Mika Salo started his career like most of the current crop of F1 stars by driving karts in his native Finland in 1972, and became progressively better year after year. He won the Finnish 100 championship in 1978, 1980, 1982, and 1983, before making the transition to open-wheeled racing in Formula Ford and Formula 3. Lack of sponsorship kept the Finn out of the FIA Formula 3000 series (long seen as the feeder series for F1), so he moved to Japan in 1991 to compete in the Japanese Formula 3000 series through 1994.

Mika made his F1 debut in 1994 driving a Lotus for two races. At his debut race at Suzuka in heavy rain conditions, he managed to finish 10th out of 28. This performance caught the eye of Ken Tyrrell who signed him for 1995-1997. While he did perform well, the mechanical reliability and overall lack of power kept Mika from being much more than a back marker in the sport. Mika found himself driving for Arrows in the 1998 season and had a season best finish of 4th at Monaco that year.

1999 was a pivotal year in Mika's career. He started the season driving a BAR after falling out with Arrows, but when Michael Schumacher was injured after a rare mechanical failure of his Ferrari, the Scuderia offered the Finn a chance to prove himself in a race-winning package for 6 races. In this role, Mika did exactly that. At Hockenheim, he comfortably led the German Grand Prix before moving over to allow his teammate, Eddie Irvine, a title contender, to take the maximum points score. Then, on Ferrari's home ground at Monza, Mika produced another solid drive to earn third place. These were his first and second podium finishes, respectively, in Formula 1.

Mika did well with Sauber in 2000, scoring in the top ten in twelve races. Rather than run with a second-tier team, the Finn moved back to Japan to concentrate solely on the development of Toyota's F1 effort.

Allan McNish may be the most experienced driver that has not raced in F1. His resume reads like the driver that just never got the big break. Like his teammate, his motor sports career also started in karts, and he clinched various titles in the 1980's. McNish won the Vauxhall Lotus title in 1988 and progressed further up the motor sports ladder by securing an F3000 drive with West Surrey Racing the following year. His five wins in 1989 were good for 2nd in the British Championship behind David Brabham, who would be one of his teammates later at Risi Competizione.

His career fizzled due to illness and lack of a top team ride in the early 1990's. Things improved slightly with the opportunity to test drive for Bennetton in 1994 in support of Schumacher's championship that season, but he was unable to secure a full time drive.

McNish then switched to sports cars and started driving Porsches in 1997. He was then invited to be a factory driver for the 1998 season and won le Mans with the 911 GT1. 1999 saw the Scot driving Ferrari 333 SPs in North America and his first Toyota drive behind the wheel of the GT-One at le Mans. He set a lap record that year, but was put out of the race when a co-driver punted a back marker.

In 2000, McNish signed with Audi and won the ALMS series after placing second at le Mans (a 1-2-3 finish for Audi). The 2001 season saw him again team up with Risi for a strong attempt at the Daytona 24 hours, but engine failure in the morning put the team out. The rest of the season was spent doing the development drives on the prototype Toyota F1.