Milla Mäkelä

Milla Mäkelä is a Finnish driver who has spent the early part of her career racing for Mtec in Formula Ford.

She has been active in motorsport since 2009, when she was 16. She always races for her family’s Mäkelä Racing team. The team builds the Mtec Formula Ford chassis for a number of teams in Scandinavia.

Her first races were in the Finnish Formula Ford Zetec championship, although right away, she took part in two Northern European Formula Ford races as well, in neighbouring Sweden. This would be her standard season pattern for most of the next couple of seasons.

In 2010, she was on the pace in the Finnish Formula Ford Junior Championship, and finished the season in tenth. Her brother and team-mate, Miikka, had use of the 2010 Mtec chassis for part of the season and was third. Milla used the ‘09 car. Again, she guested in the NEZ championship, for two races.

In 2011, she concentrated solely on the Finnish championship and recorded a tenth place. She was still using the ‘09 car.  

The following year, she scored her first podium finish, a third at Alastro, and was fifth overall, one behind her brother Miikka. Milla achieved another two top-five positions, at Alastro and Ahvenisto. She was finally driving the ‘10 Mtec and feeling the benefit.

Mid-season, she raced at the NEZ meeting at Karlskoga, and finished two out of three races, in twelfth and fourteenth.

In 2013, she was ninth again in the Finnish championship. However, her three Swedish races in the NEZ series were enough to give her ninth in that championship, her best yet. She was driving the ‘12 Mtec car.

She raced again in the Finnish series in 2014, and was normally a midfield finisher. She scored another podium finish, a third at Alastaro, and was fourth in the championship.

In 2015, she made the jump from midfielder to leading driver in Finnish Formula Ford, despite missing some of the races. She scored three second places, and one third, and was fifth in the championship. For the second part of the year, she also raced in Danish Formula Ford and earned one sixth place, at Spa.

Another Finnish FF season in 2016 was rather patchy, although she did earn herself two third places at Kemora.

In 2017, she switched to saloon racing, in the BMW Xtreme Cup. This ended up only being a part-season, and she was 17th overall. Her best race result was fifth at Ahvenisto.

She stayed involved with Formula Ford through the championship’s shorter Formula SM series, run over three rounds. She scored a third place at Alastaro, despite brake problems. Mäkelä Racing ran two BMWs for two two-driver teams.

In 2018, she remained involved in the Mäkelä Racing team, but did not appear to be competing regularly. She applied to take part in the all-female W Series Formula 3 championship for 2019 but was not selected.

Her W Series disappointment did not deter her. She raced a Chevrolet Camaro in the NEZ V8 Thunder series, finishing fifth after a season that included a podium finish in her first season of sportscar racing.

Despite not much motorsport happening in many places in 2020, she got to race her new car in V8 Thunder. The Mercedes CLK took her to two fourth place in the first two races at Botniaring, although Milla and them team had persistent trouble with fuel sensors and fuel feed. The problems were worse at Alastaro and she could only manage an eleventh and seventh place. She was sixth in the four-race championship. 

In 2021 she was one of the leading V8 Thunder drivers and although she could not quite challenge for the outright championship, she was in line for second until the final rounds at Alastaro. This was partly down to a technical problem, which meant she had to steer one-handed. She was third overall.

She acted as the championship chairman in 2022, as well as racing the Mercedes. The championship was dominated by Toni Lahteemaki, but he elected not to contest the final rounds and Milla took both wins, securing second in the championship after a string of podium finishes.

For the first time in several years, Milla only did a part-season, finishing sixth in the championship. An accident at Ahvenisto lost her any chance of another title and her team had also spent a lot on an engine rebuild. 

(Image copyright Milla Mäkelä)