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 Toyota 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. Subsequently the chance of him gaining a FIA Super Licence necessary to compete in Formula One was destroyed in the short-term.

In 1991 Salo started to raced Formula 3000 aka Super Formula in Japan. He would have been wanted to race in Europe's Formula 3000 but did not get enough funding. He told that it would have cost from £200.000 to £500.000 to drive in Europe and he only collected a little over £200.000 while in Japan he got all that he wanted and got also paid for driving for AD Racing's only car. Also Johnny Herbert was driving in Japan in the same time than Salo.

Formula One

1994-1998: Lotus, Tyrrell and Arrows

"I think it was six days before the race they said, 'Do you think you can drive it next weekend with no testing'. I'd never driven a Formula One car before in my life; that's what I've always wanted, so I said yes. I know the circuit so I don't think it's a problem. The next two nights I lay in my bed smiling, so happy it was happening."

Salo commenting on his first race for Lotus.

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.

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. 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.

2000-2002: Sauber and Toyota

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, 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 surprisingly getting fired from Toyota (though it was later revealed that he was not on good terms with the team due to his deemed poor performance).

During his Formula One career, he achieved two podiums, and scored a total of 33 championship points.

Post-Formula One

His 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 he 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, he 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.

From 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

He currently resides in Estonia.

His godson Jesse Krohn competes in Formula Renault, both in Scandinavia and the UK.

Like fellow Finns Keke Rosberg and JJ Lehto, both former Formula One drivers, Salo has commentated on several F1 races on MTV3 and the pay-channel MTV3 MAX from 2005 till present (2016).

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 co-driver in the WRC. At first, Salo tests the two cars built by the cars owners, on the Finnish Ahvenisto Race Circuit and present his initial thoughts of the vehicle. He would then proceed to make a quick time attack lap around the track and afterwards give feedback of the car to its owner. At the end of the show, Salo reviews the car with his co-host, Tomi Tuominen. In 2013, the shows format was changed a little for the third season. Now, instead of two cars per episode, Salo drives and reviews only one car, then races the car on the Alastaro Circuit to set a time which the car owner would have to beat. In the last episode of each season, Salo selects a winner out of all the competing cars and shortly explains why he believes that the car and its owner in question deserved to win. The show continues to follow this format to this day and the fifth season of the show was aired on TV, in 2015 and the 6th in 2016.

Helmet

Salo's helmet was originally dark blue with a white halo on the top (with a red line inside), 2 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

Complete Japanese Formula 3000 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1991	Ad Racing Team Co. Ltd.	SUZ	AUT	FUJ	MIN	SUZ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	23rd	1
1992	Ad Racing Team Co. Ltd.	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	SUZ	15th	5
1993	Ad Racing Team Co. Ltd.	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	SUZ	AUT	SUG	FUJ	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	SUZ	17th	1
1994	Team 5ZIGEN	SUZ	FUJ	MIN	SUZ	SUG	FUJ	SUZ	FUJ	FUJ	SUZ		7th	6

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Points
1994	Team Lotus	Lotus 109	Mugen Honda V10	BRA	PAC	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN	AUS		NC	0
1995	Nokia Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 023	Yamaha V10	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	PAC	JPN	AUS	15th	5
1996	Tyrrell Yamaha	Tyrrell 024	Yamaha V10	AUS	BRA	ARG	EUR	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN		13th	5
1997	Tyrrell	Tyrrell 025	Ford V8	AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	AUT	LUX	JPN	EUR	17th	2
1998	Danka Zepter Arrows	Arrows A19	Arrows V10	AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	LUX	JPN		13th	3
1999	British American Racing	BAR 01	Supertec V10	AUS	BRA	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR										10th	10
	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F399	Ferrari V10									AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	EUR	MAL	JPN
2000	Red Bull Sauber Petronas	Sauber C19	Petronas V10	AUS	BRA	SMR	GBR	ESP	EUR	MON	CAN	FRA	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN	MAL	11th	6
2002	Panasonic Toyota Racing	Toyota TF102	Toyota V10	AUS	MAL	BRA	SMR	ESP	AUT	MON	CAN	EUR	GBR	FRA	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	JPN	17th	2

Complete CART results

(key)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Rank	Points
2003	PK Racing	STP	MTY	LBH	BRH	LAU	MIL	LS	POR	CLE	TOR	VAN	ROA	MDO	MTL	DEN	MIA	MXC	SRF	FON	16th	26

† Cancelled due to California Fires

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2003	Audi Sport UK Arena Motorsport	Frank Biela Perry McCarthy	Audi R8	LMP900	28	DNF	DNF
2007	Risi Competizione	Johnny Mowlem Jaime Melo	Ferrari F430 GT2	GT2	223	DNF	DNF
2008	Risi Competizione	Gianmaria Bruni Jaime Melo	Ferrari F430 GT2	GT2	326	19th	1st
2009	Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo Pierre Kaffer	Ferrari F430 GT2	GT2	329	18th	1st
2010	AF Corse	Luís Pérez Companc Matías Russo	Ferrari F430 GT2	GT2	0	DNS	DNS
2014	SMP Racing	Sergey Zlobin Anton Ladygin	Oreca 03R-Nissan	LMP2	303	37th	12th

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2010	Mad-Croc Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	ABU QR	ABU CR	SIL QR	SIL CR	BRN QR	BRN CR	PRI QR	PRI CR	SPA QR	SPA CR	NÜR QR	NÜR CR	ALG QR	ALG CR	NAV QR	NAV CR	INT QR	INT CR	SAN QR	SAN CR	52nd	0

Complete V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	Final Pos	Points
2010	Walkinshaw Racing	YMC R1	YMC R2	BHR R3	BHR R4	ADE R5	ADE R6	HAM R7	HAM R8	QLD R9	QLD R10	WIN R11	WIN R12	HID R13	HID R14	TOW R15	TOW R16	PHI Q	PHI R17	BAT R18	SUR R19	SUR R20	SYM R21	SYM R22	SAN R23	SAN R24	SYD R25	SYD R26					NC	0 +
2011	Ford Performance Racing	YMC R1	YMC R2	ADE R3	ADE R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	BAR R7	BAR R8	BAR R9	WIN R10	WIN R11	HID R12	HID R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	QLD R18	PHI Q	PHI R19	BAT R20	SUR R21	SUR R22	SYM R23	SYM R24	SAN R25	SAN R26	SYD R27	SYD R28			52nd	201
2012	Ford Performance Racing	ADE R1	ADE R2	SYM R3	SYM R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	BAR R7	BAR R8	BAR R9	PHI R10	PHI R11	HID R12	HID R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	SMP R18	SMP R19	SAN Q	SAN R20	BAT R21	SUR R22	SUR R23	YMC R24	YMC R25	YMC R26	WIN R27	WIN R28	SYD R29	SYD R30	NC	0 †

† Not Eligible for points

Complete International Superstars Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2012	Swiss Team	Maserati Quattroporte	MNZ R1	MNZ R2	IMO R1	IMO R2	DON R1	DON R2	MUG R1	MUG R2	HUN R1	HUN R2	SPA R1	SPA R2	VAL R1	VAL R2	PER R1	PER R2	19th	30

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Rank	Points
2014	SMP Racing	LMP2	Oreca 03R	Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8	SIL	SPA	LMS	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	SÃO	8th	50

[ Source: Wikipedia ]