The Flying Finns

Finland has produced more World Rally Champions per capita than any other nation. This series asks why, and what it costs.

Directed by Simo Sipola and Tero Wolff, The Flying Finns draws on first-person testimony from some of the sport's most iconic figures: Markku Alén, Ari Vatanen, Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen, Marcus Grönholm, Timo Salonen, Rauno Aaltonen, Simo Lampinen, Jari-Matti Latvala, and a younger generation represented by Kalle Rovanperä. Together, they speak with unusual candour about what it means to drive at the absolute limit of human ability.

Each episode is built around a distinct theme — winning, death, business, history — giving the series both emotional range and structural clarity. The drivers take the audience into the cockpit for moments of triumph and into the silence that follows when a teammate does not return.

Much of the archive material featured has not previously been released, giving the series a rare documentary authority. This is not a celebration of speed for its own sake. It is an honest account of a world shaped by obsession, risk, and the particular Finnish relationship with danger and restraint.

A production of Yle, The Flying Finns is available worldwide for television and VOD.