Mika Hakkinen: The Flying Finn (Khadija)
Formula One’s easygoing champion, Mika Hakkinen never was much of a talker; yet his driving record more than made up for the dearth of syllables which, partly, was one of the factors that endeared him to fans and fellow professionals alike in a career that remained relatively untainted by controversy.
The reticent star had few enemies yet many admirers in the paddock and his hard-earned successes were resented by none. The Finn’s persistence and pace on track saw him achieve the sort of results that only one of his contemporaries (Michael Schumacher) could overshadow over the period of 11 years.
Born on September 28, 1968, near the Finnish capital Helsinki, Mika Pauli Hakkinen first tried his hand kart racing at the age of five. Although it was to be an accident-blighted initiation into the world of karts, unlike his horrified parents, the young Finn remained undaunted and nagged his father long enough to compel him to purchase a go-kart for his son. The young Finn’s boyish passion rapidly evolved into a career choice as Hakkinen hastily established himself as a formidable talent in his local Finland prior to his meteoric ascension onto the international stage. Mentored by the 1982 world champion and countryman Keke Rosberg, Hakkinen soon stamped his authority in the racing world; he had been crowned karting champion five times by 1986 and Keke’s tutorship saw the young Finn ascend swiftly through the rudimentary stages of single- seater racing towards the more prestigious competitions.
Hakkinen won his first Formula One drive for the 1991 season with Lotus after triumphing at three Formula Ford championships, the Opel Lotus Euroseries championship and the 1990 British Formula Three championship. In spite of Lotus’s declining fortunes, Hakkinen’s palpable driving flair ensured his skills were eagerly sought after. In 1993, McLaren’s Ron Dennis added him to the payroll as a test driver in a team represented by the legendary Ayrton Senna and Michael Andretti, and following Andretti’s exit from the squad the same season, became the Brazilian idols teammate.
1995 began favourably for the Finn who had soon recorded seven podium positions, yet things would take a calamitous turn at Adelaide where Hakkinen’s car skidded off-track from a punctured tire and left him fatally wounded. Although the road to recovery was a difficult one, Hakkinen soon followed the convalescence period with a test drive for McLaren in 1996; it was established that the Finn was ready to fly again. Hakkinen remarked: “You can only get over your fears if you attack them head on. So I had to go driving again flat out.”
Hakkinen would record his first Formula One win at Jerez in 1997 after favors from McLaren teammate David Coulthard and William’s racer Jacques Villeneuve, who cleared the way to aid the Finn’s victory. The Finn clinched his second win in early 1998 in Melbourne, again with the support of his faithful teammate David Coulthard, who let Hakkinen take the lead to glory. A fired-up Hakkinen would conclude the season with eight wins, snatching the World Championship title from beneath the aspiring Michael Schumacher’s nose. Mika went on to emulate the success of 1998 in 1999 by winning the Championship title again, this time aided by Michael Schumacher’s injury-affected absence.
The Flying Finn would continue his triumphant streak, seizing four wins in 2000 and two in the season. Yet all this time he was increasingly thinking about retiring from a sport that was by no means any less ruthless and unrelenting than it had been at the time of Hakkinen’s ill-fated crash in 1996 almost cost him his life. Now a father, Hakkinen became strikingly aware of his professions potential hazards and decided to take a yearlong break from the sport in 2001 after spending nine years with the McLaren squad. Fortuitously, this would turn out to be his final farewell from Formula One racing.
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