Thread: Red Bull Junior may go to prison

Mika Maki, one of the drivers in contention for this year's Formula 3 Euroseries title, could be facing up to two years in jail after being involved in a serious car accident that almost cost him his life this weekend.

Local press in his home country of Finland claim the 20-year-old crashed his Nissan 350Z in the city of Tampere at the entrance of the Asematunneli, hitting several metal railing posts that pierced the car.

Several of those posts came to within millimetres of reaching Maki and his passenger and while both were taken to hospital, they are thought to have emerged relatively unscathed. A number of pedestrians are also thought to have been caught up in the incident and have suffered bruising due to flying debris.

Reports quote local police as suggesting that Maki may have been involved in a street race and been travelling ?significantly faster' than the 40kph speed limit when he lost control of the car.

The incident is currently being investigated, but Maki could well lose his driving licence for at least six months on the grounds of reckless driving and endangering road safety. The maximum term for such actions though can be two-years in prison.

Although a prison sentence would almost certainly cost him the title, the driver licence suspension wouldn't necessarily rule him out of racing.

The Red Bull backed youngster, who races for Mucke Motorsport, is currently second in the Euroseries standings after winning at Hockenheim and Mugello.

Oh, this is no good for M?ki. Eventhough M?ki might come out of it unpunished I'm sure Red Bull aren't too happy about spending millions of dollars on a kid causing bad press.

M?ki seems to be under Kimi's wings though (I remember Kimi flying in to Anderstorp in a private chopper some years ago to watch M?ki race in Formula Renaults, and then fly straight back to Finland after the races) so perhaps a drop from Red Bull might not be a totally devastating blow to his career.

Yeah this is truly unfortunate. It's tough to see a successful driver/kid throw away or at least possibly throw everything away. He's old enough to know the difference between the street and a race track. Red Bull would be a big loss even with Kimi there to pick up the pieces. I hope things work out for Mika, as everyone can make a mistake. Let's hope as the investigation unfolds, the incident isn't as serious as originally thought.