William Alatalo (born 19 April 2002) is a Finnish racing driver of Ethiopian descent currently competing in the Italian GT Championship with Lazarus Corse. He most recently raced for Jenzer Motorsport in the FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Born in Ilmajoki, Alatalo started karting at the age of seven. He won the Finnish championship in the Cadet (2010), Raket (2014) and OKJ (2016) karting classes.
In 2017, Alatalo made his single-seater debut in Formula STCC Nordic with Kart In Club Driving Academy. Alatalo won one race at Anderstorp and finished the season fifth with 142 points.
Alatalo moved to the Italian F4 Championship for 2018 where he spent two years driving for Mücke Motorsport. The two seasons in Italy netted him one win and another podium finish in 42 races.
In 2020, Alatalo contested the Formula Renault Eurocup driving for JD Motorsport. He achieved two podiums and a pole position during the season and finished 8th in the standings with 92 points.
The following year, Alatalo moved to Arden Motorsport, partnering Alex Quinn and Nicola Marinangeli in the Formula Regional European Championship. His campaign proved to be consistent, with Alatalo finishing every race and being outside of the top-ten on only seven occasions. His best result would end up being a third place at the Circuit Paul Ricard, and he finished the season in eleventh place, two positions behind Quinn.
Alatalo was called up to replace Santiago Ramos at the season finale in Mugello with KIC Motorsport, a month after the final round of Alatalo's F3 season.
In 2022, Alatalo made the step-up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Jenzer Motorsport, having taken part in a number of test days with the Swiss team in the winter. Upon the announcement of his signing, Alatalo commented that this move brought him "one step closer to [his] dream". He managed to score a points in the first feature race at Bahrain, and followed that up with another point in the next feature race in Imola, benefiting from a penalty for Ollie Bearman. Alatalo then went on a points-scoring drought lasting five races, until he managed to collect four points in tricky weather conditions at the Red Bull Ring. Two point-less races in Budapest would come before a fruitful weekend at Spa: there, Alatalo took points in both races, ending up sixth on Saturday and seventh in the feature race. Despite this, a mistake at the restart of the sprint race, where he went into the gravel and lost four positions, cost him a chance at a higher position, which Alatalo took full blame for and described as having been "quite rubbish". A disappointing round at Zandvoort followed, where Alatalo caused a premature end to qualifying after a crash in turn 3, but he would score a best qualifying result of seventh in the final round at Monza, which he called "a good way to end the last qualifying of the season". Alatalo had more points than either his teammates Cohen (two points) or Malvestiti (zero points), scoring 24 points and thus finishing 18th in the standings.
Alatalo goes to school at Kuortaneen urheilulukio.
Alatalo was born to a Finnish father, Markku, and an Ethiopian mother, Mini. He has a younger brother, Daniel.
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
<sup>â </sup> As Alatalo was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points. <br><nowiki>*</nowiki> Season still in progress.
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
<sup>â¡</sup> Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
â As Alatalo was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.
() (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
<sup>*</sup> Season still in progress.