstances presented him with a chance to score points with the Tyrrell at Monaco, Mika drove a brilliant non-stop race to take fifth place and emphasise that a talent was largely being wasted.
It was something of a sideways move for Salo when he switched to Arrows for 1998 to replace Damon Hill. For the Finn, it was much the same scenario as at Tyrrell – tidy but none-too-quick machinery with questionable reliability. A fourth place was achieved at Monaco in the black car, but no other top-six finishes were forthcoming. When Pedro Diniz defected to Sauber at season's end, he took his massive sponsorship package with him, and this had far-reaching consequences for Salo, who found himself pushed out by
Pedro de la Rosa and Toranosuke Takagi, who both came with substantial backing behind them.
This was to be a blessing in disguise if the Finn but knew it, for he was free to take over from Ricardo Zonta at BAR after the Brazilian had sustained a foot injury. Mika at least managed to bring the car to the finish in one of his three races before stepping down, and was then rapidly called back into action, this time with Ferrari. This was Salo's big chance, and he certainly made a lasting impression in the German Grand Prix when he had total control of the race before moving aside to let team-mate Eddie Irvine take the ten points in his championship quest.
His selflessness no doubt played a big part in the Finn being offered a seat at Sauber for 2000 where, paired with Pedro Diniz, he showed enough promise in pre-season testing to suggest points finishes were on the cards. He was unlucky not to make a mark straight away when a fine drive to sixth place in Australia was rewarded with post-race exclusion but, from then on, things continued in usual Sauber vein, with potential being thwarted by problems and lack of development. Non-starting in Brazil because of a rear-wing induced practice accident, Salo was able to pick up fifth and sixth place scores at intervals, leaving him tenth in the championship alongside Jordan's Jarno Trulli.
This was not enough to persuade him to stay with Sauber for 2001, however, despite overtures from the Swiss team to do so. Instead, with the pending arrival of the Toyota works effort on the horizon for 2002, Salo again opted to reject a race seat in favour of a year's testing. The choice had served him well in 1999, and there was no reason to doubt his wisdom second time around. After a year testing the interim Toyota F1 machine, Salo made his debut with F1's newest works team at the Australian GP in March 2002. It was a dream event, with the Finn finishing sixth and giving the new boys a point in their first race.
Further 'success' followed at the Brazilian GP, when Salo again scored another point, but such a good start gave the team unrealistic expectations. A poor mid-season, when Salo retired five times on the trot due to mechanical problems, and an average end to the year, were not good and, while Salo complained, the Toyota management took the shock decision to axe both the Finn and rookie team-mate Allan McNish, despite the fact both had on-going contracts.
Following Toyota's decision, Salo announced his retirement from F1 and turned his attention to other areas of the sport. Most notably sportscars, but also with a handful of outings in America's Champ Car World Series with former BAR employer Craig Pollock's PK Racing team. His single-seater career ended with a podium finish in Miami, but Salo continued to compete in various sports cars. An attempt to win at Le Mans with Audi UK in 2003 failed when team-mate Frank Biela was forced to retire the R8 after running out of fuel. The Finn found a new niche in the GT class, helping to guide the GPC Giesse team to second in the 2004 Spa 24 Hours, while also developing the all-new Maserati MC12, a car he later went on to debut, and win with, in the FIA GT Championship.
In mid-2006 Salo and his family moved to Houston to be close to join the Risi Competizione team competing in GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series with a Ferrari 430GT. With Brazilian Jaime Melo, the pair soon took the class win at Salt Lake City. Rizi now have their sights set on winning the GT2 ALMS championship in 2007, and the team began in the best possible fashion, with Salo, Melo and Johnny Mowlem taking the class honours in a thrilling finish at the Sebring 12 hours.
