Mika Häkkinen steps out

After two years with Team Lotus Mika Häkkinen signed for McLaren in 1993 knowing that he would have to spend a season on the sidelines as test and reserve driver.

Taking a year out was not a common career strategy in those days, but to his credit he embraced the testing role, spending endless days honing the trick systems of the MP4/8 at Silverstone and Pembrey, and winning over the engineers in the process.

Perhaps surprisingly given Ayrton Senna’s winning record he recalls that he rarely felt fully comfortable with the car, which may also give some insight into the struggles of Michael Andretti.

“There’s certainly a lot of passion and history around that car,” Häkkinen says. “It wasn’t complicated, it was just something was wrong. I think the aerodynamics that we were using didn’t give us the ultimate performance. And of course at the same time with the power that was available we couldn’t run as much wing as we wanted to have, so the car again had some issues.

“No question about it, it was a great car to drive. But at the same time when I put that car on the limit in corners, the car had some serious handling problems.

“OK, you had traction control, active suspension, sometimes we were able to use a fully automatic gearbox, but it had quite a few issues.

“We developed the car non-stop in a very positive way, but we never managed to get the car to a level where I wanted it to be. It always had some issues where I was losing maybe one tenth in every corner, compared to a car that would work.

“Every corner I lost, didn’t matter what driving we did, it didn’t matter what adjustments we did with the active or the aerodynamics, always that happened.”

Häkkinen’s presence in the camp piled pressure on Andretti. The Finn finally had his chance to prove a point when he was drafted in for the last three races, starting in Estoril, where he caused a stir by outqualifying Senna.

“I had a great motivation,” he recalls. “No pressure, just doing my job. I knew the car 100%, so I was able to put it on the absolute limit. But I wasn’t in pole position. We were slower than Williams, and that confirmed even more that we were not there.”

He crashed in the race, pushing too hard in the final corner in an attempt to find speed onto the straight chasing Jean Alesi. He made amends with a third next time out at Suzuka.

“It was a really good car,” he says. “It was just tiny little issues with the balance. I remember the hours I did with that car, and the discussions we had late in the evening, trying to understand what we need to do to get rid of this, moving the weight, changing the fuel tank to a different layout. I think the aerodynamics could have made the difference.”