Rikky Leiviskä

Rikky Leiviskä after winning the Pau Grand Prix
Details
Name	Fredrik Leiviskä
Born	4th Jun 1957
Nationality	Finnish
Achievements
1978 Swedish F3 Champion
1979 European F3 Runner-Up
1980 Pau Grand Prix
1980 Grand Prix of Zandvoort

Juha Fredrik "Rikky" Leiviskä (born 4th June, 1957 in Espoo, Finland) is a Finnish former Formula One driver and Formula Three champion.

Junior Career

After leaving school at the age of 18, Leiviskä deferred a job with the family business in order to chase his dreams of becoming a racing driver - promising that if he didn't make it to Formula One within five years, he would take the job. To do so, he moved to Sweden to take advantage of the thriving Formula Vee and Formula Three scene there. After seeing how well his son had performed in local races and a partial season of Swedish Formula Three, Leiviskä's father agreed to fund his career using money from the marketing budget until he attracted a better-paying sponsor.

This arrangement lasted for precisely one year: Leiviskä's championship-winning campaign and resulting full-page spread in Motorsport Magazine attracted the attention of Jägermeister, who agreed to support him as he climbed the ladder to Formula One.

In European Formula Three, Leiviskä drove strongly to become vice-champion behind French phenom Alain Prost; while the Champion would go on to drive for Renault in Formula One, the vice-champion contented himself with a Jagermeister-funded Chevron to drive in Formula Two. Despite the fact that his machinery was no match for the fearsome Toleman-Harts driven by Henton and Warwick, he still secured himself two race wins at the Grands Prix of Pau and Zandvoort, and a very creditable sixth in the Championship despite suffering frequent engine failures at the power circuits of Hockenheim, Silverstone and Enna.

Formula One Career

Following the postponement of the 1980 Race of Champions until after the Formula Two championship had ended, Leiviskä approached B&S Fabrications for a drive in the non-championship race. With this experience in a Formula One car under his belt, Leiviskä then set his sights on securing a Formula One drive for 1981. Leiviskä would be in contention for several one-off drives in the tail half of 1980 but he would not be entered again in 1980.

For 1981, Leiviskä was signed by ATS to an initial one-year deal. The Finn would partner the experienced Marc Surer, with Surer into his second year at the team and seen as the favourite by the staff.

Racing Career Results

Swedish Formula Three Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pts	Pos
1977	J. F. Leiviskä	Van Diemen-Toyota	KAR	AND	FLK 10	KNU 5	AND Ret	KAR 7		2	10th
1978	Leiviskä Racing	Ralt-Toyota	KNU 1	KIN 1	AND 3	FLK Ret	KNU 6	KAR 4	MAN 1	35	1st
1979	Jägermeister Racing	Ralt-Toyota	KNU	AND	KIN	FLK	KNU 2			6	8th

European Formula Three Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Pts	Pos
1978	Leiviskä Racing	Ralt-Toyota	ZAN	NUR	OST	ZOL	IMO	NUR	DIJ	MNZ	ENN	MGN	KNU 5	KAR 4	KAR	AND	KAR	AND	5	15th
1979	Jägermeister Racing	Ralt-Toyota	VAL 2	OST Ret	ZOL 5	MGN Ret	DON 4	ZAN 2	ENN Ret	MON 6	KNU 2	KIN 1	JAR 3	KAS 6					38	2nd

European Formula Two Championship

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts	Pos
1980	Jägermeister Racing	Chevron-BMW	THR 5	HOC Ret	NUR 10	VAL 4	PAU 1	SIL Ret	ZOL 5	MUG 8	ZAN 1	ENN Ret	MIS 6	HOC Ret	24	5th

Formula One World Championship

Non-Championship Races

Season	Team	Car	1	2	3
1980	B&S Fabrications	Spartec-Hart	RSA	INT	ROC Ret