Niko Kari

Niko Kari
Kari at the 2019 Spielberg Formula 3 round
Nationality	Finnish
Born	(1999-10-06) 6 October 1999 (age 25) Hyvinkää, Finland
FIA Formula 3 Championship career
Debut season	2019
Racing licence	FIA Gold
Car number	24
Former teams	Trident, Jenzer Motorsport
Starts	18
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	12th in 2019
Previous series
2020 2018 2016–18 2016 2015	European Le Mans Series FIA Formula 2 Championship GP3 Series FIA European Formula 3 SMP F4 Championship
Championship titles
2015	SMP F4 Championship

Niko Kari (born 6 October 1999) is a Finnish former racing driver who last raced in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Jenzer Motorsport. He won his first single-seater championship, the 2015 SMP F4 Championship, in his debut year in car racing ^[1] and is a former member of the Red Bull Junior Team.

Career

Karting

Kari started karting in 2009 and took part in his first race in 2010. He raced in several national karting series in Finland from 2010 to 2013. In 2014, Kari moved to KF European where he finished fifth overall. ^[2]

Junior formulae

Kari moved to single-seaters in 2015, starting in the new SMP F4 Championship. He won seven races and took the title with three races to spare. Kari moved to European Formula 3 Championship in 2016 with Motopark. ^[3] He took victory at the first race at Imola after a late lunge on Lance Stroll and finished fifth in the rookie standings and tenth overall.

GP3 Series and Formula 3

2016

In August 2016, Kari was also announced to take part in the GP3 rounds at Spa-Francorchamps with Koiranen GP, in place of Ralph Boschung. ^[4] He retired from the first race, and finished 14th in the second, scoring no points.

2017

In November 2016, Helmut Marko confirmed Kari would move to the series full-time in 2017. ^[5] In January, Kari was signed to Arden International. ^[6] Kari finished the season with one race victory, one third place finish, 63 points and 10th place in drivers' championship. He was dropped from the Red Bull Junior Team after the season. ^[7]

2018

Kari continued to race in GP3 switching to MP Motorsport for the 2018 campaign. ^[8] After 14 races into the season Kari was promoted to FIA Formula 2 Championship with MP Motorsport for the remainder of the 2018 season. ^[9] As a result, Kari finished the season with three point scoring finishes, six total points, and a 17th place in the drivers' championship.

2019

For the rebranded 2019 F3 season, Kari would drive for Trident, and he would achieve two podiums, both 3rd place finished, in Barcelona and Sochi. He finished 12th in the championship with 36 points.

Formula 2

Kari was promoted to FIA Formula 2 Championship with MP Motorsport for the last two weekends of the 2018 season replacing Ralph Boschung. ^[9] He retired in both races held in Sochi, finished 15th in the first race of Abu Dhabi, and retired again in the season closing second race.

Formula One

In December 2015, Kari, along with his Motopark teammate Sérgio Sette Câmara, became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team and thus becoming a test driver of Scuderia Toro Rosso. In November 2016, it was confirmed Kari would remain a part of the Junior team. ^[10] In August of the following year, Kari was dismissed from the program. ^[7]

European Le Mans Series

For the 2020 European Le Mans Series, Kari signed with EuroInternational, in the LMP3 class. ^[11] They finished fourth overall in the category, with a 2nd, a 3rd, two 6th, and a 7th place finish during the year.

Return to racing

In 2022, following a year out of racing, Kari joined Jenzer Motorsport in FIA Formula 3, partnering Ido Cohen and fellow Finn William Alatalo for the opening Bahrain round. ^[12] He finished the races in 26th and 14th, the former race was derailed by a puncture. ^[13] Following Bahrain, however, he would be replaced by Federico Malvestiti. ^[14] Kari ranked 30th in the standings overall. ^[15]

Karting record

Karting career summary

Season	Series	Team	Position
2010	ROK Cup International Final - Mini ROK
2011	Finnish KF6 Challenge		1st
2012	17° South Garda Winter Cup - KF3		33rd
	WSK Master Series - KF3	Ward Racing	15th
	CIK-FIA European Championship - KF3		40th
	41° Trofeo delle Industrie - KF3		7th
	Viking Trophy - KF3		8th
	Finnish Championship - KF3		13th
	WSK Euro Series - KF3		33rd
	FIA Karting World Cup - KF3		13th
	WSK Final Cup - KF3		7th
2013	Finnish Championship - KF3		2nd
	WSK Super Master Series - KF Junior		10th
	18° South Garda Winter Cup - KF3		30th
	WSK Euro Series - KF Junior		16th
	CIK-FIA European Championship - KF Junior		21st
	CIK-FIA World Championship - KF Junior		8th
2014	WSK Champions Cup - KF		17th
	WSK Super Master Series - KF		5th
	CIK-FIA European Championship - KF	Ward Racing	5th
	CIK-FIA World Championship - KF		13th

Racing record

Racing career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2015	SMP F4 Championship	Koiranen GP	21	7	4	9	19	449	1st
2016	FIA Formula 3 European Championship	Motopark	30	1	0	0	5	129	10th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
	GP3 Series	Koiranen GP	2	0	0	0	0	0	26th
2017	GP3 Series	Arden International	15	1	0	1	2	63	10th
2018	GP3 Series	MP Motorsport	14	0	0	0	0	6	17th
	FIA Formula 2 Championship		4	0	0	0	0	0	24th
2019	FIA Formula 3 Championship	Trident	16	0	0	0	2	36	12th
	Formula Regional European Championship	KIC Motorsport	3	0	0	0	0	26	15th
2020	European Le Mans Series - LMP3	Eurointernational	5	0	0	1	2	55	4th
2022	FIA Formula 3 Championship	Jenzer Motorsport	2	0	0	0	0	0	30th

Complete SMP F4 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2015	AHV 1 2	AHV 2 Ret	AHV 3 2	MSC1 1 2	MSC1 2 1	MSC1 3 2	SOC 1 1	SOC 2 1	SOC 3 4	ALA 1 2	ALA 2 2	ALA 3 2	AUD1 1 2	AUD1 2 2	AUD1 3 1	MSC2 1 1	MSC2 2 1	MSC2 3 1	AUD2 1 2	AUD2 2 2	AUD2 3 2	1st	449

Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	DC	Points
2016	Motopark	Volkswagen	LEC 1 8	LEC 2 16	LEC 3 15	HUN 1 2	HUN 2 Ret	HUN 3 8	PAU 1 19	PAU 2 11	PAU 3 8	RBR 1 20	RBR 2 3	RBR 3 8	NOR 1 2	NOR 2 12	NOR 3 Ret	ZAN 1 6	ZAN 2 11	ZAN 3 11	SPA 1 11	SPA 2 10	SPA 3 7	NÜR 1 8	NÜR 2 10	NÜR 3 3	IMO 1 1	IMO 2 9	IMO 3 Ret	HOC 1 14	HOC 2 12	HOC 3 13	10th	129

Complete GP3 Series/FIA Formula 3 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2016	Koiranen GP	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	HOC FEA	HOC SPR	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 14	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SEP FEA	SEP SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	26th	0
2017	Arden International	CAT FEA 15	CAT SPR 14	RBR FEA Ret	RBR SPR 18	SIL FEA 5	SIL SPR 3	HUN FEA 9	HUN SPR 6	SPA FEA 9	SPA SPR 9	MNZ FEA 15†	MNZ SPR C	JER FEA 6	JER SPR 19	YMC FEA 1	YMC SPR 13			10th	63
2018	MP Motorsport	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR 6	LEC FEA DSQ	LEC SPR Ret	RBR FEA 11	RBR SPR 8	SIL FEA 11	SIL SPR Ret	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR Ret	SPA FEA 14	SPA SPR 12	MNZ FEA 10	MNZ SPR 10	SOC FEA	SOC SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	17th	6
2019	Trident	CAT FEA 8	CAT SPR 3	LEC FEA 18	LEC SPR 24†	RBR FEA 11	RBR SPR 8	SIL FEA 18	SIL SPR 19	HUN FEA 14	HUN SPR 12	SPA FEA 19	SPA SPR Ret	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 15	SOC FEA 3	SOC SPR 5			12th	36
2022	Jenzer Motorsport	BHR SPR 26	BHR FEA 14	IMO SPR	IMO FEA	CAT SPR	CAT FEA	SIL SPR	SIL FEA	RBR SPR	RBR FEA	HUN SPR	HUN FEA	SPA SPR	SPA FEA	ZAN SPR	ZAN FEA	MNZ SPR	MNZ FEA	30th	0

^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	DC	Points
2018	MP Motorsport	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	BAK FEA	BAK SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	LEC FEA	LEC SPR	RBR FEA	RBR SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SOC FEA Ret	SOC SPR Ret	YMC FEA 15	YMC SPR Ret	24th	0

Complete European Le Mans Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	Rank	Points
2020	Eurointernational	LMP3	Ligier JS P320	Nissan VK56DE 5.6L V8	LEC 6	SPA 3	LEC 7	MNZ 2	ALG 6	4th	55

References

1. "NIKO KARI CLAIMS THE FIRST SMP F4 CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE". SMP F4 Championship. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
2. "2014 CIK-FIA European KF Championship Standings". CIK-FIA. 31 August 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
3. "SMP F4 champion Niko Kari nearing European F3 graduation for 2016". Autosport. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
4. "Red Bull junior Kari handed GP3 debut at Spa". August 25, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
5. "Onko tässä Suomen seuraava F1-kuljettaja? (Is this the next Finnish F1 driver?)". November 26, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016. Formula 3:n eurosarjassa Kari oli tällä kaudella vasta kymmenes voitettuaan 30 startista vain yhden, mutta ensi kaudella Kari saa paikan GP3-sarjasta. Asian vahvisti MTV Sportille Red Bullin moottoriurheilupomo Helmut Marko (Formula 3 Euro Series Kari was only tenth in this season after winning just one of 30 start-up, but the next season Kari gets a seat in the GP3 series. This interest was confirmed by MTV Intersport in Red Bull's motorsport boss Helmut Marko).
6. "Red Bull Juniors confirmed". 18 January 2017. Retrieved 18 January 2017.
7. "Red Bull drops young talent". August 28, 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
8. "Kari stays in GP3 with MP Motorsport" . Retrieved 2018-09-25.
9. "Kari steps up to Formula 2 with MP" . Retrieved 2018-09-25.
10. "Niko Kari (17) ook volgend jaar in Red Bull Junior Team (Niko Kari (17) next year at Red Bull Junior Team)". November 26, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
11. "Niko Kari lands ELMS seat after FIA F3 exit". 15 July 2020.
12. Wood, Ida (14 March 2022). "Niko Kari makes surprise F3 return with Jenzer Motorsport". Formula Scout. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
13. "Alatalo shines at the FIA F3 season start in Bahrain". Jenzer Motorsport . 20 March 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
14. Alonso Lopez, Alejandro (19 April 2022). "Federico Malvestiti lands Jenzer seat for rest of F3 season". Formula Scout. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
15. "Driver Standings for the FIA Formula 3 2022 Championship". FIA_Formula 3® - The Official F3® Website. Retrieved 8 October 2022.

External links

• Official website
• Niko Kari career summary at DriverDB.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Inaugural	SMP F4 Championship Champion 2015	Succeeded by Richard Verschoor