Emma Elina Kimiläinen (born 8 July 1989) is a Finnish

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. She currently competes in the E1 Series and formerly competed in the W Series.

Biography

Motorsport

Kimiläinen entered professional motor racing in 2005, competing in the Northern European

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

Championship. She was fifth in her first season, scoring a string of rookie awards along the way, and was tied on points with series champion Sami Isohella in 2006 however finished second on count-back (4 wins to Isohella's 5). She remained in Northern Europe in 2007, racing

Radicals Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

in Sweden.

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

then picked up the young Finn in 2008, and placed her in their Formula Masters series. Team-mate to future Formula One driver

Kevin Magnussen Kevin Jan Magnussen (; born 5 October 1992) is a Danish racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for W Racing Team, WRT and the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, RLL as a factory driver f ...

, she finished 10th in the standings with a highlight of 2nd at

Assen Assen () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in ...

; however Audi cut back her funding after the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

and she ended up funding her own way into

Formula Palmer Audi Formula Palmer Audi, officially abbreviated to FPA, and sometimes informally abbreviated to Palmer Audi, was a one-make class of open wheel Formula racing founded in 1998 by former Formula One driver, Jonathan Palmer. It was based in the Unite ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. She ended the season fifth in the standings with four podium finishes. However, with no more support from Audi and a lack of personal funds to maintain her racing career, she took an indefinite hiatus from motorsport and started a family after 2009. Kimiläinen had been in contact with an

Indy Lights Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Roa ...

team for

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, however this was abandoned after it was revealed a team sponsor wanted her to produce adult content for them. In 2014, she received a surprise call-up from PWR Racing to complete the full

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship The Scandinavian Touring Car Championship (STCC) is a touring car racing series based in Scandinavia. The series took over from the Danish Touringcar Championship The Danish Touringcar Championship (abbreviated as the DTC) was a touring car ra ...

season, making her the first woman to race in the STCC since

Nettan Lindgren-Jansson Mona Anette Lindgren Jansson, known as Nettan Lindgren Jansson (born 13 March 1957, in Grödinge) is a Swedish auto racing driver. She is the first and only female driver to win a race in the British Touring Car Championship, when she won her class ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

. She was retained for 2015 and 2016, however injury prevented her from completing the full 2016 season following a crash in the opening round at

Skövde Skövde () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and urban centre in Skövde Municipality and Västra Götaland County, in the Västergötland, Västergötland (Western Gothland region) in central southern Sweden. Skövde is situated around 150 k ...

in which she strained her neck. She switched to the Swedish V8 ThunderCar series for 2017, before announcing plans to compete in the Electric GT Championship – which was subsequently delayed and then later cancelled altogether. She competed in the W Series for

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

as one of the seasons' 18 permanent drivers. She qualified well for the opening round at the

Hockenheimring The Hockenheimring, officially Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg () is a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine valley near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on the Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other mot ...

, however was involved in a crash with Megan Gilkes that re-ignited her neck injury and forced her out of the following two rounds. She finished fifth on her return at the

Norisring The Norisring is a street circuit in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as a motorcycle racing venue in 1947 and named in a 1950 competition to win a light motorcycle, the track became known as a sports car racing venue in the 19 ...

and followed that with a grand slam (pole position, fastest lap, race win) at

. She would finish second in a race-long fight with

Alice Powell Alice Elizabeth Fraser Powell (born 26 January 1993) is a British people, British auto racing, racing driver. In 2010, she became the first woman to win a Formula Renault championship and in 2012 became the first woman to score points in the GP ...

in the series finale at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

, enabling her to leapfrog

Fabienne Wohlwend Fabienne Wohlwend (born 7 November 1997) is a List of female racing drivers, racing driver from Liechtenstein who competed in the W Series (championship), W Series. Biography Formula 4 Wohlwend entered car racing in 2016, having been successful ...

for fifth in the championship. Following a

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

-induced break from racing in 2020, Kimiläinen returned to W Series in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and finished third in the championship with a win at

Spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

and four other podiums. In 2022 she participated in the

Race of Champions The Race of Champions (ROC) is an international motorsport event held at the start or end of each year, featuring some of the world's best racing and rally drivers from Formula One, World Rally Championship, IndyCar, NASCAR, sports car racin ...

replacing

Valtteri Bottas Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver, who serves as a reserve driver in Formula One for Mercedes. Bottas competed in Formula One from to , and twice finished runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship in ...

who was to race but did not due to an agreement with Alfa Romeo F1 Team so Kimiläinen raced alongside

Mika Häkkinen Mika Pauli Häkkinen (; born 28 September 1968) is a Finnish former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Flying Finn", Häkkinen won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in and with M ...

In 2024, she is competing in the UIM E1 World Championship, an electric boat racing series. Kimiläinen is a member of Team Brady, owned by retired American football player

Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons. He spent his first 20 seasons with the New Engla ...

. Her teammate is powerboat racer Sam Coleman.

Personal life

Alongside her racing, Kimiläinen works as a radio and television host – most notably producing '' Finland's Worst Driver'' for

MTV3 MTV3 (, ) is a Finnish commercial television channel owned and operated by the media company MTV Oy, originally launched on 13 August 1957 as a programming block, becoming its own channel on 1 January 1993. It had the biggest audience share ...

. She has also appeared on the Finnish versions of ''Dancing with the Stars'' and ''The Masked Singer''. She was married to Timo Liuski between 2012 and 2021, with a daughter born in 2013. She is currently in a relationship with former Finnish footballer

Sami Hyypiä Sami Tuomas Hyypiä (; born 7 October 1973) is a Finnish professional football manager and a former player who played as a centre-back. Hyypiä began his playing career with Ykkönen side Kumu and soon moved to Veikkausliiga outfit MyPa. He s ...

, some 16 years her senior.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete Scandinavian Touring Car Championship results

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

Complete W Series results

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

References

External links

*Profile a
Driver DatabaseWebsite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimiläinen, Emma Finnish racing drivers Female racing drivers 1989 births Living people Racing drivers from Helsinki W Series drivers Formula Ford drivers ADAC Formel Masters drivers Van Amersfoort Racing drivers 21st-century Finnish sportswomen