Mika Juhani Salo (born 30 November 1966) is a Finnish former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from to . In sportscar racing, Salo won the 2007 American Le Mans Series title, as well as winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2008 and 2009 in the GT2 class. He also won the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour.
Salo's best ranking was 10th in the world championship in , when he stood in for the injured Michael Schumacher at Ferrari for six races, scoring two podiums and ten points, contributing to Ferrari's constructors' championship win by a four-point margin. He then raced for Sauber in 2000, and joined Toyota for their debut in 2002, which would be his final season in Formula One.
Career
Formula Three and Japanese racing In 1989, Helsinki-born Salo competed in the British Formula 3 Championship, racing for Alan Docking Racing. He raced with the Reynard Alfa Romeo package which was not the season's best. Staying with Alan Docking Racing for 1990 and moving to a more competitive Ralt chassis, he raced against countryman and fierce rival Mika Häkkinen in Formula Three, finishing second to him. In 1990, Salo was caught driving under the influence in London.
Formula One
1994–1998: Lotus, Tyrrell and Arrows
After a few years racing in Japan, Salo made his first Formula One start at the penultimate round of the 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 . 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 with Arrows, he had no full-time drive in .
1999: British American Racing and Ferrari
Following an injury to BAR driver Ricardo Zonta, Salo took his place for three races whilst the Brazilian recovered. BAR's first season was not successful but Salo scored their best result of the year, with a seventh-place finish at San Marino. 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 he give the lead to Irvine, who at the time was fighting for the championship with Mika Häkkinen.1999 German Grand Prix www.grandprix.com Retrieved 21 June 2007 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. These podium finishes were critical in helping Ferrari win their first Constructors' title since .
2000–2002: Sauber and Toyota
Salo was back full-time in 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 , and also cited a desire to score podiums rather than lower points-scoring positions. 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 getting fired from Toyota. Though the news was initially met with general surprise, it was later revealed that Salo was not on good terms with the team, who heavily criticized his deemed poor performance.
During his Formula One career, Salo achieved two podiums, and scored a total of 33 championship points.
Post-Formula One Salo's first post-Formula One race came at the 2003 12 Hours of Sebring, driving the UK-entered Audi R8, the same car he was due to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans if it had not run out of fuel already after the first hour. He raced in four CART races for PK Racing during the same year, his best finish being third in Miami in his second series start.
Because of his strong links with Ferrari, Salo was picked up to be part of the development program of the Maserati MC12 GT racer. He made his FIA GT debut in 2004, narrowly losing the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in a Ferrari 575. After that he entered the last four races of the season in the Maserati, winning two races and finishing second once.
2005 was a year somewhat lost in the doldrums with only two participations with the Maserati MC12 in the ALMS GTS-class, a competition where the car turned out to be not even half as competitive as in the FIA GT series.
For 2006, Salo returned to racing full-time, signing with AF Corse in the FIA GT to drive the Ferrari F430 and later on in the year with Risi Competizione in the ALMS. He was victorious in class in the 24 Hours of Spa and finished third in the FIA GT2 Drivers' Championship with 61 points, while his efforts in the ALMS contributed to Risi's Teams' Championship cup. In the following year, he continued with Risi Competizione in the ALMS and took the GT2 class honours in the 12 Hours of Sebring and the championship along with teammate Jaime Melo. They won a total of eight races out of twelve in the class. In addition, he won the RAC Tourist Trophy with Thomas Biagi when substituting for Michael Bartels, driving a Maserati MC12 once more.
Salo and Melo with Risi Competizione earned the first team At-Large honours on the 2007 All-American Racing Team, as voted for by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters (AARWBA). Salo raced again in the ALMS for Risi Competizione in 2008. Although he was not successful in defending his previous year's titles, he won the GT2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, coming in 18th overall.
In 2009, Salo joined the Risi Ferrari team at the blue-riband races only, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans event, winning all three of them. Having won these enduro races all more than once, Salo felt he was ready for a new challenge. He set his mind on NASCAR, and had his first test with Michael Waltrip Racing at the half-mile New Smyrna Speedway in November 2009.
In 2010–12, Salo competed in the Gold Coast 600, an endurance event for the V8 Supercars. In 2010, he partnered with Walkinshaw Racing's Andrew Thompson and retired from both races. For 2011–12 he raced with Will Davison and the Ford Performance Racing team, finishing 2nd in the 1st race of 2011 and winning the 2nd race in 2012.
In 2014, driving for Maranello Motorsport, Salo co-drove a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 to victory at the Bathurst 12 Hour alongside Australian motor racing legends Craig Lowndes and John Bowe, and another local Australian driver Peter Edwards.
Personal life As of 2013, Salo lives in Tallinn, Estonia, where he moved from Monaco in the late 2000s. He has a son, born in 2001, and a daughter, born in 2004, with his ex-wife (; born 1970), a Japanese former gravure idol. They were married from 1999 to 2022, but they had already been living separately for over two years before the divorce. In 2023, Salo married Annica Lindblom. His godson Jesse Krohn competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
Like fellow Finns Keke Rosberg and JJ Lehto, both former Formula One drivers, Salo has commentated on several F1 races on MTV Oy since 2005. Since 2011, Salo has been hosting the Finnish TV-show, Virittäjät ('Test Drive by Mika Salo'), along with his former co-host Tomi Tuominen, who is a Finnish journalist, television presenter, sports commentator and former co-driver in the World Rally Championship.
In 2013, Salo featured in Discovery channel's program called Driven to Extremes along with Hollywood actors Tom Hardy and Adrien Brody. Salo appeared in two episodes, one with Tom Hardy in minus 50 degrees Celsius in Russia, and the other one with Adrien Brody to the Malaysian jungle at the height of the monsoon season.
Helmet Salo's helmet was originally dark blue with a white halo on the top (with a red line inside), two white stripes (with a red line inside) going from the rear going down diagonally to the sides of the helmet and a white trapezoidal shape on the chin area (with blue outline), slightly based on Prost's helmet. When he raced in Formula One, he changed the helmet from dark blue to sky blue with the rest of the elements intact.
Racing record Career summary
SeasonSeriesTeamRacesWinsPolesF/LapsPodiumsPointsPosition 1987 Nordic Formula Ford 1600?????303rd Formula Ford Finland?????402nd Formula Ford Sweden Junior?????238th 1988 European Formula Ford 1600?????801st Formula Ford Finland44444441st Nordic Formula Ford 160032??2401st Formula Ford Sweden Junior?????209th Formula Ford Festival10000N/A11th 1989 British Formula Three Alan Docking Racing1600001014th 1990 British Formula Three Alan Docking Racing1763612982nd Macau Grand Prix10001N/A2nd 1991 Japanese Formula 3000 Ad Racing Team Co. Ltd.50000123rd 1992 Japanese Formula 3000 Ad Racing Team Co. Ltd.110000515th Japanese Formula Three Team 5ZIGEN40000213th 1993 Japanese Formula 3000 Ad Racing Team Co. Ltd.100000117th Japanese Touring Car Championship - JTC-3 Team 5ZIGEN910014714th 1994 Japanese Formula 3000 Team 5ZIGEN9000167th Formula One Team Lotus200000NC 1995 Formula One Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha170000515th 1996 Formula One Tyrrell Yamaha160000513th 1997 Formula One PIAA Tyrrell Ford170000217th 1998 Formula One Danka Zepter Arrows150000313th 1999 Formula One Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro600021010th British American Racing30000 2000 Formula One Red Bull Sauber Petronas160000611th 2002 Formula One Panasonic Toyota Racing170000217th 2003 Champ Car World Series PK Racing400012616th American Le Mans Series - LMP900 Audi Sport UK100001228th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP90010000N/ADNF 2004 FIA GT Championship GPC Giesse Squadra Corse410032713th Finnish Touring Car Championship Lehtonen Motorsport201110NC 2005 American Le Mans Series - GT1 Risi Competizione100000NC 2006 FIA GT Championship - GT2 AF Corse101005564th American Le Mans Series - GT2 Risi Competizione53004827th 2007 American Le Mans Series - GT2 Risi Competizione1282092021st 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT210000N/ADNF FIA GT Championship - GT1 Vitaphone Racing110011016th FIA GT Championship - GT2 AF Corse Motorola100000NC 2008 American Le Mans Series - GT2 Risi Competizione1120051214th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT211001N/A19th FIA GT Championship - GT2 AF Corse100011318th 2009 American Le Mans Series - GT2 Risi Competizione22002608th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT211001N/A18th 2010 GT1 World Championship Mad-Croc Racing60000052nd V8 Supercar Walkinshaw United200000NC ADAC GT Masters Callaway Competition20000427th American Le Mans Series - GT2 Risi Competizione300002820th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMGT2 AF Corse10000N/ADNS 2011 V8 Supercar Ford Performance Racing2000120152nd American Le Mans Series - GT Risi Competizione100001225th 24 Hours of Nürburgring - E1-XP2 Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus10001N/A2nd 2012 International Superstars Series Swiss Team400013019th Campionato Italiano Superstars20000824th V8 Supercar Ford Performance Racing210010NC† Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup100110NC† 2013 Australian GT Championship Maranello Motorsport100015017th Bathurst 12 Hour - Class A10000N/ADNF Blancpain Endurance Series - Pro-Am SMP Racing100013013th European Le Mans Series - GTC101001112th 2014 European Le Mans Series - GTC SMP Racing40000428th Bathurst 12 Hour - Class A Maranello Motorsport11001N/A1st FIA World Endurance Championship - LMP2 SMP Racing10000508th 24 Hours of Le Mans - LMP210000N/A12th United SportsCar Championship - GTD MP/ESM Racing100002962nd2015 Bathurst 12 Hour - Class A Maranello Motorsport10000N/ADNS2016 Bathurst 12 Hour - Class A Maranello Motorsport10000N/ADNF 2020 Super Taikyu - ST-1 Field Management Racing1000150‡3rd‡ † Not eligible for championship points.
‡ Team standings.