Mika Häkkinen: The ice-cool Finn who Schumacher feared

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Mika Häkkinen became a double F1 world champion in his own inimitable style – read why he should be voted into this year's Hall of Fame, and see the other candidates

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Häkkinen – the rival who Schumacher truly respected

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Mika Häkkinen is a nominee for this year’s Motor Sport Hall of Fame Awards, which are decided by readers.

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“Mika Häkkinen was the best opponent in terms of his quality, but the biggest admiration I had for him was we had 100% fight on track but a totally disciplined life off track. We respected each other highly.”

So said the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, one of the all time greats who saw a calm, collected Finn as his most formidable on-track adversary.

Häkkinen, as quietly eccentric in his approach to life as his German rival was ruthlessly determined, marked himself out with incredible natural speed from a very young age.

Growing up in a small apartment on the outskirts of Helsinki, Häkkinen’s radio operator-father took up part-time taxi driving to fund his son’s karting hobby.

He claimed his first national title at the age of 13, and a year later had cleaned up with three more.

Hakkinen 1990 F3 Hockenheim

The young Finn rocketed through the junior formulae

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By the time he was 18, teenage Häkkinen was driving up and down Finland and Scandinavia in an old bus, transporting a secondhand Formula Ford Reynard he had bought off countryman JJ Lehto.

In 1987 he reigned supreme in his local FFord series, winning the Finnish, Swedish and Scandanivian.

“I was very naïve,” he told Simon Taylor in 2010. “I believed nobody could drive faster than I could. I had so much self-belief that, even when I had a bad result, I knew the next race was coming, and I was going to win that one. I was quite happy living in the bus. All through my karting we’d always camped. That was my life. If I’d had to go into a five-star hotel I’d have been terrified.”

Reynard gave the Helsinki native a newer car for the FFord Festival at Brands Hatch that year. Though he crashed in the semi-final, his evident speed piqued interest and he was invited to a shootout for a place on the Marlboro junior programme.

Impressing straightaway, the cigarette company signed him up Häkkinen, to be mentored by 1976 champion and former McLaren man James Hunt.

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“When I was young I didn’t get the big picture, I just wanted to drive the car,” he told Hunt’s son Freddie in 2019.

“One of the most important things that sticks in my mind is that he said ‘Mika have fun, enjoy what you do.’ It was only a few years later I understood what he meant – working with the team, the designers, the engineers, the wider picture. Enjoying it.”

Häkkinen’s laid-back approach was in contrast to his blinding speed, immediately on show when he made his world championship debut for Lotus in 1991.

Though the once-great team was now struggling, the young Finn wrestled the 102B to fifth at the San Marino GP – just his third race.

An impressive ’92, with six points finishes, would lead to a McLaren testing role in ’93 – fatefully morphing into a race seat after Michael Andretti departed.

“Ron [Dennis] said to me, ‘Are you the best?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ He said, ‘Will you win races?’ I said, ‘Yes, I will.’ We didn’t talk long.”

McLaren team-mates Mika Hakkinen and Ayrton Senna

Immediate speed unsettled illustrious McLaren team-mate Senna

Patrick Behar/Corbis via Getty Images

Häkkinen’s first race for McLaren was at Estoril, sensationally out-qualifying team-mate Ayrton Senna on his debut.

“He couldn’t understand it,” said Häkkinen. “Same tyres, same fuel level, same engine, same aero, everything the same. He was so angry. I was in the press conference, he wasn’t.

“All the media were excited, but I didn’t say much. Afterwards Keke Rosberg, who was my manager then, said, ‘Why were you so quiet? You had a great opportunity to show everybody who you are.’ But I said, ‘No point waving my arms around. It was only qualifying.'”

From the archive

When Senna left Häkkinen became McLaren’s No1, scoring many podiums but lacking the machinery to claim a first win, before he was almost stopped in his tracks by a horrifying accident at Adelaide in ’95, a puncture launching him into the barriers and fracturing his skull.

“I was lying there with tubes everywhere, so I knew I was in a hospital,” he said of his first waking moments after the crash. “The first person I saw was Lisa Dennis, then Ron’s wife, this tall figure by the bed with blonde hair and a big smile, and I thought she must be an angel. Then I saw Ron standing next to her, and I thought, OK, I am not in heaven yet.”

In some ways perhaps his greatest victory, the determined Finn was back in time for ’96 pre-season, all the while still suffering from debilitating migraines.

From here, it was almost a complete upward trajectory for the Finn. His driving talent was married with Adrian Newey’s design genius, who joined for ’97. He took his first win at Jerez that year, and by ’98 McLaren had a devastating weapon at its disposal: the MP4-13.

Mika Hakkinen driving for McLaren at the 1998 San Marino GP

Häkkinen proved formidable force in Newey McLarens

Häkkinen duelled with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher throughout the season, the Finn winning out in the titanic scrap at the Suzuka season finale when the German suffered a race-ending puncture.

“Slowly I’m understanding, it’s still quite hard,” he said after achieving his life’s dream. “It was extremely hard [coming back from his accident], but I had great support – I never could have done it alone.”

Häkkinen would do it all again the next year, but showed his vulnerable side also. The McLaren driver, despite appearing the far more potent force than the Scuderia’s Eddie Irvine – Schumacher was out with a broken leg – almost threw the championship away with race-ending mistakes at Imola and Monza, but did ultimately get it over the line to become a double world champion.

With Schumacher returning in 2000 to give Ferrari its first championship in 21 years, winning out over Häkkinen in another title battle for the ages, the Finn found his enthusiasm beginning to wane – particularly after witnessing Alex Zanardi’s horrific IndyCar shunt that year in which the Italian lost both his legs.

2001 was to be his swansong, but not before he added two more F1 victories, bringing his career total up to 20.

“I had races that I wanted to win, and it was definitely Silverstone and Indianapolis,” he said afterwards. “I won both of these, and I cannot really explain it – it just happened. Those wins made me stronger, more comfortable about my decision.”

Häkkinen initially decided to take a sabbatical, but it would turn into a retirement from grand prix racing. The double world champion would race in DTM until 2006, before bidding his racing career farewell.

Perhaps only followed by Juan Pablo Montoya and countryman Kimi Räikkonen in being an individual personality in the age of the laser-focused modern athlete, Häkkinen stands out as a legend of the sport who did it his way.

Mika Häkkinen bio

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