Presents:
"Mika At 22: The Young Flying Finn"
Eleven years ago, 22-year-old Mika Pauli Hakkinen entered Formula 1 as the British F3 champion. His team manager was Peter Collins. His team was Lotus. Eight years later he was a double world champion.
Last year, Kimi Raikkonen made the colossal step from 200bhp Formula Renault to the 800bhp Sauber C20. A mighty step. In Mika’s day, the ordinary route to Formula 1 was via the feeder series F3000. So good, so fast and so cool, Mika was snapped up by Collins as he cruised to the British F3 title, before he had time to wallow in an F3000 cockpit or, worse still, was signed by another Formula 1 team. F3 to F1; an equally mighty step Mika made in his characteristically serene, audacious style. From day one, he was ‘flat out’.
“No, I have definitely not found the step up from F3 to
F1 too difficult.
I’ve been motor racing since I was six, every year winning
something in different formulas. Last year’s F3 season with West Surrey
Racing was very competitive. This is my fourth year sponsored by Marlboro
and that’s given me a lot of experience. Obviously all the travelling,
that sort of thing was a big jump, but the driving in Formula 1 wasn’t
that big a jump from F3”.
Surely you noticed the power and cornering differences though, Mika? “Oh yes, you do notice the difference in power the first time that you go testing. Its incredible. The first impression that you get is that whatever gear you’re in the car goes and fast. That speed, on the straight, with the car vibrating and the wind pulling your crash helmet is just incredible.
“The first time I went testing I couldn’t hold my head straight. I noticed that my crash helmet was too big inside. I had to order a new one, because my one was turning round on the straight. You notice lots of little things in Formula 1, your overalls, your shoes, everything is important, because you go so much quicker that everything is that much more vital”.
Unlike Kimi Raikkonen’s whirlwind debut season last year,
Mika’s 1991-Lotus was no Sauber. Powered by a customer Judd V8 in
a time when the sheer grunt of V10 and V12 was the order of the day
Mika joined the famous Lotus team in its declining years. He did, however,
enjoy the small team environment; the feel of F1 ‘as it was’. Fun, very
little pressure.
Nothing to concentrate on but driving flat-out.
“I think that the team’s coming up all the time. It’s slow, its not really sharp, everything is going to happen really slowly and its best that it happens like that. It’s not good if its going too well too quickly, it might drop again.
“The
people are very confident; all the mechanics, all the people in Team Lotus
know the situation and what we want this year. Actually we’ve got that
already - the two points - and that was important for both the team and
drivers. That was the only plan this year. We didn’t expect anything else,
nothing special, and my aim at the start of this year was just to finish
races, and it still is.
“I still think I need more experience and more miles. That’s why Team Lotus believes in the future, next year, will be very strong because if we get the right budget, good engine and good chassis, they won’t have to learn any more next year. They know what they’re doing, everybody will have one job to do and that’s it”.
Mika would spend two years with Lotus, the dream of a performance revival eventually tapering into the realisation that a miniscule budget - and the ethos of the old days - could no longer cut it with the mega-bucks of the big teams. Hakkinen, however, with very little pressure in a tiny, happy F1 team, was content with his lot at Team Lotus. Plenty of time to win races, hit the top. No rush. Take it steady.
“I’ve very happy. I’m very lucky to be in Formula 1. These days its very complicated to come straight from F3 to F1 and you can’t go straight to a top team like Tyrrell or McLaren. You have to go through different levels of teams, and I was really happy to come to Team Lotus. People said that Lotus were finished, that they weren’t good any more, and I’m pleased to prove to those people that its not like that. Its going to improve, its going to go up, because my manager Keke (Rosberg) told me its going to be strong and I believe him”.
During the course of 1991, Mika Hakkinen enjoyed the company
of two team-mates; firstly the amiable Julian Bailey and then popular Englishman
Johnny Herbert. One gets the feeling, though, that the ice-cool sometimes
aloof Finn didn’t hit it off with happy-go-lucky Johnny from the
outset.
Many drivers - Martin Brundle included have since
reflected that Mika is particularly hard to get along with. “A difficult
guy to get to know. Not much fun as a team-mate”. Mika, in 1991, continued,
“I have been more than pleased the way that its worked out. After Imola,
when I came fifth, a lot of people were thinking ‘aha, now they have to
get points and into the top ten in the next race also,’ and we didn’t.
“Again we were on the back row, and that’s what its all about; we don’t expect too much. I’ve been very happy with what’s been happening this year. Early in the season, my teammate was good and I was happy with him. He was very experienced and he told me many things about F1 and he was a very friendly guy.
“Johnny has been out of F1 for a while, and he’s been
doing F3000 in Japan.
But he’s an experienced driver. He’s done many testing
days and lots of Grands Prix and he’s alright, very fast and I’m quite
happy he’s in Team Lotus at the moment. We’re getting on quite well. We’re
both fairly young, I’m 22 and he’s 27 well, he looks young!”
Bring up Mika’s new manager, however, and the young charger
Hakkinen is full of praise and liberal with superlatives. Keke Rosberg,
himself a world champion in 1982, had built up a solid trust in his protégé
countryman.
“Keke is a brilliant person, an excellent manager, and
I like him more and more every day. I trust him a lot. We don’t talk through
the races, but every time I do some mistakes then he reminds me. He never
says ‘that was well done’. He always reminds me of the bad things. He’s
great”. Mika and Keke split amiably in March, 2002.
“I made a mistake in Canada when I tried to pass Stefan Johansson before the chicane and I went off” continues Mika. “There was no sense to it. But afterwards I thought to myself that it was just down to experience. I was doing 300kpm at the end of the straight and tried to pass him under braking and when I passed him I though, ‘bloody hell, that was easy’, and the next thing I know the corner was coming up and I realised that I’d braked too late, maybe a second too late. But I learned from it. Then I accelerated a little bit too much coming out of Stowe and went off at the British Grand Prix and got stones in my seat which was very painful! But I like to keep my mistakes down”.
Ever the honest, sincere Formula 1 driver, Mika Hakkinen failed to reach the top step of the podium until the last race in 1997. His ninety-seventh Grand Prix.
“But so far its going very well. I’m still learning and trying to get more experience. The only terrible race was the French Grand Prix because I couldn’t qualify. I had bad luck in qualifying, but I just have to sort out myself what really happened and then forget about it and concentrate on the future. Its hard to say which tracks the car’s good on, but I liked to the car in Mexico, for instance. It was reliable even though Mexico was a tough circuit. I was very surprised we went through the race because it’s a hard one. At the end of the race, I was really knackered and so was the car.
“Imola was good because I scored some points by coming fifth but the best race for me I think was Brazil, because it was the first Grand Prix that I’d finished. I came ninth and it was brilliant because I was totally exhausted after the race and that was the most memorable race of my life.
“I was following Senna at the end of the race, and it was brilliant to see what lines he was taking and also, on the last two laps it was really dangerous because it was raining as well. And it was great to cross the finishing line and see all the mechanics on the pitwall waving and shouting. Then I went through the left hander and the right hander and it was raining so much and it was so hot and I was so knackered and then I saw Senna’s car in the middle of the track, and I saw the two Benettons side by side and people running onto the circuit. It’s difficult to explain but its something that I shall never forget in my life, because it was the first Grand Prix that I’d ever finished”.
Mika’s career was, in retrospect, what you might call one of conflicting fortunes; the good and the bad. In 1991 and ’92, the Finn drove near the rear of the field for Lotus, always pushing hard and one of the last F1 drivers to truly shine from the bottom third of the grid. In 1993, Ron Dennis signed him as McLaren’s ‘third’ driver; and, when Micheal Andretti decided enough was enough, got his chance at the big-time at the twisty Estoril circuit.
In the Portuguese Grand Prix of 1993, Mika Hakkinen’s debut for McLaren, the Flying Finn outqualified the undisputed ‘master of pole position’, and new team-mate, Ayrton Senna da Silva. Mika had arrived.
1994 and ’95 were uncompetitive years for McLaren, Mika
Hakkinen, nonetheless, putting his team-mates Martin Brundle, Nigel Mansell
and Mark Blundell in the shade. In Adelaide, the final race of the 1995
season, Mika crashed heavily and came as close to death as any F1 driver
has come since Senna and Ratzenberger perished at Imola. After a track-side
tracheotomy and months in hospital, ‘the Hak’ was back for the season opener
in 1996.
From day one, Mika loved his F1. He was born - in Vantaa
near Helsinki - to race.
Mika Hakkinen, 1991: “The good things are such as when you get a good lap time and if you’ve qualified well in the race. Formula one is quite friendly, its more friendly that F3, the people are more relaxed. That’s not the general view but I think F1 people are brilliant, very nice. I feel very comfortable in Formula 1, and that’s important because you travel a lot, you go to different countries, and if you don’t feel comfortable it’s a nightmare.
“Nothing has surprised me so far. I didn’t know a great deal about F1 when I came here. I’d never seen a F1 race live. I saw a F1 car for the first time and touched one in 1988, and that’s only three years ago. Those are the nice things. There are others, but Finnish people are always looking at the bad things, never the positive side”.
Many argue the reason for Mika’s 2001-retirement (sabattical, if you like) is that he despises the international travel and weeks away from home. A very ordinary, modest man, Hakkinen’s disdain for the rigours, pressures and demands ‘the bad bits’ of Formula 1 Racing were evident throughout his Formula 1 career. It was evidenced in the 1998 ‘howl in the bushes’ at Monza. It was clear to see from those early days with Lotus…
“The travelling is alright, but sometimes you feel tired but its not easy, and I didn’t expect it to be. You have to work harder every day. F1 is not easy, especially when you’re fighting to get into the races and there’s always that terrible feeling that you might not get in the race. It would be nice to feel that you’re definitely going to qualify, you just have to find the right setup to get a good grid position for the race. Not the first or second row, but maybe the third, fourth of fifth row. That’s a nice feeling, whereas to come to a race meeting and thinking, my God, now I have to get into the race isn’t nice.
“Formula 1 means you don’t have time to yourself any longer. You’re travelling all the time. You’re at race meetings, testing, different sponsor meetings, less time for your friends, phone bill is higher, these kind of things. F1 is sometimes glamorous and sometimes its hard, and when its hard, its very hard. F1 is very hard. People only want winners, and as a business its very tough.
“I’m really happy at the moment with Team Lotus. I know that they’re hard workers, they know what they’re doing, but everybody knows that we don’t have a brilliant budget at the moment, we don’t have the latest car, and not the best engine. The Judd is alright, its reliable and strong, but its not the quickest. But I’m quite happy and I’ve seen Team Lotus’s plans for next year and it looks bloody good. I’m happy to stay with them. Keke knows our team manager, Peter Collins, very well. The future with this team looks very bright.
“Everyone in F1 has been a winner elsewhere, and we all know what’s required. The only thing is how to win, and that is to work well. I’m very pleased to have a manager like Keke who can advise me what to do. Hopefully I will have the chance to be that winner”. A long, hard, ninety-seven ‘flat-out’ races later, Mika got his chance.
And, boy, was it sweet.
© Andrew Maitland from www.futuref1.cjb.net
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This article doesn't belong to McLaren Star®,
it's courtesy of © Andrew Maitland.