Mika Häkkinen: The ice-cool Finn who Schumacher feared

“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.”

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.'”

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.

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.”