Since making his F1 debut back in 1994, Finland's Mika Salo has spent his career moving amongst the lower echelons of the F1 hierarchy, until he got a lucky break (courtesy of Michael Schumacher's unlucky break) in 1999.
After a four year spell in Japanese F3000, Salo made his F1 debut for the Lotus team at the Japanese GP towards the end of 1994. A creditable tenth place suggested that, with a little more experience, Mika might turn in some better performances. However, in the close season Lotus F1 went out of business, and Mika moved to Tyrrell for what turned out to be three largely unsuccessful seasons with an unreliable and uncompetitive car.
In 1998 Salo joined the struggling Arrows outfit and endured yet another frustrating season although he did manage his best ever finish, a fourth place, at the Monaco GP. He then lost his seat to the (highly financed) Japanese driver Tora Takagi in the close season and faced the 1999 season without a drive.
However, injuries to rookie BAR driver Ricardo Zonta in only the second race of the season gave Salo the opportunity to deputise for three races and although out of the points, he did manage to get the BAR car to the finish line on two occasions. No mean feat considering the team's poor early record.
Following Michael Schumacher's accident at Silverstone, Mika finally got the break he'd always dreamed of - to drive for a front running team. In fact it was a special week for young Mika, on the Monday he got the phone call from Ferrari, and on the Saturday he got married.
Following a less than impressive debut in Austria, when he ran into the back of Johnny Herbert, Salo came good in Germany. The Finn drove a fantastic race, and was on course for a dramatic victory, when he was told to defer to team-mate (and championship leader) Eddie Irvine.
Although he lost his seat when Michael Schumacher got back to full fitness, the young Finn had already secured a drive for 2000. It's surely more than coincidence that sees Salo move to Sauber for 2000, the Swiss team using engines manufactured by... Ferrari.