Alén's interest in motorsport came from his father, who was the 1963 Finnish champion in ice racing. Alén started his rallying career in 1969 driving a Renault 8 Gordini, finishing ninth at the 1000 Lakes Rally on his first attempt. After getting a contract with the Finnish Volvo importer to drive the Volvo 142, he finished third at the 1000 Lakes in 1971 and 1972. At his World Rally Championship debut at the 1973 1000 Lakes Rally, he took second place behind Timo Mäkinen.
Alén's performances at his home event caught the attention of both Fiat and Ford. With Ford's Escort RS 1600, he established his reputation as a hard-charger on the 1973 RAC Rally by finishing third, despite rolling his car on the first day and dropping to 178th place. This resulted in a contract with Fiat with a very large salary. Alén also became the first rally driver to be assigned a personal fitness program.
In 1974 and 1975 Alén drove the Fiat 124 Abarth Rallye, achieving several podiums and then his debut WRC win at the 1975 Rally Portugal. During the 1976 season Fiat debuted the new Fiat 131 Abarth, which proved a significant improvement. Alén won the 1976 1000 Lakes and the 1977 Rally Portugal, and helped Fiat to their first manufacturers' title in 1977.
In 1978 Alén took two wins and five consecutive podiums. At Rallye Sanremo he debuted in Alitalia Fiat's Lancia Stratos HF and won his third world rally of the season. These performances brought him the FIA Cup for Drivers title, well ahead of main rivals Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Hannu Mikkola, and secured Fiat their second manufacturers' title. Alén continued with Fiat for the next three years, taking a win each season.
After Fiat wound up their works rally team, Alén moved to the related Lancia team. In 1982 he debuted the Lancia 037, a rear-wheel drive car particularly suited to the championship's asphalt rounds. Several wins with it in 1983 helped Lancia narrowly pip Audi and their four-wheel drive Quattro to that year's constructors' championship. Alén secured the 037's final victory at the 1984 Tour de Corse, before it was replaced by the four-wheel drive Lancia Delta S4 from the final round in Great Britain of the 1985 season.
Having become unequivocal team leader following teammate Henri Toivonen's death in Corsica, Alén narrowly lost the 1986 World Rally Championship to Juha Kankkunen, driving a Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2. Late in the season Alén had been victorious at Rallye Sanremo only after Kankkunen's Peugeot team was excluded on a controversial technicality. Peugeot appealed to FISA, which eventually annulled the rally results, stripping Alén of the World Championship title he had held for eleven days. This led to Alén famously boycotting the 1987 Monte Carlo Rally.
Alén remained at Lancia after the abolition of Group B at the end of 1986, successfully adapting to the replacement Group A formula. He won three events in the Lancia Delta HF 4WD in 1987, but lost his chance at second place in the world driver's championship after rolling his car in front of the TV cameras on the 1987 RAC Rally. He won three more events the following year, culminating in an emotional first victory at the RAC Rally, an event he had been trying to win for fifteen years. It was to be his last world championship victory.
In 1990 Alén moved to the Prodrive-run Subaru World Rally Team, contributing to many of the Subaru Legacy's early successes, including fourth at the 1990 1000 Lakes Rally and a third and two fourth places the following season. For 1992 he moved to Toyota, playing a supporting role to Carlos Sainz. In 1993, without a full-time position, he drove for Toyota and Subaru early in the season, taking second for Toyota in the Safari Rally and fourth for Subaru in Portugal. Along with fellow veteran and 1981 World Champion Ari Vatanen, he drove the Subaru Impreza on its debut at the 1000 Lakes Rally, but crashed on the first stage, effectively marking the end of his career as a top-line rally driver.
He drove two races of the International Touring Car Championship in 1995 for Alfa Romeo, and the same number in DTM earlier that year. He competed in Trophy Andros in 1996 and 1997. To celebrate his 50th birthday in 2001, he entered the Neste Rally Finland in August, finishing 16th overall with a Ford Focus WRC. He participated in the Paris-Dakar rally twice in the truck class — once for Iveco in 2006 alongside team-mate Miki Biasion, and once for Isuzu in 2007. His son Anton Alén drove a Super 2000 class Fiat Punto in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge series.
In March 2010, Luca di Montezemolo hired Alén as a Ferrari test driver, beginning with snow tests on the Ferrari 458 Italia.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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