Why does Finland no longer have drivers in F1?

Finland may only have 5.6 million inhabitants – or only 0.07% of the world's population – but it has contributed immensely to the history of Formula 1.

Certainly, the Nordic country has never hosted a Grand Prix, nor even had a team in the world championship. But among its nine drivers, there are seven who reached the podium (including Mika Salo and Jyrki Järvilehto, better known as JJ Lehto), including five winners (notably Heikki Kovalainen and Valtteri Bottas) and even three champions : Keke Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen. That's without counting Nico Rosberg, who was crowned in 2016 but raced under German license from his second season in the F3 Euro Series in 2004.

This success rate may seem surprising. How to explain it?

In a quote often wrongly attributed to Räikkönen, the Finnish journalist Heikki Kulta, well known in the paddock, once attributed this success to the harsh climatic conditions prevailing in the land of a thousand lakes. “Our roads and our long winters”Kulta replied to the Telegraph in 2008. “You really have to be a good driver to survive in Finland. It's always slippery and bumpy.”

Kovalainen, however, doesn't entirely agree. “You get used to pretty harsh and slippery conditions from a very young age. Once you're on the roads, I imagine you need better than average skill to survive and manage to stay on these slippery roads “entrusts the former Renault, McLaren and Lotus driver to Motorsport.com. “A lot of people mention that a lot, but I don’t think it contributes as much as it seems.”

On the other hand, two other factors have more influence, according to Kovalainen.

The first is a tenacious passion for motor sports, in a country which has had even more success in rallying. From Ari Vatanen to Kalle Rovanperä, eight Finns have been world champions in this discipline; France is second, with three titled drivers. In Kovalainen's childhood and adolescence, Juha Kankkunen and Tommi Mäkinen dominated the WRC, while Mika Häkkinen made his mark in Formula 1. It is therefore not surprising that the then young gun was interested in this sport – he won the Japanese rally championship twice.

“All these guys, they were on the news a lot, so you obviously saw them – you saw them everywhere”explains Kovalainen. “Maybe it influenced a lot of people like me: I saw the news, I saw the cars, I saw the speed at which they were going, and maybe that increased the passion for motorsport.”

“The other reason could be that the Finnish mentality is quite neutral”continues the forty-year-old. “We're relatively unemotional people, our days are pretty ordinary – average, so to speak. In such an environment where the pressure is so high, that's a good thing. There's a lot of pressure, we're under the spotlight with a lot to deal with if you can stay calm and keep your cool naturally, it seems like the Finns don't need to work super hard on this: even if the situation is tense. and complicated, we remain calm and Let’s keep our cool.”

“I was surprised, because I said to myself that if Hülkenberg had the seat, Valtteri’s performance was at least as good as Hülkenberg’s”
Heikki Kovalainen

However, unless one of the Mercedes drivers is injured and is replaced by Bottas, 2025 will be the first Formula 1 season without a Finn at the start of a Grand Prix since Lehto's debut in 1989.

Bottas effectively failed to retain a seat after failing to score a single point in a struggling Sauber Stake in 2024. The new Mercedes reserve obviously prefers to remain optimistic with a view to the 2026 transfer market – “I still don’t consider this my last race”he declared in Abu Dhabi – but for now, it is a reality.

“I saw it coming, so I’m not completely surprised”indicates Kovalainen. “In the second half of the season, it became more and more obvious that Valtteri was not going to continue as a starter.”

“When Sauber didn't want to sign and signed Hülkenberg before Valtteri, I was surprised, because I said to myself that if Hülkenberg had the seat, Valtteri's performances were at least as good as Hülkenberg's. I imagine that there are probably marketing reasons behind it, but it's a bit disappointing if the decision is motivated by marketing, because usually this kind of big brand… If you want to become a top team, you choose the drivers according to performance, not marketing.”

“That said, Hülkenberg has been relatively successful, I'm not saying he's a bad choice. But that Valtteri has been there for three years and hasn't been extended, it gave me the impression that there was something missing in this relationship – something they don't like about Valtteri, or he doesn't fit their plan.”

A major problem, however, is the scarcity of promotion options among Finns. None have come close to a Formula 1 seat since Bottas' debut in 2013; the only one to have raced in the antechamber of Formula 1 (F2, or previously GP2) in the last 15 years is Niko Kari.

Kari was part of the Red Bull Junior Team in 2016 and 2017 after winning the SMP F4 title; he placed tenth as a rookie in F3 Europe and GP3, which was not enough for him to keep his place in the academy. His only stint in F2, brief and unsuccessful, dates from the last two meetings of 2018, and he has hardly raced since the 2020 ELMS season.

How to explain this phenomenon? “That's a good question. I probably don't have the right answer to that. It's a topic we've also discussed in the Formula 1 studios here [en Finlande]when I work on TV. We don't have a clear consensus.”replies Kovalainen, who is open to the idea of ​​helping young Finnish guns in single-seaters or rallying, having himself asked Keke Rosberg for advice in his youth.

“In my time, when I was one of the first to join the Renault young driver program and Renault was even among the first to create such a program at the time, the main benefit I got from this program, it was the financial support. They financed all my seasons in promotional packages.”

“But nowadays, if my information is correct, even if you are chosen in a young driver program such as Ferrari, Mercedes or another, most young people still have to bring in the budget themselves – and that's a pretty big hurdle, because the budgets are huge, and Finland isn't such a big market, especially these days with a shaky economy. Overall, times are tough for a lot of businesses. people and families. “particularly difficult to raise funds for something like motorsport. That's probably one of the reasons.”

“At the same time, the very good ones do get selected, managing to show that they have remarkable talent and that they are doing something exceptional. Although the budget is difficult to raise, some young drivers can probably look in the mirror and find another reason [de leurs difficultés].”

Kovalainen reached F1 thanks to support from Renault early in his career, but that was no guarantee of success (as Loïc Duval and José María López discovered), which only illustrates the challenge facing the Finns face.

Photo by: Renault F1

“You really have to do something exceptional on a regular basis. I don't think you necessarily have to win every junior championship or every race you compete in, but you have to do something remarkable, something that “People will notice. Maybe this is also something that young people who are trying to make a career in Formula 1 are missing.”

Make no mistake, Kovalainen doesn't mean he had it easy. “It was very clear early on that as long as I performed well enough and they were happy, they could advance my career, they could take me to the next level every time.”relates the former protégé of Losange. “But at the same time, there was a lot of competition. We were [six] at the very beginning of the Renault young driver program, and ultimately, I was the only one to climb the ladder to become a Renault driver in Formula 1.”

“I didn't win every championship I competed in, but every year I managed to take pole positions, win races and amaze people. They liked it, and that was the key to go all the way to F1.”

On the other hand, there will be a Finn in Formula 3 this season: Tuukka Taponen, who has been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy for two years.

More recently, Franco-Finnish driver Marcus Amand shone in karting by winning the 2019 CIK-FIA European Championship in the OK-Junior category, but his career in single-seaters did not take off. Amand was winless in three years in Formula 4 and Formula Regional, and joined the Porsche Carrera Cup last year.

On the other hand, there will be a Finn in Formula 3 this season: Tuukka Taponen, who has been part of the Ferrari Driver Academy for two years. Taponen is a three-time Finnish karting champion and also won a world title in 2021. Last year, he won the Middle East Formula Regional championship, before taking third place in the European competition behind Rafael Câmara and James Wharton, respectively current and former Ferrari juniors.

The young man from Lohja, 50 kilometers west of Helsinki, tackles F3 with ART Grand Prix, keeping in mind the success of a compatriot in this championship (then called GP3) with this same stable.

“ART GP is a team that we Finns know well. For example, Valtteri Bottas won the championship with ART GP before being promoted to Formula 1”emphasizes Taponen. If he were to imitate Bottas fourteen years later, the 18-year-old driver would win the F3 title as a rookie before making his F1 debut in 2027…

Can Taponen become the next great Finnish F1 hope?

Photo: ART Grand Prix