Ari Vatanen
Ari Vatanen
|
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Finnish |
| Born |
27 April 1952 Tuupovaara, Finland |
| World Rally Championship record | |
| Active years | 1974 – 1998, 2003 |
| Co-driver |
 Fabrizia Pons Fred Gallagher Roger Freeman Bruno Berglund Terry Harryman Dave Richards
|
| Teams | Ford, Opel, Peugeot, Subaru, BMW, Mitsubishi, Citroën |
| Rallies | 101 |
| Championships | 1 (1981) |
| Rally wins | 10 |
| Podiums | 27 |
| Stage wins | 527 |
| Total points | 518 |
| First rally | 1974 1000 Lakes Rally |
| First win | 1980 Acropolis Rally |
| Last win | 1985 Swedish Rally |
| Last rally | 2003 Rally Finland |
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen (
pronunciation ) (born 27 April 1952) is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times. Since 2013 Vatanen has been the President of the Estonian Autosport Union.
Vatanen was born and grew up in rural Tuupovaara in Eastern Finland. His debut year in rallying was 1970, and he debuted in the World Rally Championship at the 1974 1000 Lakes Rally. In that year he won the Nortti Rally in an Opel Ascona, beating Hannu Mikkola in the process, which brought him to wider attention. His first international rally was the 1975 Rothmans 747 Rally in Jamaica driving a Datsun 120Y. He placed 12th with co-driver Gerry Phillips. At the end of that season he was offered his first professional drive, in a Ford Escort RS1800, on the RAC Rally. He crashed out on the second day, but by then he had impressed Ford team manager Stuart Turner sufficiently for him to be offered a seat in the team for the British Rally Championship the following year. He duly won the championship, a feat he repeated in 1980, co-driven by David Richards, who went on to become chairman of Prodrive, the Banbury based motorsport team and one of the most influential figures in British (and worldwide) motorsport. Between 1977 and 1980 he also competed on selected World Championship events, initially for the official Ford team and then, after its withdrawal from the sport at the end of 1979, for the semi-private Rothmans Rally Team. He took his debut win at the 1980 Acropolis Rally and became the World Rally Champion in 1981. He remains the only privateer driver (i.e. not driving for an official factory team) to have achieved this feat.
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