Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen (pronounced [ˈɑri ˈʋɑtɑnen] ; born 27 April 1952) is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. He won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times. In addition, he won the 1997 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.
Vatanen's 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 enough to be offered a seat in the team for the British Rally Championship the following year.
In the 1976 Scottish Rally (part of the British Rally Championship), the Ford works team replaced a broken differential in Ari Vatanen's Mk2 Escort RS 1800 with one they removed from a spectator's Ford Capri.[citation needed] Vatanen did not finish the Scottish Rally, but he won the championship, a feat he repeated in 1980, co-driven by David Richards, who later became chairman of Prodrive. Between 1977 and 1980, Vatanen also competed in 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.
Vatanen and Richards parted ways for the 1982 season, and for the next few years Vatanen was co-driven by Terry Harryman. He did not defend his world title in 1982, competing instead in the British Championship in a Ford Escort, before moving to the Opel team for 1983. The Opel Ascona and Opel Manta were only two-wheel-drive and not fully competitive, but Vatanen still won the Safari Rally.
In 1984, Vatanen signed to drive the Peugeot 205 T16 for Peugeot's factory team. From the 1984 1000 Lakes Rally to 1985 Swedish Rally, Vatanen won five world rallies in a row. He was tipped to win the 1985 world title, but at mid-season was trailing his teammate Timo Salonen after a series of accidents and mechanical problems. He then had a serious accident on the Rally Argentina, when his car somersaulted at over 120 mph (190 km/h). His seat broke, and he was thrown around inside the car, suffering severe injuries to his legs and torso and life-threatening internal bleeding. He spent 18 months recovering first from his physical injuries, and then from severe depression. He went on to make a complete recovery and his return to motorsport in 1987 saw him go on to win the Paris-Dakar Rally four times; with Peugeot in 1987, 1989 and 1990, and with Citroën in 1991. He became the centre of controversy when his car was stolen whilst leading the same rally in 1988.[1]
In 1997 he won the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies with a Citroën ZX Rallye-raid alongside navigator Fred Gallagher (co-driver).
With Peugeot, Vatanen also won the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, after Peugeot stopped participating in the World Rally Championship in 1986, due to the demise of Group B rallying. Peugeot used the lessons learnt from its 205 T16 to create the 405 T16. With at least 600 bhp (447 kW), large aerofoils, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, Vatanen took the car up the hill in record time, his efforts being captured in the award-winning short film Climb Dance.
Vatanen continued competing in the World Rally Championship until the 1998 season. He drove for Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe in four events in 1989 and in five events in 1990. His best result with the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 was second at the 1990 1000 Lakes Rally. From 1992 to 1993, he competed for Subaru in 11 events, finishing second three times, including on the debut event of the first Subaru Impreza in Finland. Vatanen briefly led the event before being overhauled by eventual winner Juha Kankkunen. Even so, he was dropped by the Subaru team at the end of the 1993 season in favour of Carlos Sainz.
The following year he returned to the wheel of a Ford, driving the Ford Escort RS Cosworth for a semi-private team, and then being co-opted into the Ford factory team where he stood in for the injured Francois Delecour. He scored a podium finish on Rally Argentina, the first time he had contested the event since his accident there nine years previously.
From 1995, Vatanen competed less frequently. He scored a podium finish at the 1998 Safari Rally,[2] and then briefly returned to a works Subaru for the season-ending Rally of Great Britain, marking his 100th World Rally Championship event.
Vatanen joined Nissan in the Paris-Dakar in 2003, finishing seventh. He also made an appearance at the 2003 Rally Finland with a Bozian Racing-prepared Peugeot 206 WRC, finishing eleventh. In 2004 and 2005, he drove the Dakar for Nissan, and in 2007 he made another attempt with Volkswagen, but retired on the seventh stage.[3]
In September 2008, Vatanen took part in the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally, a round of the Scottish Rally Championship centred in Perth in Scotland. His co-driver was once again David Richards and they competed in the same Rothmans sponsored Ford Escort RS1800 that they drove in 1981. He was one of a number of ex-world champions to take part in the event in memory of McRae, who died in 2007.
Vatanen was born and grew up in rural Tuupovaara in Eastern Finland. He is married to Rita and has four children, Kim (1972–2024), Ria (b. 1980), Tua (b. 1982) and Max (b. 1990). They have homes in Finland and France.[4] Kim was the manager of current WRC driver Sébastien Ogier. In 2016 Max followed his fathers footsteps by entering the British Rally Championship driving an M-Sport prepared Ford Fiesta R5.[5]
In 1993, Vatanen settled in southern France, where he bought a farm and a winery.
Vatanen speaks fluent Finnish, English, and French.[6]
In 1999, Vatanen was elected to the European Parliament from the list of the conservative Finnish National Coalition party although he continued to live in France. The issues on which he worked included car taxation, traffic policies, development aid and agricultural policy.
In 2004, he was re-elected, this time from the list of the conservative French Union for a Popular Movement. In the 2009 European Parliament elections Vatanen was again a National Coalition candidate in Finland, but he did not get elected this time.[7]
In July 2009, Vatanen declared his interest in being a candidate to stand against Max Mosley in the FIA presidential elections in October if Mosley decide to stand for another term as president.[8] Vatanen later confirmed that he would run for the presidency.[9] On 23 October 2009, Vatanen failed in his bid to be elected as president of the FIA, which was won by his former team boss at Peugeot, subsequently Scuderia Ferrari manager Jean Todt.[10]
Vatanen is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.[11]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
