Former Formula 1 driver Mika Salo has been stabbed in a seemingly random attack while on holiday in Thailand. The Finnish ex-racer said he was left with "a really big open wound" which medics believed was inflicted by a knife, following a sudden attack by a moped rider in the Thai capital.
The unsuspecting Salo said he was simply crossing at a pedestrian crossing on Tuesday when a moped rider drove past him. He said he "felt a little hit" at the time, but didn't realise anything was seriously amiss until a passer-by told him he was bleeding from his leg. "I looked down and saw that my shoe was completely covered in blood," he told Finnish newspaper IS.
He attempted to clean the wound himself but quickly realised it was a deep gash on his calf, and a nearby taxi driver rushed him to hospital. Salo explained: "The doctor looked at it and said it was really sharp. He suspected a knife. Of course, it's not certain, but the wound was so clean and straight."
While it was a random assault, hospital staff also informed him that several other patients had sustained injuries in a similar fashion that evening, as the moped rider had apparently embarked on "a stabbing rampage". He added: "They told me that there had been several similar cuts that evening and night."
Fortunately, Salo, who competed in 109 F1 races during the 1990s and early 2000s, including a brief spell driving for Ferrari as their chosen stand-in for Michael Schumacher when the German sustained a season-ending broken leg in 1999, said he has so far managed to keep his wound infection-free.
It has curtailed his holiday plans, though, particularly as he has been instructed not to allow the cut to get wet — meaning no swimming or strenuous exercise that might cause him to sweat. Given the heat and humidity in the Asian country, the risk of infection is higher than usual.
Salo said: "It's a shame. You can't swim or really do anything. You spend quite a lot of time in the hotel room. The wound will stay dry in an air-conditioned room. The doctor said not to walk long distances now, but I can easily walk a kilometre or two. I don't have any pain and I haven't taken any painkillers. I'm just on a course of antibiotics."
He maintains he is not scared of the numerous moped riders in the city despite his trauma, adding: "There's always room for idiots in a big city. Luckily, this one hit his leg and not anything else. They were just trying to cause damage, if this was intentional. If they had wanted to do more damage, of course they would have tried to hit someone's upper body. Then maybe I wouldn't say much here."
Salo is not the only former F1 star to have fallen victim to a violent attack in recent days - Swiss newspaper Blick reports that four-time champion Alain Prost sustained minor injuries during a burglary at his family home in Nyon, on the shore of Lake Geneva. The masked intruders are said to have threatened his family until one of Prost's sons opened a safe, and remain on the run, with investigators concerned they may have fled across the border into the south of France.
