Header image by Alejo; photos by Sergio.
Most of today’s F1 fans will not know who Mika Hakkinnen is, or rather Häkkinen, with an “Ä”. Well, we do know who the mighty Flying Finn is because we were there when he was winning his titles and not only.
This edition of the FOS featured a quick chat with Mika for old-timers and Sergio happened to be in the vicinity. He proceeded to quickly take notes (flat out in fact) and here are today, with a brand new post on what Mika had to say on multiple F1-related subjects.
F1 Wisdom
“If you want to win, get a Finn.”
“Do you know any other way, apart from flat out? – No, I don’t.”
Racing alongside Senna at McLaren in 1993
“When I did go next to Senna in Portugal, in Estoril, I knew I was gonna be quick. The difference came in the very first corner because Ayrton was still using the right foot braking and because that corner was extremely fast. You were entering the corner in 6th gear, flick down to 5th gear and you touched the brake pedal just a fraction, just to get a little brake on the car and back on the full throttle immediately. I was using left foot braking and for me it was very quick as I’ve learned it from the go-karts and Ayrton had to move his right foot off the accelerator, brake, back on the throttle, he lost half a tenth. He was very pissed off after the qualifying. Oh sorry, there’s kids here. He didn’t speak to me for a couple of weeks and in the race I crashed, I was a bit optimistic. But Senna did wake up in Estoril, (he said to himself) ‘I have this Finnish guy, this young driver, there’s no way I’m gonna let him beat me’. The next two Grands Prix he kicked my arse basically. I had no chance. It woke me up at the same time.”
On his Schumacher battles
“He was a big naughty boy. I did explain to him: ‘Look, when we go 200mph, you don’t push me off the track’. Anyway, he was still a great racing driver. We had some incredible racing situations together. I was happy to see him in my mirrors, we had a good time.”
On McLaren’s current run F1 form
“Consistency is always the key point. You see teams who one race are very quick and then the next race they’re nowhere. That’s the worst thing that can happen to a racing team because it shows that the team doesn’t understand what’s wrong with the car. McLaren have gradually improved over time because they understand the problems (with the car). The car always has problems and I’m talking about the balance, things that are not correct, with mechanics and engineers trying to fix these things, while for the driver it’s always some kind of balance issue. And why? Because every time your car gets better, the driver drives fast. If you drive faster, you’ll find a new problem. So for the car development, for finding the best possible balance, the team first needs to understand how they do it. McLaren have done an incredible job, they have invested money in the wind tunnel, the new tools, they have incredible people. They understand what they do. They have great drivers and that’s what it is.”
On Perez
“Max is still performing. I’m saying ‘still’ because Max is there alone. Sergio Perez is not helping him at all. Max is the one guy who is developing the car and you need two. You need two different character driving styles, you need different types of communication, and focus on different areas. One driver is not enough. I think in the long term, the performance of Red Bull, it has to go down. Anything can happen this year (for McLaren to have a go at the drivers’ title), but it’s going to be difficult.”
iberianmph.com 