Jari Lappalainen

Jari Lappalainen (born 24th May 1997 in Jyväskylä, Finland) is a Finnish racing driver currently racing for ICE-3 Racing in AR3.5.

Personal and early life

Lappalainen was born in Jyväskylä in southern Finland. His mother was a primary school teacher, and his father worked in insurance. He was named after Finnish football player Jari Litmanen. His older brother Joonas manages Jari's racing career.

Early racing history

Jari began karting aged 8, and won various championships in Scandinavia. He then moved to Towcester in England to take part in the British Formula Ford Championship. Whilst living here, he was in close proximity to Silverstone and spent a vast period of time testing on the circuit. He impressed many former racers with his tenacity and technical feedback, and joined a tight championship battle. This brought him to the attention of Fusion Motorsports.

F1RDS

Jari joined Fusion in 2015, who had just set up their fledgling RoLFS operation with Diego Álvarez Torrente as their first driver. Lappalainen became the tester, but team manager Jake Legge wished to put him in the car halfway through the season. However, Donkervoort were looking for a driver for their F1RDS operation, and so a deal was agreed to loan Lappalainen to them. He lined up alongside Brazilian Jalmerson da Cunha.

After a tough season where the Donkervoort could not make the best of the Toyota's advantage in race trim, Lappalainen finished 16th in the championship, albeit managing one win. He moved to Definitely Maybe Racing for 2016, in hope of further race victories. Lappalainen ended up carrying the team due to Angel Jose Castañeda's poor performances, but the Finn was unable to win again.

AR3.5

Instead of staying in the newly renamed AutoReject 2.0 series for a third year, Lappalainen moved up to De Friis Motorsport's AR3.5 team for 2017. After some mid-table results, Jari joined ICE-3 Racing for 2018.

Complete Results

F1RDS Winter Cup Results

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	DC	Pts
2015	Donkervoort Automobielen	Toyota 2.0L L4DOHC	SUZ 20	MOT 2	FUJ 12				6th	14
2016	Definitely Maybe Racing	Ford-Cosworth 2.0L V6	SN1 14	SN2 16	LS1 10	LS2 4	LB1 8	LB2 17	14th	14

F1RDS Results

Year	Team	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
2015	Donkervoort Automobielen	Toyota 2.0L L4DOHC	AUS 19	SM1 21	SM2 14	MON Ret	FR1 11	FR2 25	CZ1 14	CZ2 3	GB1 20	GB2 1	GER 7	BEL 14	ITA 10	ND1 13	ND1 19						16th	36
2016	Definitely Maybe Racing	Ford-Cosworth 2.0L V6	SP1 6	SP2 10	UK1 6	UK2 20	ITA 17	AUT 18	TU1 20	TU2 9	FR1 12	FR2 20	GER 3	NED 22	EN1 3	EN2 23	BE1 17	BE2 2	CZ1 15	CZ2 10	JP1 9	JP1 Ret	12th	56

IFRC/AR3.5

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Pts
2017	De Friis Motorsport	AUS HEA 6	AUS FEA 16	FRA HEA 14	FRA FEA 17	AUT HEA 7	AUT FEA 15	ITA HEA 17	ITA FEA DNQ	GBR HEA 8	GBR FEA 13	USA HEA 8	USA FEA Ret	NED HEA 7	NED FEA 8	GER HEA 10	GER FEA 13	BEL HEA 10	BEL FEA 18	JPN HEA 11	JPN FEA 10	22nd	13
2018	ICE-3 Racing	AUS HEA Ret	AUS FEA DNQ	ITA HEA 5	ITA FEA 23	FRA HEA 5	FRA FEA 5	USA HEA 15	USA FEA C	GBR HEA 7	GBR FEA 18	AUT HEA 11	AUT FEA 17	NED HEA 14	NED FEA 10	GER HEA	GER FEA	BEL HEA	BEL FEA	JPN HEA	JPN FEA	19th*	17*