ANTHONY ROWLINSON

“Mika is the essence of a world champion”

And to think we used to regard him as not much of a talker. Mika Hakkinen, that is, the highest-altitude of all those fabulous Flying Finns – in F1, at least, if not in rallying, where four-time champion Tommi Makinen reigns supreme.

Back in the day, when Mika was (probably) the fastest thing on the planet (we’re talking ’98-2000, when he won back-to-back titles and was only robbed of a triple by Mercedes engine unreliability), media types used to categorise him as a driver ‘to write about’, not one ‘to interview’.

This, because Mika was famously guarded and wary of misinterpretation by unscrupulous hacks. Only those very few who gained his trust and who were allowed a glimpse into the world of this funny, intelligent and (of course) stunningly fast driver saw a different side to the otherwise inscrutable racing automaton.

Matt Bishop, esteemed former editor of MN’S sister title F1 Racing (aka ‘my old boss’) was one such and he’d regale those of us who worked alongside with tales of ice-lake diving in Mika’s native land and improbable vodkathawed evenings around a snowy campfire, somewhere up in the arctic circle.

For most of us, however, ‘The Hakk’ remained an impenetrable racing edifice – someone to admire and respect, not warm to.

But – news just in – Mika’s changed. Or, rather, the force field he generated around himself to race successfully against – and beat – Michael Schumacher in his prime, has been switched off, now that he no longer faces that unenviable task week-in, week-out. Modern Mika, a Monaco resident, with several children and a fulfilled post-competition lifestyle, is a happy man and, against all expectations, a garrulous partner in lighthearted interviews, such as that conducted by F1R over the Monaco weekend.

He’d stationed himself at Tabac for this year’s F1 extravaganza, on a yacht upon the decks of which was mounted his ’98 Monaco Gp-winning Mclaren MP4-13.

Quite the statement for a man once regarded as reticent and ill-disposed to public displays of any kind. And from here Mika was more than comfortable in answering questions about his near-fatal ’95 Australian GP shunt, his fondness for tortoises and the time his ex-lotus team-mate Johnny Herbert tried to join him in a bath, while they were ‘roomies’ at the French GP.

It’s very easy, now, to reappraise Hakkinen and view him just as the sunny guy he probably always was, but who hid his light in order to be able to race at ‘maximum attack’. Very welcome that new prism is, too.

But let’s never forget that flashing sliver blade of a racer, well capable of beating anyone for speed and who, for a certain generation of fan (yes, ’self included), represents the very essence of what it means to be a world champion racing driver.

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