Last week Metropolia University of Applied Sciences was hosting Innovation Festival Week. In November 2021, Vantaa was chosen as Europe's Emerging Innovation City, and therefore the event was organized with the support of City of Vantaa. Wednesday 27th of October was dedicated to showcasing our team’s work. Our office was open to all interested visitors and university’s own faces. We have also managed to have a very special guest to attend and share his experiences.
This autumn our engineers are working hard on planning the improvements for the upcoming season, and their expertise is something worth sharing with the world. During Wednesday’s event, a speaking panel was organized to share team operations’ highlights and plans with the attendees.
Alongside our Team Manager Santeri and Technical Manager Alex, we were honored to host a star guest Mika Salo. Mika is a Finnish motorsport driver and ex-Formula 1 racer from Martinlaakso in Vantaa, who has driven more than a hundred Grand Prix races in his career. He debuted in Formula 1 at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1994 at the Suzuka Circuit, and during his career in F1 he raced for Arrows, BAR, Ferrari, Sauber, Team Lotus, Toyota and Tyrrell. Mika finished his racing career in F1 in 2002 and since has been a TV commentator for Formula broadcasts on MTV3 and ViaPlayF1. Ex-racer also holds a position at the FIA’s single seater commission.
The participants discussed current trends in the industry and shared thoughts about the future. Mika Salo has pointed out that he has 50 years of experience in motorsport as well as extensive contacts giving him a great perspective, which he is willing to share with the students. It was announced at the same time that the expert will become the team’s honorary member or, in his own words, “a Godfather”. We have interviewed Mika to learn more about his plans for team’s support and development and will share the conversation in our next post. Stay tuned!
After the panel, guests had a chance to ask questions from the presenters. Many smiles were shared and thoughts exchanged as we moved on to further agenda. The Managers have introduced cars from previous seasons to event visitors and then everyone, including Mika and his son Max, was welcomed to the team’s office.
At the office, our team members were greeting attendees and eagerly sharing information about the car and upcoming competition season. We saw a great number of visitors and discussions took time all the way to the evening.
For us, it was an incredible opportunity to share our work and vision with people and hear their words of support. Every day we are working on ensuring that Formula Student leaves a strong footprint in the motorsport industry. We hope to be a part of more events like Innovation Festival in the future and are looking forward to inviting people over again. Metropolia Motorsport Formula Engineering team is open for cooperation and partnerships and moving on the full speed towards the season 2023.
We thank the City of Vantaa and Metropolia UAS for organizing the event, all guests for finding the time to join us, our own team members for being present to introduce our work and Mika Salo for sharing his career’s incredible stories and memories!
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