Elias Seppänen (born 31 October 2003) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in the ADAC GT Masters with Team Landgraf, for whom he won the 2023 ADAC GT Masters.
Early career
Karting
Born in Tammela, Seppänen started his karting career in 2014. His best result was winning the Finnish Junior Championship in the Raket class in 2016.
Lower formulae
In 2019 Seppänen made his single-seater racing debut in the F4 South East Asia Championship. The Finnish driver won eleven races and with 617 points he finished second in the standings to Irish driver Lucca Allen.[1] He also made two guest appearances in the SMP F4 Championship and competed in the Formula Academy Finland, where he finished third in the championship.[2]
Seppänen made his debut in the Formula Renault Eurocup as a guest driver for R-ace GP in the final round of the series' history at Paul Ricard.[6] He finished the races in 14th and eighth.
Formula Regional European Championship
In 2021 Seppänen progressed to the Formula Regional European Championship, partnering Nico Göhler and fellow Finn Patrik Pasma at KIC Motorsport.[7] He scored his first point in the second race of the first round of the season in Imola.[8] After seven events, the Finn left the series, which landed him 24th overall by season's end.
Sportscar career
The 2022 season saw Seppänen switch to GT machinery, as he would compete for Mann-Filter Team Landgraf in the ADAC GT Masters, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo alongside Frank Bird.[9] With a best race finish of fourth, the duo finished 21st in the drivers' standings. Seppänen remained with Landgraf in 2023, this time partnering Salman Owega.[10] In a series that had been significantly weakened following the introduction of a rule which mandated each lineup to contain at least one silver-ranked driver, Seppänen and Owega took four victories, including a weekend sweep at the Sachsenring, to win the title in the final round.[11][12][13][14]
In 2024, the Finnish driver returned to defend his GT Masters crown, this time being joined by Tom Kalender at Landgraf.[15]