The racing career of Alex Katajamäki (2002-20??)

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 30 Jul 2010, 00:13

Alex Katajamäki's wayward career has taken another unexpected turn - after an on again off again career in F1 he followed in Stéphane Sarrazin's footstepts - to the World Rally Championship.

The half Scot, half Finn had a reputation for unbelieveable drives mixed in with retirements aplenty - as well as a temper few team managers were able to tame over the years.

His career path was an unusual one - after starting racing at the late age of 16 he quickly rose through the ranks - starting off in Formula Ford and becoming British FF1600 champion in his second season. A move to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 followed - where he won the title in his debut season season. Early in 1997 he thought his F1 chance had finally come - he was called up by Lola to replace Ricardo Rosset, who had failed to pay up his sponsorship money. The team turned up with only one car - for Katajamäki - but he inevitably failed to qualify in the now blank Lola T97/30.

A mixed season in F3000 followed that year - he won at Pau but was disqualified for using too much of the track, however his win at Mugello was upheld. A fourth place at Jerez aside, he failed to qualify for the Enna-Pergusa round and failed to finish the rest.

With no open doors to Formula One or F3000, he headed to sportscars for 1998. After starting the season in a GT2 Marcos, he switched to the Persson GT1 Mercedes and earned a Le Mans 24 Hour drive with AMG - but didn't race as the car broke down after only 31 laps.

However there was yet another surprise, as Katajamäki once again replaced Ricardo Rosset - but this time at Tyrrell, for the Belgian Grand Prix.

His race debut was certainly one to remember - he made an atrocious start and was still dead last by quite a margin after the first corner, but it obviously turned out to be a blessing. As he took the restart he tip-toed around, and spent the first few laps on Verstappen's gearbox. However as he gained confidence he also gained speed, and eventually moved into the Top 10 thanks to the incredible attrition. An earlier pass on Pedro Diniz turned out to be crucial, as Katajamäki recorded a 5th place finish on his debut!

At Monza he was fighting with Rubens Barrichello for 11th until spinning off, and drove the Tyrrell to its limits at the Nurburgring to finish 10th. A gearbox failure at the final round brought his season to a close - but his pace was obvious.

He was hired by Minardi for the 1999 season - however he only finished 5 races that season. Some of those were due to mechanical failures, but many others were down to driver error through overdriving - especially the season opener at Melbourne, where he threw away a point with an accident at the final corner. His season highlights however were firstly at Monaco, where he just missed out on points in 7th place, and then picked up his first points of the season with 5th at Montreal. His crowning achievement that season though was at the Nurburgring, where he brought the car home in an astonishing 2nd position.

His performances were enough to earn a drive alongside Eddie Irvine at the newly founded Jaguar team in 2000. It was a mixed season - there were a couple of 6th places mixed in with plenty of retirements.

Despite this he was initially retained by Jaguar for the following year - only to be sacked after crashing out of the opening four races. A move to Prost didn't do much good either - six retirements and three finishes outside the Top 10 saw him sacked again - and on the move to Minardi. 11th at Monza followed by 10th at Indy and Suzuka weren't enough to keep an F1 drive for the following year however - the team instead opting for the much wealther Alex Yoong.

Katajamäki had been left in no mans land - so opted for a radical career move to rallying. A through and through McRae supporter, the opportunity to race in the WRC was too good to pass up, and he signed up with the Peugeot juniors squad - driving a 206 S1600 at selected rounds.

More soon.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 30 Jul 2010, 00:47

Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo | 17th January 2002 | Press Release

Peugeot Sport's newest recruit, former F1 racer Alex Katajamäki finished Shakedown today 7th fastest in class - but had his fair share of problems in his JWRC debut.

It was a mixed day for us for sure. My F1 experience means I've got the racing lines nailed down pretty well already, but I need to work on the pace notes a bit more. Something was very wrong with the setup from the perspective of handling - my car had massive understeer that we just couldn't cure. The road was very slippy in places which didn't help at all. On our last run, entering one of the little villages under braking from about 90mph I just lost all the front grip and BANG, straight into a wall on the outside. That smashed up the car pretty bad so we just limped back to the service point as carefully as we could.

However team principal and team-mate Simon Jean-Joseph was more optimistic about the team's chances going into the first event of the season.

The 206 is a proven winner so I think we'll be quite competitive here. Katajamäki's start was not ideal but he had the fastest time in the first split, so at least we know he still has the raw pace to do well.

Tomorrow sees the first set of stages begin, and with stiff competition from rivals Citroen, Renault, Ford and Suzuki, even a Top 5 finish will be a tough ask for the rally rookie.

shinji · Post by **shinji** » 30 Jul 2010, 10:52

Well written and interesting. Good going

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 31 Jul 2010, 14:41

Katajamäki king of the Juniors

While last year's S1600 champion Sebastien Loeb shocked the world by leading the overall standings after the first day of Rally Monte Carlo, the search for his replacement in the Junior ranks got underway.

Despite an accident in the rally shakedown, Alex Katajamäki emerged as the dominant leader after the first day, even though he was still complaining of the understeer his Pegueot 206 was suffering from.

Maybe I took one or two more risks than I needed, there were a couple of places on the first stage which I nearly rolled the car but I managed to keep it going on only two wheels for a few seconds.
There are quite alot of dents in this thing! I was maybe getting too close to the rockfaces at times, infact one of them sort of gradually merged into the road and that's where I almost flipped the car over.
On the second stage the understeer was really bad...but I guess the ice was doing that to everyone, considering we still won the stage by a few seconds. Overall I'm still happy.

Per Gunnar Andersson is his nearest challenger, over 20 seconds behind. The new Suzuki Ignis is the largest car in the field, making the twistier sections tricky compared to the shorter wheelbase Peugeots and Fords.

Standings after Day One

Code: Select all

1. Alex Katajamäki    PEUGEOT  10:33.78
2. P-G Andersson      SUZUKI   +23.3
3. Kris Meeke         FORD     +43.1
4. Simon Jean-Joseph  PEUGEOT  +52.9
5. Giandomenico Basso FORD     +59.3
6. Urmo Aava          SUZUKI   +1:00.5
7. Gigi Galli         RENAULT  +1:05.6
8. Mirco Baldacci     CITROEN  +2:32.4

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 31 Jul 2010, 19:04

How good is the car you're in in this game?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 31 Jul 2010, 21:27

thehemogoblin wrote:How good is the car you're in in this game?

At S1600 level it's quite close and in theory they should all be as fast as each other, but it actally goes something like this...
Citroen

Peugeot, Ford, Suzuki

Renault.

Maybe I should have signed for Renault instead. Ah well, there's always next year...

When I get to the proper WRC is when I get to become as rejectful as possible

Also, there are rumours going around Francois Delecour's back injury is still giving him problems and Katajamäki may replace him at New Zealand...stay tuned!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 03 Aug 2010, 16:13

Katajamäki on a roll (almost literally)

Rally debutant Alex Katajamäki continues to pull away at a vast rate despite a couple of near misses throughout the day = including getting on two wheels several times through the Col du Turini stage.

The Col du Turini is probably the most famous stage in the whole championship, it's kind of the next biggest thing you can have on a CV behind a rally win. Of all the stages to win, I had that one in my sights, so it's given me some extra confidence because of the margin I won it by.

The half Scot/half Finn flew through the Turini stage, almost literally a couple of times, to set the fastest S1600 time by over half a minute. He took a more cautious approach to the rest of the stages, but the ice nearly caught him out on the rerun of Sigale, where he understeered off and came inches from hitting a tree and got stuck in a ditch - yet drove so fast for the rest of what is the longest stage of the rally, that he still won by a few tenths.

Gigi Galli was one of the few people who came close to beating him today, surging up from 7th to 2nd in the standings today. His team-mate Nicolas Vouilloz however was still nowhere to be seen, almost 10 minutes off the lead. The Fords also had a nightmare - Kris Meeke crashing in the Col du Turini stage and dropping all the way down to 8th.

Standings after Day Two

Code: Select all

1. Alex Katajamäki    PEUGEOT  10:33.78
2. Gigi Galli         RENAULT  +1:40.6
3. Simon Jean-Joseph  PEUGEOT  +1:42.7
4. P-G Andersson      SUZUKI   +1:51.5
5. Urmo Aava          SUZUKI   +1:55.8
6. Giandomenico Basso FORD     +1:59.4
7. Mirco Baldacci     CITROEN  +3:49.4
8. Kris Meeke         FORD     +5:25.0

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 03 Aug 2010, 16:59

Katajamäki takes emphatic debut win

Former F1 driver Alex Katajamäki silenced all of his critics by blowing his rivals out of the water with a huge S1600 class win at Rally Monte Carlo. He won in his Peugeot 206 by over 2 and a half minutes over Gigi Galli - one minute of which he gained in a single stage alone, the rerun of Col du Turini.

I knew that we'd be able to take more time out of everyone through Turini again, but not quite that much. To win it by over a minute is insane!
It's great to win on my debut - a lot of people said I'd crash out on the first stage but I think winning every stage while making no big mistakes proves I really do have what it takes in this series. Monte was always going to be one of my better events because it's all asphalt - apart from the icy sections of course! But then alot of the drivers here also had little experience of the conditions, only the cars, so I guess the experience defecit counted less here than it will at somewhere like Finland.

Rounding out the podium was team-mate/team boss Simon Jean-Joseph, who was mightily impressed by rallying's newest winner.

That was a great drive by Alex! His target before the rally was to finish within two minutes of me, so for him to beat me by three instead is quite an achievement. Considering there are still another two asphalt rounds to go this year he's in a good position to do well in the championship - and dare I say it, depending on his form on the gravel events, he could have a crack at the title.

The Suzukis rounded out the top 5, both of which are expected to be fighting for victory at the next round of the season - Sweden. Per Gunnar Andersson will be determined to win his home event for the first time on the world stage - though don't expect Katajamäki to back off from a fight in two weeks time.

Final Standings

Code: Select all

Pos Driver             Team     Time
1.  Alex Katajamäki    PEUGEOT  29:53.7
2.  Gigi Galli         RENAULT  32:35.9
3.  Simon Jean-Joseph  PEUGEOT  33:06.7
4.  Urmo Aava          SUZUKI   33:15.4 
5.  P-G Andersson      SUZUKI   33:25.0
6.  Giandomenico Basso FORD     33:26.0
7.  Mirco Baldacci     CITROEN  35:07.7
8.  Nicolas Vouilloz   RENAULT  37:01.0

Championship standings as per above (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1).

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 03 Aug 2010, 17:29

Rally Monte Carlo | Press Release | 21 January 2002

Francois Delecour's huge crash on Saturday's leg of the Monte Carlo rally left the Frenchman with a broken leg - and isn't expected to be fit to return until April.

Therfore the Mitsubishi Ralliart World Rally Team has been forced to find replacement drivers for the next three events; Thomas Rådström will be nominated for manufacturer points in Sweden in two weeks, while Alex Katajamäki will drive the lead Mitsubishi Lancer in Corsica and New Zealand. The young Scot took his first WRC victory, in the Super 1600 class, earlier today and is looking forward to making his debut in a 4WD WRC car.

It is a great honour to drive for one of the biggest teams in rallying. Firstly I have to thank Peugeot for letting me take advantage of this opportunity - this experience will help me a lot, especially as preperation for Germany and Spain.
My aim is to score some points for the manufacturers championship, and just to have a clean rally with no mistakes. I feel confident for Corsica because of my performance this weekend, but New Zealand will be a new challenge for me.

Katajamäki will also complete a test for Klok Motorsport in their P01 - essentially the same car he drove last year at Prost. This will give him yet more preperation time for future tarmac events - should Delecour be unavaliable for Spain he may also be recalled for that event.

RejectSteve · Post by **RejectSteve** » 03 Aug 2010, 18:04

kostas22 wrote:Therfore the Mitsubishi Ralliart World Rally Team has been forced to find replacement drivers for the next three events; Thomas Rådström will be nominated for manufacturer points in Sweden in two weeks, while Alex Katajamäki will drive the lead Mitsubishi Lancer in Corsica and New Zealand.

I wonder if Simon Jean-Joseph will be unamused and fire Alex Katajamäki from the JWRC team. Are there rumours he'll need to find a Group N Lancer for the rest of the PWRC nominated events?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 03 Aug 2010, 18:20

RejectSteve wrote:
kostas22 wrote:Therfore the Mitsubishi Ralliart World Rally Team has been forced to find replacement drivers for the next three events; Thomas Rådström will be nominated for manufacturer points in Sweden in two weeks, while Alex Katajamäki will drive the lead Mitsubishi Lancer in Corsica and New Zealand.

I wonder if Simon Jean-Joseph will be unamused and fire Alex Katajamäki from the JWRC team. Are there rumours he'll need to find a Group N Lancer for the rest of the PWRC nominated events?

I think you'll find the opposite is true

Also, prepare for the unexpected in this story. Though you will have to be patient for it.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 04 Aug 2010, 12:56

Nice work, man

Which game are you using for this?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 04 Aug 2010, 22:08

Phoenix wrote:Nice work, man Which game are you using for this?

World Rally Championship 4. Currently running on a PS2 emulator which means I can modify little bits to fit each season. But the game is based on the 2004 season.
I tried to take screenshots but for some reason it won't let me

So, to demonstrate my big 'oh s**t' moment I had during the opening stage of the rally, imagine doing this in a Peugeot 206:

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Aug 2010, 15:45

Uddeholm Swedish Rally | 31st January 2002 | Press Release

After a meeting of the World Motorsports Council, the FIA has decided to impose an age limit on the Super 1600 category of the World Rally Championship. As a result, only drivers that are 25 years of age or less will be eligible for the championship, which shall be officially rebranded as the Junior World Rally Championship.

This means team boss Simon Jean-Joseph has been forced to step down from the team, although his 6 points from Monte Carlo podium will still count.

For sure it's disappointing for me the FIA introduced this rule, but I cannot say there decision was wrong. If thats the direction they want to take the championship in, I can't do anything about that, so Nicolas [Bernardi] will take my place from now on.

The rule change has also affected rival teams - Mikko Hirvonen has replaced Nicolas Vouilloz at Renault and Giandomenico Basso has departed Ford, being replaced by Janne Tuohino.

Shakedown for Rally Sweden did not go well for Peugeot - Bernardi and Katajamäki were the two slowest drivers, and the latter did not get much time to work on his setup after an accident during his second run.

Sweden is a very challenging rally, and its quite difficult for me to get a hang of so quickly. I know that you are supposed to use the snowbanks to help gain you time, but its hard to use them effectively. I took a junction too fast, thinking the snow bank would do enough to get me round the corner, but the back end stepped out, so it thumped off the bank and pitched me into another snow bank on the other side of the road - except this one was soft, so the nose of the car got stuck and I couldn't reverse out. Not the best of starts, that's for sure...

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Aug 2010, 16:32

Citroen take shock 1-2 in Andersson's back yard

Everyone expected young Per-Gunnar Andersson to make his JWRC breakthrough this weekend - the Swedish native had more experience here than anyone else, he had one of the best cars in the field (don't let the boxiness deceive you, the Ignis is right up there) and had championship ground to make up. Janne Tuohino has also been competent on snow events in the past - as a Finn it is something of a forte for him, and we also expected something good from fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen.

However, they all failed to deliver. Alex Katajamäki dominated the opening stage of the rally, taking a 15 second lead into Vergassen, only to throw it all away by crashing out of the rally.

At the start of the second stage I stalled, so I had to push to make back the time I lost there. But on one corner, I clipped a bank on the inside of a right corner, so the car speared off to the left. I had no control at all at that point, so the car ended up hitting a tree. For sure there was no way back after that.

This left Citroen with a surprising 1-2 position - which both drivers held until the end. However there was a battle between both Baldacci and Sola, but the Sammarinesian driver won the in-house duel by the end. Urmo Aava was the first half of a Suzuki 3-4, beating a thoroughly disappointing Andersson.

Results

Code: Select all

1. Mirco Baldacci       SMR Citroen
2. Dani Sola            ESP Citroen
3. Urmo Aava            EST Suzuki
4. Per-Gunnar Andersson SWE Suzuki
5. Kris Meeke           GBR Ford
6. Mikko Hirvonen       FIN Renault
7. Janne Tuohino        FIN Ford
8. Nicolas Bernardi     FRA Peugeot

Drivers Championship

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1. Mirco Baldacci       12
2. Urmo Aava            11
3. Alex Katäjamaki      10
4. Per-Gunnar Andersson 9
5. Gigi Galli           8
=. Dani Sola            8

Manufacturers Championship

Code: Select all

1. Citroen Sport     20
2. Suzuki Motorsport 20
3. Peugeot Sport     17
4. Renault Sport     12
5. Ford Team RS      9

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 08 Aug 2010, 16:28

Rallye Cantabria Infinita | Press Release | 17th February 2002

Alex Katajamäki got his preperations for next month's Tour de Corse started in style, winning the second round of the European Rally Championship - Rallye Cantabria - driving a Group N specification Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII.

Initially local driver Jesus Puras led the way in his Citroen Xsara Kit Car, however alternator failure meant he dropped over a minute, allowing Katajamäki to pass both Puras and Krzysztof Holowczyc - who understeered off the road and into a ditch on Stage four.

Katajamäki set two fastest stage times and had a clean run to first place, with only a few minor mistakes thoughout the event.

There was a scary moment or two through the rally - in the thrid stage we were too sideways going over a jump and nearly rolled on the landing, but thankfully the car eventually got back on all four wheels. Apart from that it was a nice rally, nothing went wrong really, it was just more about learning how the four wheel drive cars behave and also about learning the gravel technique - this was a mixed event which helped me learn a lot for the next two events in the WRC spec Lancer.

Results

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Pos Driver              Car                              Class Diff
1.  Alex Katajamäki     MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION VII  N4    -
2.  Krzysztof Holowczyc FORD FOCUS WRC 99                A8    +19.4
3.  Jesus Puras         CITROEN XSARA KIT CAR            A8    +32.2
4.  Gigi Galli          MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION VII  N4    +1:09.6
5.  Jari-Matti Latvala  MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION VI   A8    +1:33.7

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 08 Aug 2010, 19:20

Tour de Corse | Press Conference | 6th March 2002

Rally rookie Alex Katajamäki has been given the chance of his life - after only a month of competitive rallying, the young Scot will move up to the top class in the World Rally Championship, driving the #7 Mitsubishi Lancer alongside fellow countryman Alister McRae. We got the 24 year old's thoughts on the upcoming challenge as a replacement for the injured Francois Delecour.

"You had a test in a Group N car a few weeks ago in preperation for this event, do you think it has helped at all for this weekend?" - David Evans, Autosport

For sure it helped alot - not just for here in Corsica but also New Zealand at the end of the month. The four wheel drive is much less prone to understeer than the S1600 cars, which of course are only front wheel drive. It also means you have to think further ahead, and the notes are more technical.

The pace notes are also a challenge - usually Juha [Repo] would read them to me in Finnish but thankfully Timo Rautiainen [co-driver to Marcus Gronholm] agreed to help translate them into English for Daniel [Grataloup, Delecour's usual co-drive] to read to me this week. As for the notes themselves its quite important for this rally, there are quite a few hidden corners and junctions so it will take a little time to get used to it.

"What are your aims for this event? Will you be going flat out or taking it easy to make sure you stay on the road?" - Peter Whitten, RallySport Magazine

Taking it easy? [laughs]. This isn't F1, you can't give it 95% on a Friday here. Ok, so it would be pointless to write off the car by pushing too hard on the opening stage, but that doesn't mean I won't be going for it from the very start. I've analysed all the stages from the recce and the first test actually looks like quite a good one for me, it's quite fast and wide with maybe less technical sections. Depending on my position I may take less risks on the last day, but until then I will go at 100%.

"After New Zealand you have a very long break until the next JWRC round in Finland in August - do you have any plans for the four months inbetween the two rallies?" - Alasdair Lindsay, The Checkered Flag

I'm looking at a few things to 'pass the time' - Klok Motorsport asked me to test the P01 which I drove last year at Prost, which will only be a few weeks after New Zealand, and there's a chance I may also do a complete season in the DTM this year - the only date clash between the two are their final respective rounds, at Rally Catalunya and Hockenheimring for DTM. I've spoken to both Peugeot and my prospective employers in the DTM about this, and both have given me the ok to choose between them if I have either championship wrapped up - otherwise the JWRC takes priority. Finally there's a chance I'll be racing in the V8 Supercar enduros because none of those have date clashes with the other two series either. But the latter isn't at an advanced stage so far, I'm only looking into it a bit.

Katajamäki is reputedly in contract negotiations with all three DTM manufacturers - Mercedes, Audi and Opel. Which he will choose is a mystery.

The floor is open for questions! Fire away everyone.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 08 Aug 2010, 20:02

What will be the criteria for choosing between the three DTM manufacturers? How long each will remain in the sport? Competitiveness of teammates?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 08 Aug 2010, 20:15

dr-baker wrote:What will be the criteria for choosing between the three DTM manufacturers? How long each will remain in the sport? Competitiveness of teammates?

The latter of those is completely irrelevant - all of the maufacturers have very quick drivers so I wouldn't gain an advantage by picking one team over the other anyway - but it's not important to me so there's no point in discussing it.

Ok, for sure Opel has struggled a bit recently but that doesn't mean I would rule them out - you don't get drivers like Jo Winkelhock signing for a team if they're no good and likely to bail out suddenly. As for Audi, they're making great strides with the TT-R now, even though they don't have an official works team Abt Sportsline is still doing a great job of developing that car. As for Mercedes, they're the proven winners at this level. Maybe having Bernd Schneider as a team-mate isn't such a great idea after all now I think about it!
But in all seriousness all three have positives and negatives, so it's just a case of seeing what I'm offered by each of the three and choosing the best deal out of them. But for now I've put this choice to the back of my mind, I have a rally to focus on for Mitsubishi this weekend!

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 08 Aug 2010, 21:28

Why choose DTM and not ETCC or even a bit of endurance, for example?

Waris · Post by **Waris** » 08 Aug 2010, 21:57

Hahaha, this is getting great!! Keep it up!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 08 Aug 2010, 22:38

Phoenix wrote:Why choose DTM and not ETCC or even a bit of endurance, for example?

I don't have the racing budget to do either right now - my backers have chosen DTM as the prefered option so I will pursue a drive there instead. The cars are much closer to F1 than you may think anyway, which also makes it an attractive option to me - it's almost like a single seater but with a roof.

As for endurance races I'm still considering this option - if I can find the budget to I may enter the Le Mans 24 Hours or perhaps the Spa 1000km, but for now it isn't on my radar. For now I'm looking at expanding my WRC and DTM programmes in the next few weeks and that's all.

*Taking a step back into our reality, the real reason is I don't own a videogame with ETCC cars - however, don't rule out a switch to touring cars at some point in my career further down the line...as for Le Mans, I will need to see if the similarly named PS2 game will start working again.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 09 Aug 2010, 20:34

Press Release | Katajamäki joins HRT Enduro line-up | 7th March 2002

Former F1 racer Alex Katajamäki has joined the Holden Racing Team fold for this year's V8 Supercar Championship endurace events - the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 - as well as the V8 Supercar Challenege at Surfers Paradise.

Katajamäki will share the #2 Holden Racing Team Commodore VX with Jason Bright during the Sandown 500 & Bathurst 1000, while he will replace Paul Morris at his own team for the V8Supercar Challenge round at Surfers.

"It's a great honour to race for the most successful team in Australian racing history," said Katajamäki. "I have a great chance to win all three events and hopefully help Jason score some good points for his championship challenge at the enduros. I've always wanted to race at Bathurst, it looks like such a mega track just from watching it so to actually race in the 1000 will be quite an experience."

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 09 Aug 2010, 21:12

So...that was a surprise. I'll be honest, I expected the Lancer to be rubbish. Ever since last year the team has been going downhill, and when Makinen can't even make one go fast you know they are in trouble. So it surprised me when I won the first stage by 10 seconds. The Fords are looking mighty but somehow I'm managing to keep Carlos & Colin behind me, and Makinen as well - it looks like the switch to Subaru did him no harm after all.

Now while I'm leading Alister can barely stay inside the points - I don't know why, maybe he just can't find the sweet spot for his setup like I have. I don't know how long I can keep this advantage, maybe the Fords haven't quite nailed their setup yet and they're not at 100% yet. As for Panizzi, where the hell is he? I figured Peugeot's resident tarmac expert would be doing better than me, but he's dead last I think, so maybe they should have given me his 206 and nominated me for points instead!

Anyway, just gotta remember to KEEP THE CAR ON THE ROAD. I need to find a way to calm the fishtailing over the marbles! Otherwise Carlos may catch me very quickly...

The positions? Ah yes, can't remember the gaps exactly but here's what the positions roughly look like just now:
1. Me
2. Sainz (Ford) +9.2s
3. Colin McRae (Ford) +11.something
4. Mäkinen (Scooby) +14s
5. Grönholm (Peugeot) +21s
6. Solberg (Scooby) +23s
7. Gardemeister (Skoda) +41s
8. Ally McRae (Mitsubishi) +55s
9. Schwarz (Hyundai) +1:04s
10. Märtin (Ford) +dunno

Holden threw me off a bit with that announcement yesterday, I thought they wanted to wait before revealing the news but whatever. Dunno why Morris is skipping Surfers but I don't care really, I get his drive and thats it.

DTM...at least Audi made my decision a bit easier. What a pathetic offer! Sharing a drive between me and some guy called Martin Tomsick or something like that...what a joke! Merc seems like the best option, but OPC Euroteam doesn't look bad either.

I have to focus dammit! DTM doesn't start for a while yet, I have this weekend to finish first! Gotta tell Daniel to change the tempo of the notes tomorrow, he's calling them too late...speaking of which, look at the time! Gotta hit the sack for the big day tomorrow.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 09 Aug 2010, 22:24

Mr. Katajamäki, how do you ponder your chances of winning this event? Are you feeling at ease with the car?

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 09 Aug 2010, 22:38

kostas22 wrote:What a pathetic offer! Sharing a drive between me and some guy called Martin Tomsick or something like that...what a joke!

That's like insulting Chris Amon, you just don't do that.

But this looks very entertaining nevertheless so I'll keep an eye on that one.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 09 Aug 2010, 23:46

Phoenix wrote:Mr. Katajamäki, how do you ponder your chances of winning this event? Are you feeling at ease with the car?

I honestly don't know. The last day's stages are more technical than the others, and the car is quite twitchy in the mid-speed corners. The Fords and Subarus are getting faster now and I don't think the Lancer has the raw pace to keep up, but I'll try my hardest to keep going. If I win that would be amazing, I don't think anyone has won on their WRC debut before.

I won't give it 110% just to win this event, because my priority is to score manufacturer points for Mitsubishi instead of win the event. Our main targets here were to beat Skoda and Hyundai, and both are down to just one driver each - Gardemeister and Schwarz, who are struggling to stay in the points positions at all. So even if I dropped to 3rd or 4th by the end, it's still way above what was expected of me going into the event, and would still be a good result.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 10 Aug 2010, 21:13

Katajamäki stuns rally fraternity with win on debut

Ex-F1 turned rally driver Alex Katajamäki drove straight into the history books by winning a round of the World Rally Championship on his debut.

The 24 year old Scot drove a near flawless rally to fend off the likes of Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae and Tommi Mäkinen behind him - although he nearly threw it all away on the Ifinal stage.

I guess I panicked a bit during the last stage - I ran wide and figured I'd lost a few seconds, which considering the gaps was enough to lose the rally by - so I overdrove the car. It's a bit smashed up after that 'cause I hit a bank, a fence and a couple of walls but I was going at 200% - but then I think Carlos may have also made a big mistake, his stage time was quite slow at the end, while Gardemeister must have been pushing like hell to keep Rovanperä behind him.

So maybe I said I would keep calm and focus on finishing near the top, but well, there was a win at stake, I couldn't help it!
I didn't even expect to be on the podium never mind winning - I figured even a Top 5 finish might be ambitious, except if there was a high attrition rate. Panizzi's accident on day one helped for sure, but apart from that I just drove well it seems.

The win means Katajamäki slots straight into 4th place in the drivers championship and also scores a crucial 10 points for Mitsubishi - keeping them well ahead of Hyundai and Skoda in the manufacturers championship.

Final Results

Code: Select all

1. Alex Katajämaki   MITSUBISHI RALLIART      23:25.2
2. Carlos Sainz      FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM    23:29.4
3. Tommi Mäkinen     SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM  23:43.9
4. Colin McRae       FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM    23:52.6
5. Petter Solberg    SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM  24:02.9
6. Marcus Grönholm   PEUGEOT SPORT            24:06.5
7. Armin Schwarz     HYUNDAI WORLD RALLY TEAM 24:06.8
8. Toni Gardemeister SKODA MOTORSPORT         24:50.1

Drivers Championship

Code: Select all

1. Tommi Mäkinen      SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM  14
2. Carlos Sainz       FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM    14
3. Marcus Grönholm    PEUGEOT SPORT            13
4. Alex Katajämaki    MITSUBISHI RALLIART      10
5. Colin McRae        FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM    8
6. Harri Rovanperä    PEUGEOT SPORT            6
7. Alister McRae      MITSUBISHI RALLIART      3
8. Petter Solberg     SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM  3
9. Sebastian Lindholm DHL PEUGEOT              1

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 10 Aug 2010, 22:49

Clipsal 500 | Press Release

Alex Katajamäki will drive the second Garry Rogers Motorsport Valvoline Holden at next weekend's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, after Jason Bargwanna picked up an injury in a road accident.

Katajamäki, who has driven for the likes of Jaguar and Tyrrell in Formula One, will have a shakedown test of the Holden Commodore VX at Oran Park later this week to help him acclimatise to the 600hp RWD machine.

When I heard about Bargwanna's unfortunate incident they were looking for a free driver at short notice - all of the Konica series guys were obviously commited to their own series so they needed someone outside V8s. Seeing as I was already commited for the enduros it made sense for both me and the team to do this deal.

With only a single day test it will be a tough ask to finish well, and I just missed out on driving in Adelaide in Formula One by a couple of years so I don't have any experience there either. Nevertheless I'll still try, and maybe get some setup advice from Garth [Tander] to make the car faster. It's just a guessing game how good I'll be right now...

Clipsal 500 Entries
#34 Garth Tander HOLDEN COMMODORE VX
#35 Alex Katajamäki HOLDEN COMMODORE VX

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 11 Aug 2010, 15:24

Mr. Katajamäki, after this shocker win, have you received any offer from better WRC squads for a full season?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 11 Aug 2010, 19:21

Phoenix wrote:Mr. Katajamäki, after this shocker win, have you received any offer from better WRC squads for a full season?

I don't have any offers for next year on the table yet - it's only March so it's far too early for that!
For this year I'll probably return to the JWRC after my duties with Mitsubishi are complete - Delecour has a contract here and I don't intend on 'stealing' his seat from him.
I also think that maybe this is just because of the surface - as you may well know I've never driven on a full gravel rally, only on mixed surface events, so I was bound to do much better in France than in New Zealand.
I don't think I'm really in a position to do the rest of the season even if there were seats avaliable - if a DTM deal goes through, combined with my JWRC & V8 Supercar duties I'd not have any time left for the other rallies! I would be pretty much at 100% capacity after that, so there's not really a chance I'll finish the rest of the season.
There's a chance I'll compete in Rally GB at the end of the season in Panizzi's Peugeot, but it all depends if the team can find a budget for me to run the 3rd car there because I'd not be replacing him - he's only doing a part season.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 12 Aug 2010, 18:23

Hmmm...one Tom Walkinshaw just gave me a call. Rather interesting.

He seems to think I still have the kind of money kicking about to race in F1. Apparently Frentzen's future at Arrows is not so secure after all.
I'd go, but...there's just not enough intrest in me right now so I can't get the sponsorship to do it. Admittedly the the A23 is a shitebox, but what the heck, I dragged that pathetic excuse for a Tyrrell higher than it should have ever reached. Same goes for the 2001 Minardi, it was a box of crap compared to the 1999 car. I guess if I can nudge the top 10 in that thing it shouldn't be impossible in the Arrows...

Its a gamble I know, and this WRC thing is going really well (I hear they may give me Panizzi's 206 at all the rounds he's not doing) and I'm on the verge of finishing a deal with Mercedes for DTM, but well, it's Formula One...if I drive the wheels off that crapbox maybe I'll get another shot somewhere else in 2003.

I never expected to have so much choice! F1, WRC, DTM, V8...hell, if someone had invited me to drive in the Daytona 500 I'd probably have accepted.

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » 12 Aug 2010, 23:09

No, Mr. Katajamäki! I've heard Arrows is running very short on cash and may not last the whole season. Doesn't seem a wise thing to take a seat there...

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 12 Aug 2010, 23:50

I hear Ben Bostrom is out injured in World Superbikes Mr Katajamaki, would you be interested in replacing him if an offer came forward from L+M Ducati?

Just kidding, though answer it if you like!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 13 Aug 2010, 03:12

AndreaModa wrote:I hear Ben Bostrom is out injured in World Superbikes Mr Katajamaki, would you be interested in replacing him if an offer came forward from L+M Ducati?

Just kidding, though answer it if you like!

Err...no. I'll drive anything with four wheels, not two

Speaking of 'random' drives, there's a chance I'll be doing a round of the CART series with Fernández Racing in the #51 car - probably at Road America - so I'll be team-mates with Shinji Nakano who I knew from my F1 days - so hopefully he will be willing to give me some setup help if the day comes!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 13 Aug 2010, 18:28

Qualifying for the 2002 Clipsal 500 saw the usual faces making it to the Top 10 shootout - Skaife, Lowndes, Ambrose and Ingall. However one surprise was seeing both Garry Rogers Motorsport Holdens in the Top 10 - as ex-F1 racer Alex Katajamäki was making his debut for the team in place of the injured Jason Bargwanna. He came an impressive 3rd in opening qualifying, behind Lowndes and Ellery.

The Top 10 shootout had a bigger shock in store though - while Ellery wasted his good pace with an off at the last turn on his only shoot-out lap, Katajamäki drove a lap never seen before at Adelaide - beating the mightly Lowndes by a huge 8 tenths of a second to pole. Skaife came within half a tenth of sneaking into second, but running wide at the exit of the Senna Chicane cost him the place.

Even Katajamäki was stunned at his own pace.

I don't have a f***ing clue how I did that lap. I went flat through the Senna chicane and took a lot of kerb on the inside - I guess I'm lucky the stewards didn't deem it an illegal shortcut or anything like that. There's also a few scratch marks on the car from where I rubbed the wall between Turns 4 and 7! I was using the whole width of the track and a litte bit more to try and get a good lap time, and I guess it worked.

The Clipsal 500 at Adelaide has a unique format - two 250 mile races are run, and the winner of the second of the two races is declared the overall winner of the 500. This means if new boy Katajamäki wants to have a crack at winning on his debut, he'll need to stay near the front and avoid any silly mistakes.

Code: Select all

POS DRIVER          TEAM                      TIME
1.  Alex Katajamäki GARRY ROGERS MOTORSPORT   1:15.68
2.  Craig Lowndes   GIBSON MOTORSPORT           +0.85
3.  Mark Skaife     HOLDEN RACING TEAM          +0.88
4.  Marcos Ambrose  STONE BROTHERS RACING       +1.26
5.  Russell Ingall  CASTROL PERKINS RACE TEAM   +1.58
6.  Tony Longhurst  TEAM BETTA ELECTRICAL       +1.77
7.  Garth Tander    GARRY ROGERS MOTORSPORT     +1.95
8.  Rick Kelly      HOLDEN RACING TEAM          +2.41
9.  Steven Richards CASTROL PERKINS RACE TEAM   +2.65
10. Steve Ellery    SUPERCHEAP AUTO RACING      +2.89

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 13 Aug 2010, 21:04

kostas22 wrote:Hmmm...one Tom Walkinshaw just gave me a call. Rather interesting.

He seems to think I still have the kind of money kicking about to race in F1. Apparently Frentzen's future at Arrows is not so secure after all.
I'd go, but...there's just not enough intrest in me right now so I can't get the sponsorship to do it. Admittedly the the A23 is a shitebox, but what the heck, I dragged that pathetic excuse for a Tyrrell higher than it should have ever reached. Same goes for the 2001 Minardi, it was a box of crap compared to the 1999 car. I guess if I can nudge the top 10 in that thing it shouldn't be impossible in the Arrows...

Its a gamble I know, and this WRC thing is going really well (I hear they may give me Panizzi's 206 at all the rounds he's not doing) and I'm on the verge of finishing a deal with Mercedes for DTM, but well, it's Formula One...if I drive the wheels off that crapbox maybe I'll get another shot somewhere else in 2003.

I never expected to have so much choice! F1, WRC, DTM, V8...hell, if someone had invited me to drive in the Daytona 500 I'd probably have accepted.

James Davies may be interested in running a second car for Mr. Katajamäki sometime in 2003 to earn some extra cash...

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 15 Aug 2010, 14:34

Comeback king Katajamäki snatches Clipsal 500 victory

Alex Katajamäki was only a last minute replacement for the injured Jason Bargwanna - yet he drove like a seasoned pro to clinch victory at the Clipsal 500, despite it also being his V8 Supercar debut.

After securing pole in yesterday's pole position shoot-out Katajamäki got a good start off the grid and led the field down to Turn 4, while behind the gaggle of cars going flat-out through Turn 3 had its victims - Jason Bright was forced straight into the wall and retirement.

Mark Skaife nearly took out Katajamäki at Turn 4 - a late braking move on Craig Lowndes meant he tapped the rear of the Scot's Holden, but both carried on in 1st and 2nd unaffected. Over the first stint Katajamäki made rapid progress and pulled a huge gap to Skaife and the rest of the field. By lap 30 he was already coming across backmarkers, who Katajamäki complained were being to aggressive while being lapped.

He came in for his scheduled stop at two-thirds distance, and retuned on the tail of the last placed cars whom he was about to lap again. But with only four laps to go traffic would turn out to be his downfall - getting involved in an accident with David Besnard's Ford and Craig Baird's Holden which forced him to pit for quick repairs.

Katajamäki was extremely unimpressed at the conduct of the backmarkers, and at the end of the race marched down to the Stone Brothers Racing pit-lane fuming with rage - grabbed the Aussie and sucker-punched him in the face. He ran down to the Team Brock pit afterwards, but Baird was nowhere to be seen.

What the f**k is this, bumper cars!? These morons are supposed to be experienced V8 racers, yet I, the rookie, am in a position to lap them instead.
Right, so basically I come up to those two squabbling over last place, trying to get past to make sure I didn't lose my rhythm and make any mistakes by not concentrating. I'm going flat through the Senna chicane and go around the outside of Besnard thought T3, while Baird is way on the right seemingly getting out of my way. Instead, he keeps his foot in and completely blocks my entry to Turn 4, so Besnard tries a switchback move on both of us, hits me and spins me into the wall, the stupid c***. It's a f***ing joke you can get away with driving like that, influencing the race through your own stupidity. They won't want to come across me during the next race that's for sure...

The race wasn't over however - he returned from his pit-stop in 12th, right behind a huge pack of cars headed by Russell Ingall. By Turn 4 on the same lap he'd already passed Max Wilson for 11th, and then passed both Simon Wills & Steve Ellery at the Dequetteville hairpin. There was a one second gap to Mark Larkham in 8th but it only took him half a lap to make up the difference - slipstreaming past him on the Brabham straight. There was another small gap to the final group of cars ahead (Ingall, Lowndes, Johnson, Richards), but caught up to them on the final lap of the race. He fought tooth and nail with Steve Richards all the way to the Dequetteville hairpin, where he eventually slipped past with ease and was straight onto Johnson's tail. A feign to the inside at Turn 13 did nothing, but he had one last lunge down the inside at the final hairpin - and he got lucky. Ingall was busy defending from Lowndes and caused a bottleneck at the hairpin, allowing Katajamäki to slip by and steal the final podium position for the opening leg of the Clipsal 500.

The race officials were not happy at Katajamäki's post-race conduct though - slapping him with a $10,000 fine and being put on probation for the rest of the season. He would be allowed to compete in the second leg of the 500 however.

The second race grid was decided by the finishing order of Race 1 - so Marcos Ambrose lined up on pole, ahead of Skaife and Katajamäki. Skaife bogged down off the start, allowing Katajamäki to pass him easily at the start. Ambrose had also made a good start, but kerbhopping through the Senna chicane meant the Ford driver had lost momentum, and Katajamäki was right behind. He tapped Ambrose at the inside of Turn 3, nudging him enough to pass down the inside - but Ambrose had not given up the place just yet. Under breaking he dived down the inside and hit Katajamäki, but the Holden managed to hold its line through Wakefield and retained the lead.

Over the next few laps Katajamäki slowly but surely edged ahead of Ambrose - his lead peaking at about 4 seconds. However after about 10 laps something was clearly wrong with Katajamäki's Holden Commodore - it had developed a misfire. With Ambrose closing down very quickly, he headed to the pits for his mandatory stop - with the extra repairs going on it took much longer than hoped, dropping him all the way down to last place.

However on fresh tyres he was really pushing - setting a new lap record on Lap 23 of 1:14.53 - over a second faster than his pole time the day before! As the other cars filtered into pitlane he started to make up more positions - passing Glenn Seton for 12th was the only overtaking he had to do to gain the lead back, as both Ambrose and Skaife had bad stops - Ambrose had enough time in hand on everyone else to retain second, but Skaife slipped near the tail end of the Top 10.

There was more drama still however, as Katajamäki spun at the Mistral hairpin. He dropped down to 7th, and had his work cut out to climb back up to the lead once again.
A few laps later he managed a pass down the inside at Wakefield on Steven Johnson - identical to that he managed in race one against Johnson's team-mate Max Wilson. He then bridged the gap to a trio of cars ahead - Kelly, Richards and Ingall. He slipstreamed straight past Ingall down the Brabham straight - the Holdens clearly benefiting from a straight-line speed advantage - and quickly latched onto Richards' slipstream as well. A late breaking move down the inside worked wonders, passing both Richards and Rick Kelly at the same time. Now all he had to do was chase down Ambrose for victory.

He put in another string of fast laps in the mid 1:15s to hunt down the Pirtek Ford, and was clearly miles faster than Ambrose. The speed difference really showed when he made the pass for the lead - Katajamäki's Holden 4 or 5 car lengths behind Ambrose heading into the braking zone of Dequetteville, but passing him down the inside anyway from a long way back. He continued the fast pace for a while - but with 10 or so laps to go dropped into the high 1:16s to save his car and avoid tripping over any more backmarkers.

On his V8 Supercar debut, Alex Katajamäki had already won one of the sport's blue riband events.

I figured my chances were pretty much over when the engine developed that misfire, I was fearing it would be a terminal problem. However the guys managed to do something quickly to fix it a bit, I don't know what but it seemed to do the trick. After that I just pushed like a madman for 50 laps - which in hindsight maybe wasn't such a great idea after I'd regained the lead after the pitstop phase.

The Valvoline Repco Holden was driving really good, I already knew how the car was going to behave going into a corner so I could get close to the walls through the Sector 1 complex without worrying about throwing the car into a barrier and writing it off.

Katajamäki won't be back in the series until Sandown in September, where he will share the second Holden Racing Team Commodore with Jason Bright. Until then we can only wonder if he could have had a crack at the championship.

Clipsal 500 Results
Leg One

Code: Select all

POS DRIVER          TEAM                          TIME
1.  Marcos Ambrose  STONE BROTHERS RACING     39:50.43
2.  Mark Skaife     HOLDEN RACING TEAM           +0.77
3.  Alex Katajamäki GARRY ROGERS MOTORSPORT      +3.08
4.  Russell Ingall  CASTROL PERKINS RACE TEAM    +5.51
5.  Craig Lowndes   GIBSON MOTORSPORT            +5.92
6.  Steven Johnson  SHELL HELIX RACING           +7.05
7.  Steven Richards CASTROL PERKINS RACE TEAM    +7.87
8.  Mark Larkham    ORRCON RACING                +8.30
9.  Rick Kelly      HOLDEN RACING TEAM           +8.44
10. Simon Wills     TEAM BETTA ELECTRICAL        +8.61

Leg Two

Code: Select all

POS DRIVER          TEAM                          TIME
1.  Alex Katajamäki GARRY ROGERS MOTORSPORT   39:22.88
2.  Marcos Ambrose  STONE BROTHERS RACING       +18.34
3.  Rick Kelly      HOLDEN RACING TEAM          +22.38
4.  Steven Richards CASTROL PERKINS RACE TEAM   +23.84
5.  Craig Lowndes   GIBSON MOTORSPORT           +24.55
6.  Brad Jones      OZEMAIL RACING TEAM         +25.67
7.  Mark Skaife     HOLDEN RACING TEAM          +26.20
8.  Steven Johnson  SHELL HELIX RACING          +27.00
9.  Simon Wills     TEAM BETTA ELECTRICAL       +29.36
10. Craig Baird     TEAM BROCK                  +29.83

*Back to reality for a moment, I'd like to point out this wasn't set to easy. I gave the AI cars a 5% speed boost compared to the car I was driving. And I still ran rings around them (when they weren't trying to shove me into a wall).

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 15 Aug 2010, 20:47

Why Mastercard Lola weren't entirely pointless

Andrea Moda. Life. Subaru. Lola. These are just a handful of the dozens of failed F1 projects driven by pay-drivers aplenty in the ninties. The first ended in a fraud investigation, the second a businessman in ruins, and the third with a reputation in tatters. The last? Something came good from it.

The car itself was utterly useless - rumour has it, it wasn't even built symmetrically. Their primary sponsor Mastercard forced Lola to rush development to the point they were cutting more corners than a rally driver. The management were somewhat clueless as to how to do business in Formula One - their sponsorship system was Mastercard was a risky venture to say the least.

They may have never qualified for an event, but it was the beginning of a career for one of the three unlucky junior formula graduates to the mediocre multi-coloured machine - Alex Katajamäki.

Katajamäki's failed one-off drive for Lola was his first venture into the highest level of motorsport

It was a shaky start to a Formula One career - though Roberto Moreno recovered from something similar back in the 80's (albeit his car was actually a decent one, the Lotus 91). He bounced back quickly though, once again replacing the pitifully slow Ricardo Rosset, but this time at the rapidly declining Tyrrell team. 5th place on his debut at Spa '98 was the team's best result that season - though it was more down to luck than anything else, the extreme attrition taking out many of the frontrunning teams.

Throughout the rest of that season and 1999, he earned a reputation for being a fast but wild racer, driving a car so fast to the point of throwing it off the road - and just praying he didn't run out of grip.

While he may have snatched 2nd that year at the equally chaotic European Grand Prix, his most impressive performance of that year was at Montreal - finishing 7th by driving the wheels off his Minardi M01 (almost literally) and setting the 4th fastest lap of the race. With an attrition rate like at Belgium '98 or Europe '99, he could have taken an unprecendented first win for Minardi.

4 years after his best days in F1, he's plying his trade in pretty much any car he can get his hands on. And for good reason - he can win driving anything.

Katajamäki is a more old-fashioned racer, in the sense that he's not interested in the mathematics of it all. Sure, he will modify the setup a little bit to see if it makes a difference, but if he needs to find a few tenths, he won't look to change his car to make up the difference. He just tries to drive beyond both his and the car's limit to make up the difference, no technical gimmicks.

Over in Australia he's earned the nickname 'The Aggressor' for his recent exploits in the V8 Supercar championship - which included overtaking almost the entire field, setting a race lap 2 seconds faster than anyone else, and punching a rival driver in the face.

Did I mention after all of that he won on his debut?

He made quite an impact last weekend over in Adelaide. However despite the apparent rough exterior, outside of the racetrack he's more like one of his racing heroes - Jim Clark.

"In some ways I'm actually quite relieved my Formula One career never worked out," he said. "If any number of things had happened, for example the Jaguar project being a much bigger success than it was to start with, if I'd managed to make it with a big team like McLaren or Williams - and as a result I'd have been more successful in the sport, I'd have loathed the near 'celebrity' status that comes attached with it. I get quite stressed out if there's too much attention put on me, being able to just escape from everything helps me to focus. I guess it's why I thrived at Minardi and flopped at Jaguar. The expectations [at Jaguar] were more than I could deliver.

"I doubt I'd ever have cut it with a team like McLaren anyway, the way I express myself admittedly isn't the most PR friendly version you could say. I was very outspoken against Schumacher and the Tifosi gave me a lot of hatred for it back in 1998 - though they seemed to calm down in '99 when I started to perform well for Minardi. I also quarreled with JV for a while, so it was quite satisfying to outscore him in 2000. That aside, I guess I didn't really have any other problems in that regard."

I then questioned him about the opposite, who in the paddock he was able to relate to or got a helping hand from, though he seemed somewhat puzzled by the thought.

"Well...there wasn't really anyone I could relate to. For me, even after 3 years, being in F1 felt like being the new kid in a class - I guess thats why it's known informally is the Piranha club. I guess you could say as a blanket answer that everyone else at the little teams were in the same boat as me, but then again my situation was different as well. Eddie [Irvine] wanted to make the team his own after his Ferrari days spent as a Number 2, and he was able to influence the team to go in the direction he wanted irrespective of what I wanted to happen. The team was running below expectations, so when the car performed poorly they started slating the drivers - though mostly me - because they figured a manufacturer wouldn't perform that poorly, and it must have been the drivers.

"After the Belgian GP, I went to congratulate Damon Hill just after the press conference, and he said 'Just stick at it. Maybe someday you'll pull off something like that'. I guess he was just overjoyed at getting his first win for over 2 years or something, but when you're a rookie if you're getting positive comments from the other drivers it helps. Later that year, at Monza, I figured the team would have a technical debriefing even though neither car had finished. But when I went to the team hauler only the truckies and the cleaners were there - everyone else had already gone back home and left me behind. I didn't even have a courtesy car like the drivers at the other teams so I just started walking back to the hotel which was 6 or 7 miles from the track. Just after I'd left the grounds of the circuit Mika [Hakkinen] pulled up and asked me 'what the hell I was doing'. Obviously he offered me a ride back and I explained the factions that had formed in the team from before I had even arrived there. He obviously knew a thing or two about failing teams from his time at Lotus, so he just gave me some advice on how to deal with it and suggested once the season was over I got the hell out of there and moved to a team with more stability. So that's exactly what I did.

"All the time I spent at the little teams made me stronger as a driver - I'd used to panic when anything went wrong, but nowadays I'm able to fight back from disaster much better than before. The F1 experience had made me more resilient I guess."

But what does the future hold for the still young Katajamäki? Apparently not even he knows...

"I'm not even sure of my full schedule for this year!" he quipped, with a look on his face suggesting 'Don't ask, because I don't know'. "I have a JWRC program and a few V8 endurance events. The rest is up for negotiation - and trust me, there will be a lot of negotations to have. I'll be honest with you and say I'm on the verge of deals pretty much everywhere - WRC, DTM, IndyCar, even NASCAR. Yeah, maybe it will be a crazy busy schedule, but turning up at a racetrack every Friday is the way I live. It makes me wonder what I'd do when I have to retire...

"If I had to pinpoint one area where I see my future lying, I'd have to say touring car racing. I can overdrive the car a bit and get away with it easier than in a single seater or a rally car. I'm not saying I'll never do the other two again, but it ten or so years if I'd become a good driver in any discipline it would likely be tin-tops."

Alex Katajamäki; understated, underrated and underfunded. A poor man's Denny Hulme perhaps.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 16 Aug 2010, 20:02

Katajamäki hospitalised after road accident

Former F1 racer Alex Katajamäki is in a life-threatening condition in Glasgow Royal Infirmary after being involved in a multi-car motorway pile-up just west of the city. Reports suggest Katajamäki was instantly knocked unconcious by the impact and has been in a coma ever since.

Doctors have indicated he has at best a 50/50 chance of waking up from said coma.

The half Scot, half Finn was due to compete in next weekend's Rally New Zealand for Mitsubishi, however in light of these events Possum Bourne has been signed up by Ralliart as a backup for the event.

*I can't be bothered doing this if no-one actually pays attention to it. I figured I'd make sure nobody cared before killing it off for good.