GRR

The 7 best Finnish F1 drivers

31st January 2025
Ben Miles

It might shock you that only nine Formula 1 drivers in history have hailed from Finland, and only eight of them started a race. It’s probably not surprising when you realise that the country’s population is less than ten percent of the UK’s – which has produced 163 F1 drivers of various levels of talent. But out of those nine, the weight of success to failure has been high. Only four have never won a Grand Prix. And even one of them went on to huge success in sportscars.

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With the departure of Valtteri Bottas there won’t be Finnish representation on the Formula 1 grid in 2025 for the first time since 1988. For most of us under the age of about 45, it’s just been natural that the blue cross of the national flag has been flying somewhere. So, to celebrate over four decades of Finnish F1 success, we’ve picked our favourite flying Finns from history.

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7. Mika Salo

109 starts 
0 wins 
0 Championships

We could, easily, go through every single driver from Finland in this list. But the F1 efforts of Leo Kinnunen and Mikko Kozarowitzy aren’t really that stellar: eight entries between them, two starts (both for Kinnunen), no points.

So we will jump forward to the 1990s for our first favourite Finn. A white-haired veteran of over 100 F1 starts who scored points 16 times across eight years in F1. But, while his time at Tyrrell, Sauber, BAR and Toyota was worthy, it is a single slew of races in red for which we will always remember Mika Salo.

Picked from left-field to replace the injured Michael Schumacher (even he couldn’t race with a broken leg) Salo was thrown into a Ferrari F399 to support Eddie Irvine’s doomed attempt to win the championship. Most of Salo’s results still weren’t that stellar – he only scored points twice. But when he got a result, his flashes of pace were worth remembering. And who will ever forget that German Grand Prix in 1999? Salo could easily have won that day, but given the sole reason for his Ferrari drive was to support Irvine he surrendered it for the good of the team. 

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6. JJ Lehto

62 starts
0 wins
0 Championships

It’s probably harsh on Salo to put JJ Lehto ahead of him on this list. And you’re right, we may well be doing it based on his successes in sportscars. But we’re also totally swayed by the fact that Lehto stuck a completely useless Dallara-chassised Scuderia Italia on the podium at Imola in 1991 (OK he was a lap down and basically everyone had retired, but we don’t care). While the car was hopeless, Lehto comprehensively beat his team-mate – Goodwood favourite and future Le Mans legend Emanuele Pirro. Where Pirro spent half his season not even qualifying, Lehto’s monster finish at Imola ensured the team took eighth in the standings.

His two following seasons brought drives with Sauber and Bennetton and more points, but his F1 career peaked at Imola and he would go off to find great success elsewhere in motorsport.

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5. Heikki Kovalainen

111 starts
1 win
0 Championships

Heikki Kovalainen’s F1 career is a bit of a “what if” scenario. Runner-up in GP2 in his only season in the series (to Sir Lewis Hamilton), he showed promise in a not-exactly-fast Renault in his first F1 season and was rewarded with a prime McLaren drive alongside Hamilton. Yes, he was less than totally convincing in the 2008 and 2009 seasons, but he picked up his only F1 victory with a strong showing in Hungary in ‘08, and the MP4/24 was a dog for most of ’09.

When he lost his McLaren drive Kovalainen signed for the new Lotus team (the one which became Caterham not Renault). And that was pretty much it. Three seasons toiling at the back of the grid in a completely underfunded team meant no matter how good Heikki was, no one could see it. After 2012 he walked away and would win the Super GT championship a few years later. Now he appears in rallying from time to time and recently came back from open heart surgery to take on Rally Japan.

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4. Valtteri Bottas

246 starts
10 wins
0 Championships

The last driver on this list not to have won a World Championship. Bottas might not have had the most eye-catching of F1 careers – consistently in the shadow of Sir Lewis Hamilton as he was. But if you look back to his days at Williams, and concentrate on not just his win numbers, but how others within the sport talk about him, Valtteri is a properly quick racer.

Other than the drivers in a Mercedes, he was one of the standouts in the 2014 season, only his second in F1. Yes, his Williams was fast that year, but Bottas comprehensively beat his much more experienced team-mate, Felipe Massa, collecting six podiums to the Brazilian’s three. A move to Mercedes eventually followed where he picked up all of his ten F1 wins. It could well have been more were it not for the times he helped Hamilton’s charge to another championship. In later years, Valtteri became a fan favourite too, growing much more comfortable with himself and becoming a source of fun. I’m not sure he deserved more from his career, but he definitely achieved a lot, and petering out at Sauber wasn’t fair on Valtteri.

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3. Keke Rosberg

114 starts
5 wins
1 Championship

The first Finnish F1 World Champion only won five races in his Formula 1 career. He might even be more famous for his relaxed attitude to life and fathering another World Champion. But a World Champion Keke Rosberg was. Happiest when able to absolutely chuck ground effect cars into corners, Rosberg’s career went off a cliff when that era ended.

But in 1982 Keke stood atop the world. Just one victory and 44 points were enough to clinch the championship as other drivers struck the 1980s’ legendary reliability issues. He and Williams were a great pairing and his departure to McLaren signalled the beginning of the end for Keke’s career. But he will forever be remembered as the most relaxed Finn ever to race in F1. And for sticking a picture of Britney Spears in his own son’s passport…

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2. Kimi Räikkönen

349 starts
21 wins
1 Championship

There’s not just one racing driver who has been given the nickname “The Iceman”. But there’s only one that you’ll think of when we say it. Kimi Räikkönen is the most successful Finnish F1 driver ever in terms of wins. A single championship definitely does not do his sheer pace justice.

He raised eyebrows when he broke through to F1 after completing only 23 car races in his life. But Räikkönen not only stuck it to those doubters, but raced so well he was catapulted into a drive with McLaren for his second F1 season in 2002. He arguably should have won the championship in 2003 - and he would have but for a blown tyre that robbed him of a finish at the Nürburgring.

Four years later, he was standing on top of the world as a champion, now with Ferrari. He never quite hit those heights again. Spending some time rallying with mixed success before returning to F1 and showcasing genuine speed in a Lotus that no one expected to win. He’s now happily retired enjoying his son’s karting career. We very much doubt he’s as annoyed he didn’t win a second title as we are.

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1. Mika Häkkinen

161 starts
20 wins
2 Championships

The only Finnish driver to win multiple F1 titles. Mika Häkkinen is one of those drivers who spent a lot of his F1 career being undeniably fast and admired, but never given a car to compete.

That all changed the moment McLaren got its act together. Häkkinen swept Michael Schumacher aside at the height of his powers in 1998, and a slightly less impressive second championship followed in 1999. 

And, to make Häkkinen’s career seem even more special, his light burned out as fast as it was bright. In 2000 he was finally beaten by Schumacher. In 2001 he dropped behind team-mate David Coulthard and promptly left F1 to take a sabbatical that turned into a retirement. He comes from a country of drivers who get on with it and seem happy to get out, and Hakkinen truly did things the Finnish way. We’ll always have that pass on Schumacher at Spa…

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.

  • Formula 1

  • Mika Salo

  • JJ Lehto

  • Heikki Kovalainen

  • Valtteri Bottas

  • Keke Rosberg

  • kimi raikkonen

  • Mika Häkkinen

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