Niko Nurminen

Niko Nurminen (b. 11th July 1970 Helsingin maalaiskunta, Finland) is a retired Finnish racing driver. He is best known as the manager and cousin of Nick Nurmester and founder of the Nurminen Racing Engineering team, but he also had a racing career of his own.

Early career

Graduating from local karting championships, Nurminen started driving in the European Karting Championship in 1987, culminating in a 3rd place finish in 1989. This was followed by a title-winning campaign in Finnish Formula Ford in 1990, before a switch to German F3 for the next two seasons. In 1992 he came close to winning the title, but was ultimately 2nd in the standings.

Formula 1 Rejects Grand Prix 2 Championship

Nurminen competed in various smaller series before it was announced that the 1995 Duel in the Desert would feature guest drivers. Nurminen took up the challenge, and despite qualifying in a lowly 20th, he eventually finished the race in a brilliant 4th, sparking rumors of him taking further part in the series next season. Only days later, it was confirmed that he would drive for DAMS in the 1996 season, replacing Pippa Mann who left the team for a seat at Williams.

1996-99: DAMS

However, his first season didn't start well, being the last driver to finish in the Australian Grand Prix and commiting many mistakes in the race, earning him the ROTR title. This was further followed up by being a suspect in an assault case after a drunken night in Melbourne post-race, although he was eventually acquitted. In his next race in Brazil, he was running well in the top 10 before an engine failure put him out of the race. The next round in Argentina was no different, with an early gearbox failure forcing him to retire. The Luxembourg GP, however, went much better for him, finishing 8th, albeit 3 laps down. This turned out to be both his and the team's season-best result. In San Marino, he finished 14th, while in Monaco a late electrical problem made him finish 15th. After a finish in 14th place in Spain, two mechanical retirements followed in Canada and USA. In France he finished 11th, disappointingly a lap down on his team mate, while in Great Britain a solid drive saw him finish 9th in treacherous conditions. Two low-key finishes in 14th and 13th followed in Germany and Hungary, before high attrition at the Belgian GP saw him finish 10th right behind his team mate. In Italy, an early suspension failure made him the first retirement of the race, and in Japan his season was capped off with another 10th place. In the non-championship Duel in the Desert, balance issues made him finish second-last.

With the promise of better performance in the form of Peugeot engines, Nurminen signed to drive for DAMS for another season. His 1997 season got off to a bad start as his transmission failed early on in Australia. South America provided him with more mixed results, as in Brazil he equalled his career-best finish with 8th, before a puncture forced him out from the race in Argentina after running as high as 3rd. At Imola, he scored his and the team's first points with 5th, in a race which also saw his team mate James Allen finish on the points as well with 6th. A puncture forced him out of the race in Monaco, after which two low-key finishes followed in Spain and Canada. At the US GP he retired early as one of the wheels in his car became loose. In France he was just outside the points with 7th, while in Britain he was 12th. In Germany he nearly scored points, but two embarassing spins saw him drop down to 7th. After a rather anonymous race in Hungaroring where he finished 11th, Nurminen took advantage of the changing conditions at Spa to qualify 12th and eventually emerge through the chaos in third, taking both his and the team's first podium. In Italy he narrowly missed out on the points while Allen managed an excellent 5th. In Austria the DAMS car was off the pace so Nurminen only managed a 13th, right behind his team mate. He capped off the season with a poor performance in Japan, finishing 12th and last, three laps down while Allen managed another 6th place. At the non-championship Duel in the Desert, he lost some ground in the start before being taken out in a collision with Gio van Dycke, which triggered a huge pileup.

Nurminen stayed with the French team for yet another season, as their performance had massively improved during 1997. In the first race of the 1998 season held in Australia, he already diced in the midfield and would've likely scored points if it wasn't for a transmission failure. Points didn't evade him for long though, as in the very next race in Brazil Nurminen drove a solid race to finish 6th, taking the team's first points of the season. In Argentina he was again running in the points, but then his Buenos Aires curse struck again as the engine of his DAMS failed. At Imola he managed a 10th after struggling with a poor setup in his car, while in Spain he had an anonymous race, finishing 13th. A good qualifying result in Monaco went down the drain quickly as his DAMS suffered an oil leak early on in the race. Canada wasn't much different as his engine blew up mid-race, while in Britain a water leak forced him to retire. Another early engine failure at the US GP sparked some angry comments from Nurminen towards the Peugeot-Citroën motorsport division. He managed to finish in 10th position at DAMS' home race in France, before a water leak forced him out early on in the Austrian GP. In Germany, he narrowly missed out on the points by finishing 7th, while in Hungary he registered his second points finish of the season with a 5th in a high-attrition race. Another engine failure put him out of the contention in Belgium, but more points followed in Italy with a 6th place finish - the same race also saw his team mate Jörg Scrattenheim finish 4th. He then capped off the season with a fine 7th in Japan, just outside of the points. At the season-ending Duel in the Desert he drove for McLaren, finishing 6th albeit two laps down.

Nurminen started what would be his final season for DAMS with a 12th place finish in Australia, colliding with José Álvarez in the process. In Brazil he finished 10th after a poor qualifying, while in San Marino he retired wih a gearbox failure. A great qualfying effort in Monaco went to waste as one of his wheels wasn't attached properly during one of the pit stops, leading to a retirement. Two points finishes in Canada (4th) and USA (6th) followed, which turned out to be his best results of the season. Britain was almost a replica of his Monaco race, with his race ending in another loose wheel after a good qualifying. A 9th place finish in France was followed by two finishes in 14th in Austria and Germany, his races being ruined by a collision with Daniel Moreno in the former and a driving error in the latter. In Hungary he retired with transmission problems and in Belgium with a puncture, followed by a late-race retirement in Italy where he was classified 13th. After 9th and 12th place finishes at Nürburgring and Sepang, he collided with Pieter Kickert in the last race of the regular season and his last race ever for DAMS. In the end he only scored 4 points and two points finishes during the whole season, compared to his team mate Scrattenheim's 10 points and two podiums.

1998-2000: McLaren

In early 1998, Niko Nurminen joined McLaren as their test and reserve driver, while still staying as a race driver for DAMS. He continued as McLaren's test and reserve driver until the end of 1999, when he was promoted to a permanent race driver position to replace the leaving Rory McAllister.

Prost GP

Nurminen was drafted into the Prost GP Series for one race to replace the FSK Racing driver Nathan Nurmester, whom he managed, after Nurmester was banned from the Italian GP for causing a collision at the previous round held at Nürburgring. However, he retired with a suspension failure while his team mate Dietrich Anger went on to win the race.

Nurminen Racing Engineering

Main article: Nurminen Racing Engineering

Nurminen founded his own team Nurminen Engineering to compete in the 1998 Rejects Touring Car Championship season, after securing sponsorship from multiple Finnish companies. Following that he also ran his team in various other series, and used the name when he entered his cousin Nick Nurmester in Nordic F3 and Formula Two. In 2007, Nurminen retired from active motorsport and has concentrated on his own team and driver management ever since. Besides Nurmester he also acts as the manager of many other drivers; incidentally many of them have been previously associated with Il Barone Rampante. From 2015 onwards, the team expanded to F1 Rejects Development Series, F3RWRS and the newly-formed RTCC. However, the RTCC program was shut down after the 2015 season due to poor results and their entry was sold to Ecurie Fabron. In 2017, the team was granted an entry in the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series.

Rejects of LFS/International Formula Reject Challenge

Nurminen drove a racing car for the first time in six years by carrying out pre-season testing for the car used in the now-defunct Rejects of LFS series during its 2014 season. Despite intense rumours that this might see him return on the racing circuits more permanently, nothing came to fruitition as Nurminen thought his knee injury hindered his driving too much and also because of the increasing amounts of time his own team demanded from him.

In early 2016 rumours started to circulate that he would be involved in RoLFS' follow-up series International Formula Reject Challenge by being its official safety car driver. However this was not the case, as the job went to his half-cousin Nathan Nurmester.

Disappearance

Nurminen left his home on 18th February 2021, presumably for an evening walk, but he hasn't been heard of since.

Results

Formula 1 Rejects Grand Prix 2 Championship

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	NC	WDC	Points
1995	NRE	NRE-01	Renault	BRA	ARG	SME	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN	PAC	AUS	PHX 4	N/A	0
1996	DAMS	DA-01B DA-02	Ford	AUS 11	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	LUX 8	SME 14	MON 15	ESP 14	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA 11	GBR 9	GER 14	HUN 13	BEL 10	ITA Ret	JPN 10		PHX 25	20th	0
1997	DAMS	DA-03	Peugeot	AUS Ret	BRA 8	ARG Ret	SME 5	MON Ret	ESP 11	CAN 10	USA Ret	FRA 7	GBR 12	GER 7	HUN 11	BEL 3	ITA 7	AUT 13	JPN 12		PHX Ret	15th	6
1998	DAMS	DA-04	Citroën	AUS Ret	BRA 6	ARG Ret	SME 10	ESP 13	MON Ret	CAN Ret	GBR Ret	USA Ret	FRA 10	AUT Ret	GER 7	HUN 5	BEL Ret	ITA 6	JPN 7			11th	4
	McLaren	MP4-13	Mercedes																		PHX 4
1999	DAMS	DA-05	Supertec	AUS 12	BRA 10	SME Ret	MON Ret	ESP 9	CAN 4	USA 6	GBR Ret	FRA 9	AUT 14	GER 14	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 13†	EUR 9	MLY 12	JPN Ret		17th	4
	McLaren	MP4-14	Mercedes																		BAT

Prost GP

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	DC	Pts
2001	FSK Racing	AUS	MEX	CAN	SMR	ESP	AUT	SCO	GBR	ENG	FRA	NED	GER	LUX	ITA Ret	JAP	USA	CAL	BRA	BEL	=38th	0

*Season in progress † Did not finish, but was classified due to completing at least 90% of the race distance