By Mélanie Pontet 

Usually, the expression “Flying Finns” was used to make reference to the Finns who were the best ski-jumpers. However,  Finns are so good in motor sports, that they have also won this nick-name… Everybody knows Hakkinen, but there were so many personalities participating in the motor sport history since the 60’s… Who are they and why are they the best? 

Sure
Finland is a small country. Not easy for the sportsmen to write their names on t the big book of the sport history. However
Finland possesses lot of stars in a particular field: the motor sport. It all began in the 80’s with Ari Vatanen in the Rally competitions (world champion in 1981 and three times of the Paris-Dakar (1987, 88, 89)) and Keke Rosberg in Formule 1 (world champion in 1982). They were the first Finns known all over the world for their talent as soon they were sitting down in front of a steering wheel. After their oldest brothers, there were many who followed the same path. In Rally, Tomi Mäkinen (world champion in 96 until 99),  Juha Kankkunen, Hannu Mikola, Timo Salonen, and of course Marcus Grönholm, 2nd this year in the WRC Championship –just behind the French Sébastien Loeb!!!-
In Formula 1, we can notice Mika Salo, Kimi Räikkönen who will be driving for Ferrari next year, Heikki Kovalainen, or Nico Rosberg, the son of Keke. 

 

The phenomena Hakkinen 

But the most famous is certainly Hakkinen. Mika Hakkinen. World Champion in Formule 1 in 1998 and 1999, he is the pride of the Finns, the symbol of their country, even living in Monte Carlo now-a-days. When he won his First Championship he was the main subject in all the newspapers, TV and radio in Finland. Everybody spoke about him! The President,  the Ministers, and also some Finnish singers and  actors, agreed to say that he is a  fantastic champion as well as a great  person.  Hakkinen is actually not only an excellent pilot. He is also a very  respectful and respectable  person, known for his modesty and simplicity: “My results are increasing when F1 don’t become more important than my life.” He said in 1998. “The World championship means lot of things for me but there are most important things in life”. [1]Completely different from  his “rival”, Mickaël Schumacher, he was appreciated not only by the Finns but also by all the fans of motor sport.  

 

Finns pilots: burned head??? 

Just to sum up, Finnish pilots have swiped three world championships in Formule 1 and above thirteen in World Rally Championship (WRC), which is undoubtedly their “queen discipline”.  Almost unbelievable…How can a nation of only 5,2 millions have so many champions in this kind of sport? Difficult to find a good answer for this question! Perhaps the reason is because Finns are used to deal with snowy or frozen roads. Since the moment they learn how to drive, they get used to the visibility difficulties on the second half of the year, due to the bad weather. However, this is not totally relevant: Swedish could be as brilliant as their neighbours and actually one can hardly see a Swede being a pilot… Why are they  the best? We have to find other explanations. “It requires a heavy feet and a light head and we are many in this case” answers Ari Vatanen [2]. Maybe Finnish are more daredevil! Where are they well represented in sport? Motor sport, ice-hockey and ski-jumping: three disciplines where you have to be quick and where you have to take risks and not think about the danger!! So, here we have, perhaps, the right explanation!  

Pictures from Mélanie Pontet (24 heures du Mans Auto- June 2006)

[1] http://www.publiscan.fi/sp05f-9.htm

[2] http://www.rds.ca/f1/chroniques/212667.html