The F1 Beyond The Grid F1 podcast has Mika Salo on his career, stint with Ferrari and other teams, racing with hole in his lung and more.
- In the latest installment of the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast, Salo was the guest in an episode that began with the Finn discussing his 1999 season. He explained how the opportunity came about for him to join BAR, and what this was like.
- Salo also discussed getting the call up to Ferrari after Michael Schumacher’s Silverstone crash and the unbelievable lengths that the Italian team went to to keep his presence in Maranello a secret.
- He covered the pressure he felt, or in his case, lack thereof with Ferrari, and the rounds he ran in – specifically, Austria, Hockenheim, and Monza.
- After this, Salo opined on his son’s racing endeavors and what sort of a father he is when it comes to managing this.
- His short stint with Ferrari was followed by a signing with Sauber – something he briefly discussed before chatting about his eventual move to Toyota.
- Salo criticised the team’s lack of F1 experience at the time, and told of just how terrible their initial test car was, not helped by the fact that the Finn had to abstain from a few tests due to injuries.
- He did, however, say that the car that succeeded it was a big step forward, but restricted by Toyota’s very corporate approach to racing that simply doesn’t work in the world of F1.
- Reflecting, he added on his happiest year in F1, and here he pointed to his Tyrrell stint, as well as the performance of Jos Verstappen, which was lacking on longer runs.
- He also listed off his Top 3 drivers on the 2020 grid, which were Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton – understandably, he refused to rank them by skill.
- Switching gears, he covered his battle with Mika Hakkinen in British F3 in 1990, and how it makes him feel that Mika’s career took such a drastically different path.
- He also revealed that he drove his whole F1 career with a hole in his lung – something he only had the operation to fix after his retirement.
- Another thing he did post his F1 retirement was compete in Japan, and this was something he covered, as well as his service as a steward, and what this is like.
Due to FOM’s restrictions, we cannot use the podcast but we have the link where you can find it: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdWRpb2Jvb20uY29tL2NoYW5uZWxzLzQ5NjQzMzkucnNz/episode/dGFnOmF1ZGlvYm9vbS5jb20sMjAyMC0wNi0zMDovcG9zdHMvNzYyMDA4MA?hl=en-IN&ved=2ahUKEwjzuLrmpa7qAhXTmeYKHfSLAIYQieUEegQIBxAE&ep=6
Here’s the last F1 Beyond The Grid podcast with Stefan Johansson