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Finnish former
Grand Prix driver, Mika Salo, will return to the cockpit of
a Ferrari F1 car during the course of this year when he gets
to test for the Scuderia.
The tie-up has
come about as Salo is now a factory driver for Maserati,
Ferrari's sister marque, and it builds on the 1999 Grand
Prix season when he drove for the Scuderia while
substituting for an injured Michael Schumacher.
"They guarantee
I'll do at least one test with an F1 car each year,"
38-year-old Salo was reported as saying, "I really wanted
this put in my contract and they accepted it so I'm really
happy."
Salo further commented that once he had seen the depth of
Ferrari's 2005 test schedule, he expected that the chance to
run more than one test this year was a very strong
possibility.
Ferrari are believed to have been out testing with the
aerodynamic package required for 2005, as well as the new
engine format, since very soon after the close of the last
season. With the 'voluntary' test limitation agreement,
which Ferrari refused to sign up for, now having unraveled,
the Scuderia will be free to undertake yet another punishing
test programme during the course of the year. With the
title-winning team often testing at different tracks at the
same time last year, this year's intensive development
schedule is something that Salo will be able to contribute
to.
Born in 1966,
Mika Salo rose through the Formula Ford, F3 and the Japanese
F3000 ranks before finally breaking into F1 with Lotus-Mugen
Honda during the closing two races of the 1994 season.
His double
appearance with the uncompetitive Lotus impressed Ken
Tyrell, who signed him to drive one of his Yamaha-powered
cars in 1995. Two fifth place finishes help him to finish
the season 14th in the driver's championship, with 5 points.
1996, again saw him claim a pair of 5th places, and he once
again rounded out the year with 5 points.
The next season, was his third and final one with the Tyrell
outfit, which replaced their Yamaha units with Ford ones.
His only points finish was to be a Monaco, where a fighting
drive to 5th place, impressed team managers right down the
length of the pitlane.
1998 saw him
switch to the TWR Arrows outfit, and once again a strong
showing in Monaco saw him only just miss out on the podium.
With Arrows now struggling for cash he was jettisoned at the
end of the year in favour of paying drivers, and elected to
start 1999 on the sidelines.
However this
strategy paid off and the year would turn out to be his most
highly successful one, firstly after he stood in for the
injured Riccardo Zonta at the BAR-Supertec team for three
races early on, and then secondly when he substituted for
Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, after the German broke his
leg at Silverstone.
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