Jesse Krohn

Jesse Kurki-Suonio (born 3 September 1990), more commonly known as Jesse Krohn, is a Finnish professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver.

Jesse Krohn
NationalityFinnish
Born (1990-09-03) 3 September 1990
Nurmijärvi (Finland)
Related toPertti Kurki-Suonio (Father)
Jenni Krohn (Sister)
Oskari Kurki-Suonio (Brother)
Italian Formula Three career
Debut season2010
Current teamRP Motorsport
Car number21
Previous series
2006
2007
2007
2008
2008
2008
2009
Formula Ford Finland
Formula Ford UK
Finnish Formula Three
Formula Renault Finland
Formula Renault NEZ
Formula Renault Estonia
Formula Renault UK
Championship titles
2008
2008
2008
Formula Renault Finland
Formula Renault NEZ
Formula Renault Estonia

He is notable for winning the Finnish, Northern European Zone (NEZ) and Estonian Formula Renault championships.

Krohn comes from a motorsport central family, with his father, Pertti, competing in the 1987 Finnish Formula Ford championship alongside 1998 and 1999 Formula One world champion Mika Häkkinen whilst his sister, Jenni, and brother, Oskari also compete in motorsport professionally in Finland.

Personal and early life

Jesse Krohn was born in Nurmijärvi, located in the southern Uusimaa region of Finland, during September 1990. His father, Pertti Kurki-Suonio was a racing driver. He competed in the Finnish Formula Ford championship alongside future Formula One drivers Mika Häkkinen and Mika Salo. However, despite finishing behind Salo and Häkkinen in the championship, Pertti's career never went beyond Scandinavia, excluding a one-off appearance at Brands Hatch for the Formula Ford festival.

His elder sister, Jenni, and younger brother, Oskari, are also both racing drivers both currently racing in their native Finland.

Racing career

Krohn began his career in karts when he was six, he spent nine years karting before moving up into car racing in 2005 as a test driver for saloon cars. In 2006, he competed in a number of Formula Ford events in his home country, finishing in eighth, and also competing in the Ford Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, finishing 10th, and also in the British Formula Ford Winter Series, finishing as runner up to Brit David Mayes. The Finn entered the full UK championship the following year as well as the Finnish Formula Three championship, "I was in a '97 Dallara with a H-pattern gearbox" Krohn recalls, "my shoulders were over the cockpit".[1] In the UK championship, Krohn finished the year in 17th with 82 points whilst he had a better time in Finnish Formula Three with six wins and finishing second overall in the championship. He also re-entered the Formula Ford festival as well, performing better than the previous year finishing eighth.

2008 was Krohn's best year yet, with three championship wins in the Finnish, Northern European Zone (NEZ) and Estonian Formula Renault championships, recording ten wins in total. He also competed in the British, Italian and Northern European championships as well, but experiencing little success by comparison. With a number of successes the previous year, Krohn entered the UK Formula Renault championship for the whole season where he has so far tallied 117 points, including a win at Thruxton.

Krohn gained some notoriety during the year as well after climbing up from twentyfifth to seventh in the wet conditions at Donington Park but soon dropped out of the point after his suspension failed and so had to complete the final three laps on three wheels, "exactly what Jan Magnussen would have done" commented Mark Burdett Motorsport engineer Andy Miller, who ran the Danish driver during his 1994 British Formula 3 campaign.[1]

2014 saw Krohn admitted into the BMW Motorsport Junior Programme in which he trained in for three years, with established works drivers like Dirk Adorf and Jörg Müller. He won the 2017–18 Asian Le Mans Series GT Drivers title with Jun San Chen in the FIST-Team AAI BMW M6 GT3, and was promoted to BMW works driver in 2018.

Racing record

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series results

Year Team Make Engine Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
2016 Turner Motorsport GTD BMW M6 GT3 BMW 4.4 L V8 DAY
5
SEB
7
LBH LGA
DET
WGL
MOS
LIM
ELK
VIR
AUS
ATL
30th 52
2017 Turner Motorsport GTD BMW M6 GT3 BMW 4.4 L V8 DAY
8
SEB
20
LBH
AUS
DET
WGL
MOS
LIM
14
ELK
1
VIR
2
LGA
5
ATL
15
21st 160
2018 BMW Team RLL GTLM BMW M8 GTE BMW S63 4.0 L Twin-turbo V8 DAY
7
SEB
7
LBH
5
MDO
7
WGL
8
MOS
8
LIM
8
ELK
8
VIR
3
LGA
4
ATL
3
8th 278
2019 BMW Team RLL GTLM BMW M8 GTE BMW S63 4.0 L Twin-turbo V8 DAY
9
SEB
4
LBH
8
MDO
6
WGL
5
MOS
2
LIM
8
ELK
8
VIR
8
LGA
2
ATL
9
7th 279
2020 BMW Team RLL GTLM BMW M8 GTE BMW S63 4.0 L Twin-turbo V8 DAY
1
DAY
6
SEB
5
ELK
3
VIR
6
ATL
3
MDO
4
CLT
2
PET
3
LGA
4
SEB
3
2nd 319
2021 BMW Team RLL GTLM BMW M8 GTE BMW S63 4.0 L Turbo V8 DAY
3
SEB
WGL
MOS
LIM
ELK
VIR
LGA
LBH
PET
3rd* 325*

* Season still in progress.

Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2016 Turner Motorsport Michael Marsal
Markus Palttala
Maxime Martin
BMW M6 GT3 GTD 701 19th 5th
2017 Turner Motorsport Justin Marks
Jens Klingmann
Maxime Martin
BMW M6 GT3 GTD 628 25th 8th
2018 BMW Team RLL Nick Catsburg
John Edwards
Augusto Farfus
BMW M8 GTE GTLM 773 18th 7th
2019 BMW Team RLL John Edwards
Chaz Mostert
Alex Zanardi
BMW M8 GTE GTLM 553 31st 9th
2020 BMW Team RLL John Edwards
Chaz Mostert
Augusto Farfus
BMW M8 GTE GTLM 786 13th 1st

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rank Points
2018–19 BMW Team MTEK LMGTE Pro BMW M8 GTE BMW S63 4.0 L Turbo V8 SPA LMS SIL FUJ SHA SEB SPA LMS
6
23rd 12

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2019 BMW Team MTEK António Félix da Costa
Augusto Farfus
BMW M8 GTE GTE
Pro
335 30th 10th

References

  1. "Introducing: Jesse Krohn". Autosport. Vol. 196 no. 11. June 2009. p. 59.


Sporting positions
Preceded by
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook
Michelin Endurance Cup
GTLM Champion

2020
With: John Edwards
Succeeded by
Incumbent
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