Mika Salo

Mika Salo is a Finnish Formula 1 driver. He was born in Helsinki, November 30, 1966. His best ranking was 10th in the world championship in 1999.

Related Topics:
Finnish - Formula 1 - Helsinki - November 30 - 1966 - 1999

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He raced against countryman and fierce rival Mika Häkkinen in the 1990 British F3 championship, finishing 2nd to him. After a few years racing in Japan he made his first Formula 1 starts at the end of 1994, with a full season at Tyrrell the year after. He was to spend 3 years with the team, scoring points several times, most notably by running the whole of the wet 1997 Monaco Grand Prix without a pitstop, the only driver to do this since refuelling was reintroduced in 1994. Despite a promising 1998 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in 1999.

Related Topics:
Mika Häkkinen - F3 - Formula 1 - Tyrrell - Arrows

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When Michael Schumacher broke his legs at 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 lead for much 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. He also finished third at Monza, ahead of Irvine.

Related Topics:
Michael Schumacher - 1999 British Grand Prix - Eddie Irvine - Ferrari - 1999 German Grand Prix - Mika Häkkinen - Monza

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He was back full-time in 2000 with Sauber, again taking 10th in the championship, although he left the team for 2001 to help the new Toyota team prepare for its entry in 2002. He scored 2 points for them in their first season, becoming only the 2nd driver to score points on a team's debut in the modern era by finishing 6th at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix (the other is another Finn, Jyrki Jarvilehto for Sauber in 1993. He retired from Formula 1 at the end of this season, after surprisingly getting fired from Toyota. Rumours said that the reason for Salos release was personal problems with staff working for Toyota, but this has not been confirmed.

Related Topics:
Toyota - Finn - Jyrki Jarvilehto - Sauber

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He raced in 4 races in CART for PK Racing during the 2003 CART season. He finished 3rd in Miami in his second series start.

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He currently resides in London with his wife Noriko and their son, Max.

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In Formula One, he achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 33 championship points.

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