Markus Kajo

Kajo in Season 1.

**Markus Kajo** is a retired Finnish MMS racing driver who last competed in MMS F1 Season 1 for Marlboro McLaren-Peugeot. He was signed to Scuderia Ferrari for Season 2 before deciding to quit racing in MMS before the start of the season and settling into a team advisor role in the team instead. He is currently a race engineer and part of team management in Camel Team Lotus-Honda, having previously served as a team advisor and race engineer in Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari.

## Personal Life

Markus Joonas Ari Kajo was born in Kotka, Finland to an upper class family, allowing him to start his racing career early. Among other things, he likes painting and beer. Kajo graduated from Tampere University.

## Racing Career

### Early Career

Kajo started out his racing career racing in regional karting championships all over Finland. His first professional karting season was in the South Finland Karting Championship, which he won easily. He progressed up to the Finnish National Karting Championship the next year, where he would stay for 2 years and eventually win the title.

### Junior Formula Career

Kajo made his single-seater debut in the Finnish Formula Ford Championship, in which he dominated the championship. He then moved to the British Formula 3 Championship, where he won a hard-fought title in inferior machinery. Kajo was starting to get noticed by teams and even got some offers in prestigious series, however he decided that he needed more experience. After a successful season in the DTM, Kajo was offered a test by McLaren. The test went extremely well, leading him to get offered a seat by McLaren for MMS F1 S1.

### MMS F1

#### McLaren

After his MMS F1 test Kajo was offered a seat by McLaren, which he accepted. He was officially announced as McLaren's first driver for MMS F1 Season 1 alongside Attila Kalmár. His season was plagued by accidents and issues with the car, however he managed some fairly decent results with his best finish being a P5 at the sixth round in Britain. Kajo was outscored by Kalmár, with Kajo scoring 34 points to Kalmár's 44, however Kajo had double the retirements of Kalmár. After the season, Kajo was offered a second driver role at Ferrari for Season 2, which he accepted.

#### Ferrari

Season 1 did not go as well as Kajo would've hoped, however his hopes were high for Season 2 thanks to his new team and seemingly more competitive car. However, sudden health issues put Kajo's ability to race at the start of Season 2 in jeopardy and he was eventually forced to miss the first couple races due to being unfit to drive. Kajo recovered after the second round of the season at Australia, however when asked about a return Kajo said that he did not want to return to MMS racing. After this turn of events, Ferrari offered Kajo a team advisor role instead.

## Management Career

### Ferrari

After announcing his retirement from MMS F1 competition Ferrari offered Kajo a team advisor role, which he gladly accepted. Kajo was easily able to handle his roles and he quickly became a fan favourite. His popularity was boosted further after his and others' criticism of the Ford engine program during the S2 German GP caused Ford to leave MMS. Kajo became somewhat of a feared man among the drivers, as his treatment of Nick Tander made it clear that he could tear through anyone when angered.

Kajo stayed at Ferrari for Season 3, this time focusing more on being a race engineer for Celene Lucien and Johannes van Leer. His most remembered moment in Season 3 is when he scolded Nick Tander in the Jordan garage after the Tandergate incident at Mexico. The season was otherwise relatively unremarkable, with Ferrari being worse than last season. Kajo tried to mediate a decent team mate relationship between Lucien and Van Leer, however it ended up failing.

### Lotus

Kajo left Ferrari for Season 4 to join Lotus to be an unknown role in team management and a race engineer for Ratko Betez, Hendrik Sal-Saller and Thijmen de Jong. He has helped bring the Lotus team to 3 victories so far\* in Season 4, with the most recent being Hendrik Sal-Saller's win at Hockenheim.

*\*as of S4 British Grand Prix*