Finland

Flying Finns and a Forest Kitchen

Finland has never hosted a Grand Prix, yet its drivers have won world titles in three decades, and its food draws on forests, lakes and rye.

Finland has never hosted a World Championship race, yet Finnish drivers have won the title 4 times, which is a handsome return for a country that has never had to clear its roads for one. Keke Rosberg was champion in 1982 and won 5 Grands Prix in his career. Mika Häkkinen followed with back to back titles in 1998 and 1999 and 20 victories, and Kimi Räikkönen took the 2007 crown, won 21 races and made 349 starts in a career that ran from 2001 to 2021.

The bench behind them is deep. Valtteri Bottas added 10 wins, Heikki Kovalainen won the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix, Mika Salo made 109 starts and JJ Lehto 62. Our records also list Nico Rosberg, the 2016 champion, under both Finland and Germany. Ten Finnish drivers appear in our records in all.

Finnish cooking was shaped by a long winter and a short growing season. For centuries people depended on turnips and later potatoes, dark rye bread, milk and fermented dairy, with fish and game from the lakes and forests filling in the rest. The forest still gives the cuisine its character, through its mushrooms and wild berries such as bilberries, lingonberries and cloudberries. Many traditional dishes are stewed slowly in the oven, and the food is plainer and less sweet than that of neighboring Sweden, whose dishes are also common in Finland: two kitchens that borrow freely and season differently.

Modern Finnish chefs have turned that simplicity into a devotion to freshness. Pea soup on Thursdays, salmon soup with cream and pulla with coffee remain part of ordinary life, and the Thursday soup keeps a calendar more dependable than most. For a race weekend, bake a tray of Karelian pasties and spread them with egg butter while they are still hot.

A taste of Finland

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