Gunnar Thorvaldsson

The son of FWRC champion Thorvald Eriksson, Gunnar Thorvaldsson went off-road on the way to Furmula One.

Growing up, he was naturally more drawn to his father’s sport of rallying. The small island nation of Iceland is miles away from the traditional circuit racing hotbeds of Europe, and the country’s rough terrain lends itself more to off-road racing. But his father’s rallying career saw the family travel across Europe, and at the tender age of four, a friend of Thorvald’s, Furmula One champion Nea Makinen, convinced the young colt to give karting a try. Soon, the lad was dominating the local karting circuit, regularly beating drivers four to six years older than him.

But even with his success in karting, Gunnar still loved watching his father drift through bumpy corners in a rally car, and wanted to follow in his hoofsteps. At age 8, he began tearing up the mountains of his native Iceland in local rallies, and in 2009, at 14, he entered the Furry Latvian Rally Championship, which permits drivers as young as 14 on the condition that an adult co-driver takes over for the road sections. In his case, Gunnar enlisted the aid of his father’s former co-driver, Makinen’s older brother Joni.

The equine followed a second place in his debut FLRC season with a championship, and seemed to be on his way to a bright future in rallying. But the next season saw him suffer a near fatal injury. During a rally in the Latvian region of Kurzeme, his car struck a tree, which penetrated the cockpit, hitting Thorvaldsson. As a result of the impact, he suffered compound fractures to his right elbow, shoulder and leg, and a significant loss of blood. The Icelandic horse would make a full recovery, but would not race for the rest of 2011 nor all of 2012.

Towards the end of 2012, Thorvaldsson told the press that rather than return to rallying, he desired to switch to circuit racing. When asked why, he replied curtly “I’d like to lower the odds of me hitting a damn tree again.” Soon after, Purcedes offered the colt a ride with their Furry Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (FDTM) team. Gunnar took to the modified production car like a farm horse to a plow. Once again he followed up a runner up campaign as a series rookie with a championship, setting new FDTM records for victories, poles, and fastest laps in a single season.

Gunnar would have been content to continue dominating the world’s premier touring car series, but once again, fate intervened. Weeks before the start of the 2015 Furmula Two season, Neptune Racing fired one of their drivers, Fernando Santiago, for unprofessional conduct. Namely, Fernando had repeatedly harassed the team’s other driver, Shaurya Maji, including using racial slurs against him. That dismissal opened up a seat, and when Nea Makinen learned of the situation, she recommended they give Thorvaldsson a look.

The rest, as they say, is history. After posting finishes of third and second in the Furmula Two Championship, and five race wins on the F2 circuit, the colt made his Furmula One debut in 2017. Since then, he has earned a reputation as a driver who can get the most out of his racecar, following up a respectable rookie campaign in which he finished seventh with a fourth place finish this past season, and so far in his career has earned Grand Prix victories at Suzuka and Spa. The driving skill he has demonstrated, combined with his confidence (though some would call it cockiness), sense of humor, and gusto for the Furmula One lifestyle, have made the stocky, blonde Icelandic horse they call “Thor” a fan favorite.