How about Pekka Saarinen? I saw his 4 races in Asian Formula Renault in China and Malaysia this year.He was a outstanding racer.He always be the race leader and have a big gap from the others.

Is there any good formula racer from Finland? cause I just know little about the Formula race in Europe.

Why you're specifically interested about Finnish drivers?

There's Markus Niemelä driving for BCN Competicion in GP2 series... he's still a "rookie" though.

I'd rate Hakkinen above both of those two, although Kimi does have incredible raw pace (that qualy lap from Spa was impressive), but Hakkinen is the better all round package. Jan Magnussen was said to have incredible raw talent but never delivered to his potential in his short F1 career (a bit like Raikkonen really).

Quote from ajp71 :

I'd rate Hakkinen above both of those two, although Kimi does have incredible raw pace (that qualy lap from Spa was impressive), but Hakkinen is the better all round package. Jan Magnussen was said to have incredible raw talent but never delivered to his potential in his short F1 career (a bit like Raikkonen really).

Magnussen was Danish, and he never won a GP, unlike Kimi

Quote from BlueFlame :

Magnussen was Danish, and he never won a GP, unlike Kimi

Well it's near Finland :doh:

Magnussen was rubbish in F1, he never delivered.

Mika Salo?

Quote from tristancliffe :

Mika Salo?

I've always thought he's arrogant, acts like world champion or something.

Currently doing pretty good in ALMS GT2 class. Probably going to win the title.

JJ Lehto.

I thought JJ Lehto was Dutch?

You thought wrong.

Hakkinen

Raikkonen

Kovalainen

In that order . True, its hard to compare Hakkinen and Raikkonen since they've never competed properly against each other but I think Hakki is the best out of the 3 because he was by far, the strongest challenger for the championship when Schumacher was around. There were like 2 groups, there were all the loyal Hakkinen fans and then all the loyal Schumacher fans. They were 2 rivals who exchanged wins all the time. Raikkonen, however, didn't beat Schumacher much.

@ajp: Raw pace isn't the only thing that wins races, theres consistency, strategy and racecraft although, Raikkonen definitely is really good when it comes to consistency and pace but I really haven't seen any spectacular overtaking from Raikkonen or defending and doesn't seem very strategic (Nurburgring '05: Keeps locking brakes and then front right tyre blows in the braking zone of T1) so he wasn't very clever there.

If you are talking about all Finnish F1 drivers no place for Keke Rosberg in your top 3?

Whoops! my bad, I apologise . I wasn't born in those days so I forgot about him but definitely Keijo Rosberg was one of the greats. I never watched him racing but I guess I put him waay up there with the other 3 although really, I'd take out Kovalainen, drop Raikkonen to 3rd and put Keijo in 2nd behind Hakkinen . I dunno, hard to judge whos better, Keijo or Hakkinen since they were driving at different times with different equipment but I guess Keijo deserves a lot of appreciation since he was one of the drivers where it took a "man" to drive those cars in those days

But Technically Keke Rosberg is Swedish anyway, so its a judgement call

Quote from Leprekaun :

@ajp: Raw pace isn't the only thing that wins races, theres consistency, strategy and racecraft although, Raikkonen definitely is really good when it comes to consistency and pace but I really haven't seen any spectacular overtaking from Raikkonen or defending and doesn't seem very strategic (Nurburgring '05: Keeps locking brakes and then front right tyre blows in the braking zone of T1) so he wasn't very clever there.

I'd disagree with that statement Raikkonen isn't very consistent and doesn't do strategy well, doesn't have phenomenal race craft, is too hard on the car and can't nurture it home when he pushes too hard and he never gives it less than 110% but when he's on form and hasn't got out of the wrong side of bed he is bloody quick

Kimi is unconsistant, i guess thats his trend(and will probably see him never win a title becuase of it), but when it comes together he cleans everyone on the race track..

Suzuka 2005 anyone?

Bollocks. Don't let few freak incidents (like Villeneuve not seeing a blue flag) and utterly bad Mercedes engines have too much weight. He is a machine.

Quote from Blackout :

Bollocks. Don't let few freak incidents (like Villeneuve not seeing a blue flag) and utterly bad Mercedes engines have too much weight. He is a machine.

Well in fairness Coulthard and even JPM didn't seem to have such bad luck with the engines, which probably shows how Kimi can't cope with the cars faults. Not a lot of it is freak incidents, things like German GP where he flat spotted a tire when pushing to hard with a 30 second lead then deciding not to pit and crashing out on the last lap. My guess is Shumi would have finished that race, maybe not in first race but certainly with a good splattering of points, which TBH is why he's 7 time world Champion even if Kimi can blow him away when everything works perfectly.

Mika seemed better at looking after his car than Kimi has been. Kimi is often fast but breaks his car. I used to think it was a coincidence, but now I think he pushes the car too hard sometimes, and things break.

I heard Mika tried to get back into F1 this year but couldn't get a seat. He seemed to lose his nerve for F1 racing just before he retired. He has probably matured a bit since then. He's always shown good talent and a lot of fight.

Kimi seems a bit reserved when it comes to battling others directly. He hasn't shown a lot of promise when buried mid-field in the past. When he is in front he shows his best.

Keke was great to watch. He often had the right car of course, but that shouldn't overshadow his racing talent. I really enjoyed watching him drive.

He didn't try to get a seat afaik, it was a test that he did to help improve McLaren's 2007 car. I held back tears of joy, when Motorsport News said he might be coming back.. It's not going to be. Think about it, hes what 38-40 years old?

I didn't mean the Finnish F1 driver like Kimi Mika Heikki Keke or Mika Salo.

I just want to know some young talented finnish formula drivers like Saarinen and Niemelä.

I saw Markus Niemela's Formula Renault race in Zhuhai,China on May 2nd. He was as fast as Pekka.



BTW,I heard there's a karting racer called Oskari Heikkinen,he was as fast as Kimi Raikkonen in the Karting race in 1998. How is he now?

Toni Vilander was promising but is no longer in single seaters. Currently I don't know of a quick Finn in F3 or GP2 though.

Häkkinen just wrecked the race leader and championship second in the second last race of the season.

Quote from BlueFlame :

But Technically Keke Rosberg is Swedish anyway, so its a judgement call

Are you a Swede? During his racing days Swedes constantly tryed to 'own' him. Even he was born in Sweden he was (and is) Finnish.

Quote from zeugnimod :

Häkkinen just wrecked the race leader and championship second in the second last race of the season.

Yeah, the first DTM race I'm able to watch and he goes and does that.

But what kind of kids are they at Audi? Taking all their cars off when the incidents were pure racing accidents.

Sorry for the off-topic.