Former Ferrari driver reveals suspected knife attack after Thailand leg injury

Former Ferrari F1 driver Mika Salo required daily hospital treatment after suffering a large wound to his leg in Thailand.

A regular visitor to the nation, which is bidding to join the Formula 1 calendar in the coming years, Salo suffered what the doctor suspected to be a “knife” slash. Salo spoke of feeling a moped brush past him, but only when a pedestrian alerted him to major bleeding from his leg did the Finn realise the situation. Salo’s injury was apparently one of several comparable cases that same day.

Former Ferrari F1 driver Mika Salo opens up on Thailand leg injury scare

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In an interview with Finnish publication Ilta-Sanomat, the 59-year-old opened up on the incident which occurred in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital city.

“There are an insane number of mopeds here; they just keep zooming by. One came really close, and I felt it brush against me a little. But it didn’t even hurt,” he said.

“I kept walking as usual, and then about five to 10 metres away, a man behind me said: ‘Hey, you’re bleeding a lot from your leg.’ I looked down and saw that my shoe was completely covered in blood.”

A nearby taxi driver took Salo to the local hospital for treatment.

There, the doctor “looked at it and said it had been cut with something really sharp. He suspected a knife.

“Of course, that’s not certain, but the wound was so clean and straight.”

Salo added: “When I went to clean it up at the hospital the next day, they told me that there had been countless similar lacerations that same evening and night.”

Salo revealed that he needed “28 stitches” for the wound.

“The muscle was torn. The doctors had to stitch up the muscle a bit and then the skin on top of that.”

Thankfully, amid daily hospital visits, Salo’s injury has “healed up nicely” with the Finn admitting that “there’s a high risk of infection” due to poorer air quality and the humidity of Thailand’s climate.

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Salo made 109 grand prix starts during his Formula 1 career.

After stints with Lotus, Tyrrell, Arrows and British American Racing (BAR), Salo contested six grands prix with Ferrari in place of the injured Michael Schumacher.

Salo scored his two F1 podiums during that Ferrari spell at the German and Italian GPs.

Salo went on to race for Sauber and Toyota, retiring from Formula 1 after the 2002 season.

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