42 replies to this topic

[K-One]

From: www.turunsanomat.fi.

Today's paper reveals that Salo doesn't rate McNish very highly.
He thinks that Toyota would have had better options than McNish and Toyota made a big mistake hiring him. "Last summer McNish made some suggestions about the car which did not work out and now we have to correct his mistakes"...
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Not a good way to start your relationship with your teammate!

[The Kanisteri]

Salo is such a DICK because saying that

[The Swerve]

What an odd thing for Salo to say?!? I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

[GerhardP]

You just have to consider that McNish was fighting with Mika Hakkinen for the british and european Formula Vauxhall title back in 1988. Hakkinen was only slightly faster and won the british title, but was beaten by McNish, for the european title.
As McNish showed that year and afterwards in LeMans and sportscar racing, he'd have deserved a Formula1 seat much more than many of those who have one at the moment, if you look what Hakkinen has achieved up to now.
I am happy to hear Ove Andersson saying that McNish will be repaid for his testing and developing work for Toyota with a race seat in 2002!
Maybe Salo's just frightened by the speed of Alan...
Good luck next year in Formula 1, Alan!!!

[Ghostrider]

I do not believe Salo has said that. What would he gain?

[Ross Stonefeld]

Salo's always been Mr Ego, maybe all the news that McNisch has finally got an F1 driver is bothering him and he needs to comment about it


Kinda like Piquet, except without the results

[Hendy]

...and what was said about Salo??

He asked Peter Sauber about how last year's car was going so fast and Peter Sauber replied that he got two new drivers. That smarts.

[HSJ]

I guess I should defend my fellow Finn a bit here. First, it seems a bit odd that Salo said that, but you are wrong in automatically assuming he is wrong. F1 drivers are a class above the rest, and McNish has had F1 tests before (one with McL) years ago. So why have the teams not been interested? Maybe there is a reason?

And about lower formulae. You cannot arbitrarily choose whether or not think about lower formulae as significant. Remember MH was much better than MS in F3, and, this you probably don't know, Salo beat the crap out of MS in FFord. (Salo won all 14 races of some FFord season, MS was one of the other drivers.)

[RJL]

I wonder if this isn't a case of somebody's off-the-cuff comments being taken too literally or out of context? In any case, Salo does seem to be the sort to speak his mind. His dislike of the other Mika is well known & when he partered Villeneuve briefly at BAR while Zonta was hurt he was asked about the 97 world champ.

His reply? "I didn't see anything special there." If you ask me, Salo must be one hard case.

[lomond]

If Salo did make such a statement he is going about his new relationship the wrong way.
He was not too bad in his pre-formula days, and had a good performance whilst filling in for Michael at Ferrari, but other than that, his star does not shine too brightly.

[Pascal]

Originally posted by HSJ
...and McNish has had F1 tests before (one with McL) years ago. So why have the teams not been interested? Maybe there is a reason?

If I remember correctly, McNish was to be McLaren's test driver following his first testing session with the team, but a terrible accident in F3000 almost ended his life and his career. I find it very uplifting to see him finally get a shot at driving a Formula 1 for Toyota. He may not be the best driver around, but I think he definitely deserves his seat.

[Isamu]

The crap is about to hit the fan at TOYOTA F1:D

[Ross Stonefeld]

wasnt that herbert? I dont recall any Mcnisch crash

[Pascal]

If I remember correctly, McNish crashed while he was tipped to win the F3000 championship with ORECA. I don't remember the year, but I do remember that the accident cut his season short...

[Indian Chief]

He did have a big crash in F3000 in around 1990, at Donington Park when Emmanuele Naspetti pushed him off. The car just disintegrated totally.

[Indian Chief]

http://www.crosswind...i/naspetti1.jpg

Here's a photo of McNish's car during the crash.

[MacFan]

Allan did indeed have a huge crash at Donington in which a marshal was killed, but that was very early on in his F3000 career, before he did much F1 testing. The main reason he didn't graduate to F1 after testing for McLaren and Benetton was a debilitating virus similar to glandular fever, which took over a year to be fully cured. He had another F3000 chance in 1995 with PSR, but threw it off the track too many times, but he seems to be a much more mature driver now. I hope he at last gets the F1 race seat he deserves.
Regarding Salo's comments, is it likely that the team would have developed the car entirely to McNish's suggestions rather than Salo's, given Mika's status as a confirmed race driver for 2002?

[pa]

Some guys are good test drivers and others aren't. Salo better watch his ass unless he's prepared to out-drive McNish - and the way he drove in the ALMS, Salo might have more than a bit to worry about. Jesus, I wish F1 wasn't so full of head games. Shut the F#$%@ up and drive is my motto.

[pRy]

Maybe Salo is just bitter because McNish got more press at the launch than he did

[sennadog93]

Well, Salo really spat his dummy out there! Assuming that this report is true (hard to tell with the press as nobody tells them the truth in the first place) then I reckon that he is trying to play with McNish's head although how effective that will be with someone who has been around the block a few times remains to be seen - either way it will be good to see some fresh blood in F1.

[Force Ten]

Yeah, well, what else is new?

The only drivers that don't suck in Salos opinion are probably Michael Schumacher and Jaqcues Villeneuve...

Even with Villeneuve he was all bragging how Jaqcues doesn't want to race in the same team with him because he is so afraid to get being beaten by Salo... Of course that talk was somewhere in 1998 timeframe, before his short stint at the wheel of BAR. His congragulation for Hill winning the champoinship after the Suzuka race 1996 was in a form of: "yeah well, next year he'll be driving a Yamaha engine so he won't be seeing the checkered flag all that many times." That must have been a bitter pill to swallow for im some time at August in Budapest when that same Yamaha engine went 'flying past him on the straight'.

The man is also known to be the 'Grandmaster of Excuses ™', mostly it's the car, that's crap. His favorite is, while being lapped - "everyone just passed us flying by at the straights, so what can you do? ™" whether he is driving a Yamaha engine, a Hart engine generating the biggest straight line speeds passed by the same Yamaha engine, the Ford engine or the Ferrari engine. Everyone just flies past him at the straights.
He is also the unofficial champion of Friday's. He always said at Fridays: "oh yeah, we weren't very up there but you know it was because at the end of the practice everyone put on new tires and we didn't. If we will put on new tires tomorrow we can easily shave off some second and a half of our times" which of course never happens because "_________ (insert rotating name here) should have no business driving a formula 1 car because he was constantly blocking me" or "I don't know the car was fine yesterday but today we just can't get it going again"

Last year when he was *again* being outqualified by Pedro Diniz, a driver almost not worthy of shining his shoes, if the man is to be believed, there was a ™ "the mechanics did something with my gloves and cockpit so the velcro on the gloves kept constantly attaching itself to the sides of my cockpit and I just kept fighting it so much I couldn't concentrate on my driving" line which made it's way into the Finnish Formula One newsgroups aswell.

[Cypher]

Well, if it's true, then Salo saying that his teammate is no good and therefore the management were wrong for hiring him, and that the engineers were wrong for listening to him, is a really, really good way to make an enemy of the entire team. It also gives the team a reason to try and make McNish look good and Salo look bad.

[HSJ]

Pascal, for the record, I too hope to see McNish in F1 and I think it should be quite interesting. I have no idea really about McNish's career so far, except that he's quite good. Whether he is really F1 material we'll have to see. How old is he anyway?

[sek]

He is also the unofficial champion of Friday's. He always said at Fridays: "oh yeah, we weren't very up there but you know it was because at the end of the practice everyone put on new tires and we didn't. If we will put on new tires tomorrow we can easily shave off some second and a half of our times"

That is so true! And if,or should I say when he brings bad results,it never seems to be his fault "Oh,It´s the car, if you just gave me a Ferrari. . ." Then he finally had his chance. What did he get out of it? 2 decent races out of 7 was it? I´ll never forget his performace at Hungary -99. Salo qualifyed 18th and I thought Ok,things can only get better,he´ll climb up the order in the race.So after the race we had 0 overtakes from Salo, yes with Ferrari.And do I remeber right: in some F1 racing magazine he was interviewed, telling in the cover that "Sure I´m better than Schumacher!" I mean s**t why he didn´t say "Sure I´m Napoleon!" I don´t like that guy at all, why don´t he give Alan McNisch a change?

[Force Ten]

Originally posted by sek
at Hungary -99. Salo qualifyed 18th and I thought Ok,things can only get better,he´ll climb up the order in the race.So after the race we had 0 overtakes from Salo, yes with Ferrari.And do I remeber right: in some F1 racing magazine he was interviewed, telling in the cover that "Sure I´m better than Schumacher!"

Yeah, and he was 2 laps down If I remember correctly... His nick was Mika "I'm faster than Schumacher" Salo...

[HRC]

Salo has always been very modest. When asked to list top10 of all time best F1-drivers in Finnish interview (1994 or 1995?) he placed himself number one. Self-irony or not, I guess that sums up quite well his arrogancy toward other drivers. Recently he was visiting local (i.e. Finnish) talk-show and the host suggested him to say that, when given equal cars he would beat Häkkinen. As we know Häkkinen beated him in 1990 British Formula3 Championship . And McNish beated Häkkinen in 1988 Vauxhall-Lotus Challenge. So the logic must be: If Salo beats McNish he has finally prowen that he's faster than Häkkinen.
When Salo starts bashing McNish, I have once again bury my hopes that he has matured(?) and lets the driving to the talking. Not that big talking Salo isn't funny. And if he, to our great surpirise will be the best ever, he definetaly will de the oldest driver in the history of F1, when he gets there (if he ever gets there...).

[Ross Stonefeld]

My recollection of Brit F3 Mika vs Mika was that they literally split the season between them

[HRC]

I coudn't find any statics of the Mika-Mika season, but it was close I'm told. Here's some information of that season:
http://www.clarinet....e/hakkinen.html

[MacFan]

I have the 1990 British F3 season on tape, and it was a wash between Salo and Hakkinen, although Salo seemed to do most of his winning at Silverstone. At the time people thought the two Mikas were equal, but Salo's drink-driving conviction at the end of the season did nothing to help his career - he wasn't allowed to race or drive in the UK for 12 months, so he had to go to Japan.

[Arnaldo]

I'll tell you what I think: some of you have fantastic records of motor racing - you sure know your stuff. I'd hate to see some guy come in here and try to Bull$h!t his way around this forum. I just don't believe that pic of McNish's crash; how could anyone survive that?? it is unbelievable.
On this particular topic, I can only hope that MIka Salo and Rubens Barichello will be in the same team, so that they can brag to each other how good they are - one in Portuguese and the other in Finn.

[The RedBaron]

Salo suffers 135mph Toyota testing crash


Finn walks away from high-speed impact


Toyota test driver Mika Salo has walked away unscathed from a high-speed crash at Paul Ricard in France today (Sunday) just two days after the Japanese manufacturer launched its Formula 1 challenge.

Gearbox failure caused the Finn to go off and hit the wall at the end of the ultra-fast Mistral straight at an estimated 135mph. Salo walked away from the crash scene, but was then flown by helicopter to hospital in Marseille for a check-up.

“Mika has no injuries,” said team doctor Riccardo Ceccarelli. “He just has some back pain. I recommended he take some rest before continuing with testing.”

The carbonfibre gearbox components that failed will be x-rayed at Toyota Motorsport’s Cologne headquarters before testing resumes mid-week.

“I’m very sorry we have to stop testing now,” said Salo. “I was very impressed with the car yesterday. We have already made some positive improvements and during the first laps today the car was feeling good.”

Despite the speed of the crash, all four wheels stayed on the car. Damage was limited to its nose section.

Scotland’s Allan McNish could take over Salo’s testing duties this week while the Finn concentrates on recovering.

[Arnaldo]

Thank goodness the car wasn't damaged. Maybe this will shake more nonsense out of Salo's mouth.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Where can I find crash photos?

[FlagMan]

A few corrections regarding the McNish F3000 crash at Donington Park.

I believe McNish was totally unharmed - however two spectators where killed and one marshal recieved minor injuries.

The crash was a major setback for Alan's career as, despite the accident not being his fault, Marlboro pulled the sponsorship as they didn't like the idea of sponsoring a driver who had been involved in a fatal accident - but then they seem to have a strange idea that the products they sell are also harmless....

[BRG]

Well, I'm amazed by this thread. I thought that I was the only one who reckoned Mika Salo was a waste of space in F1. But it seems that nearly everyone else thinks the same. Makes you wonder why Toyota are using him?

[MacFan]

Flagman, call me a pedant, but the crash really didn't have a significant effect on Allan's career, although I believe it did have an effect on him. He went on to win 2 or 3 races that season, and was still driving a Marlboro sponsored Lola for the DAMS team the following year, when unfortunately for him a Reynard was the thing to have. I'm also fairly sure it was a marshal that was killed.

[HRC]

When MS2 replaced MS in '99 he said something like this: "Before I saw Michael driving at Fiorano I thougt I was the fastest, but now I know he's the fastest." I'm sorry that I can't remember the precise date when he said that, but I'm remembering that MS was unable to drive at that moment - I guess that shows how fast Salo actually is. Whatever he meant with that his comments are always extremely funny, because he hasn't proved anything yet. Qualifying 18th in Hungaroring '99 in a WCC-car and he blamed the track - collection is endless. This Salo "bashing" is obviously a very powerfull provocation method, because Finnish people don't like their heroes being mocked - not that I like provocation, I just let Salo speak for himself.

[FlagMan]

MacFan - I was only going by comments that McNish apparently made at a talk to marshals at Donington some time later. I also recall reading somewhere that Marlboro where not too keen on promoting him afterwards.

As for the 'marshal being killed' - it was not at that meeting - the only injury to the marshals was a broken arm when one of them dived off the wall to avoid the flying monocoque - I was at that meeting - actually on post with a friend of the injured marshal.

[100cc]

Originally posted by RJL
His dislike of the other Mika is well known

what dislike??

[100cc]

Originally posted by HRC
Qualifying 18th in Hungaroring '99 in a WCC-car and he blamed the track

I thought that the chassis was "cracked" or something similar, something which ferrari kept a low profile about???

[BRG]

Originally posted by 100cc
what dislike??

I believe both Mikas were good friends when they raced in Finalnd and when they first came to Britain. But sometime during their F3 days, they fell out over something (maybe just the competition between them?). Since then they have been unfriendly - but if it is just on Salo's side, I don't know. One for our Finnish posters to tell us about perhaps?

[Todd]

Originally posted by 100cc
I thought that the chassis was "cracked" or something similar, something which ferrari kept a low profile about???

Eddie Irvine, driving chassis 191, was adversely effected at that round, and at least one other, by having a monocoque that had logged so many miles that it was no longer stiff. Salo's car was fine. Eddie should have crashed in every other practice session like Michael Schumacher does. That way, he would have had the newer tub.

[Pacific]

I seem to recall Michael talking about cracked monocoques as well. That might just have been a general Ferrari problem for a while.

As for as the two Mikas go, I'm under the impression that they are neither friends nor enemies. Some people expect them to be friends growing up close to each other in Finland and some think they should be enemies from F3. I believe I've heard Hakkinen say they respect each other, but are neither friends nor enemies.

I personally like Mika Salo. As far as Pedro Diniz is concerned last season, Diniz shouldn't have retired. Diniz found some speed and what he needed to do what to harness that speed. He was close to becoming a really good F1 driver. Diniz was rather impressive at Indy overall.

Mika Salo provides Toyota with an experienced driver who has driven for many F1 teams, so he has a broad perspective. He can draw from short stints at Lotus, BAR, and Ferrari, but also his stints with Tyrrell, Arrows, and Sauber. Schumacher has rated Salo highly in the past, so...I tend to believe Michael knows what he's talking about. It'd be interesting to get Michael's opinions nowadays since his attitude has changed now that he dominates F1 so he has no reason to be a prick. Michael is a good winner, but he can be a sore loser, at least in the past. But he doesn't really gloat in words. In the past his actions on the track were suspect arrogance-wise, but...I think so much was lifted off of his shoulders after winning the WDC with Ferrari last season.

As far as Toyota talent is concerned, we should all watch Toranosuke Takagi. If he matures under Derrick Walker Racing...He did pretty good in testing. He took to the ovals well. I think Tora is a dynamic talent who, if he took his fitness and English seriously would be a great driver. I mean, world great.

As for McNish. It's great to see somebody move up from the ALMS. It gives it that much more legitimacy. It has many former F1 drivers, but now somebody moved UP to F1 based lately on his ALMS racing. (And other things in the past of course.)

I wish both Mika Salo and Alan McNish luck testing this season and in 2002. Salo and McNish will probably be with Toyota for a while, but Takagi will be monitored.