A personal profile of Mika Häkkinen

Finish in Finnish

"No, I'm not thinking about the hat-trick. Not yet," Formula 1 driver Mika Häkkinen replies when the question turns to next year. No surprise - after all he has just won his second World Championship in a row after an extremely demanding season. He was four points behind when he came to Japan for the last race, and many experts had written him off. They claimed that he was "a psychological wreck" after all the disappointments in the previous races. A mistake of his own and such by the McLaren Team as well as unfortunate tactics must have left their traces, they thought. Moreover, being crowned provisional champion after the disqualification of his main rival Eddie Irvine, just to have the title taken away again through the court's decision to re-instate Irvine, must have affected Mika Häkkinen, so the newspapers wrote. However, Mika proved them wrong. He made a brilliant start and drove a perfect race thereby bringing his season of mixed fortunes to a well-deserved, glorious end.

Mika was born on September 28th 1968 to Harri Häkkinen, a short-wave radio operator, and his wife Aila, who worked as a secretary. "The flying Finn" discovered his love of motor racing at a very early age. He was only 5 years old, when he first drove a hired go-kart and crashed quite heavily on his very first lap. However, this did not prevent him from persuading his parents to buy him a go-kart of his own. Although they knew that Mika's new hobby could be dangerous, they strongly supported him. His father even took over an additional job as a taxi driver to finance it and the whole family including Mika's elder sister, Nina, spent their weekends at the racetracks.

After winning the Finnish cart championship five times, Mika started to race in Formula Ford 1600 in 1987 and immediately became Finnish, Swedish and Nordic champion at the same time. The following years he ran through the different formulas for talented young people with similar success up to Formula 3, where it came to a first duel with today's Ferrari star Michael Schumacher. Mika also won this championship, and therefore his move to Formula 1 with the Lotus Team in 1991 was only a further natural step in his career - although a big one.

Despite the hurly-burly that surrounds Mika these days, his apartment sometimes seems strangely empty to him. His long-term "tenant", tortoise Caroline, died a few weeks ago and so there is no-one to welcome Mika and his wife Erja when they return to Monaco from their various travels. Low taxes and good weather are not the only advantages of living in the Principality. For Mika it is also very important that he can enjoy his private life there without being watched by fans and journalists all the time. Monaco has become a real home for him to relax during the very few days off between races, tests and promotion work.

Only in 1997, in his 96th race, did Mika eventually claim his maiden Formula 1 win. Before he had been struggling with various technical problems and an uncompetitive car, but from then on everything happened quickly: one year later he became World Champion and now, another year later, he has just successfully defended this title.

His success in 1998 also brought another thing back: Mika's distinctive smile that his fans had dearly missed for a long time after his horrible accident in 1995. Then, in Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, a deflating tyre sent him smashing into a wall at high speed. The Finn broke the base of his skull and lay in a coma for about 24 hours. According to the doctors he was extraordinarily lucky to have survived this. However, it was doubted that he could ever drive in Formula 1 again. Therefore it was a great surprise, then, that he came back after only 3 months. Nevertheless, today Mika admits that it took him almost a full year to get over it - physically and psychologically.

All in all it seems that the accident slightly changed the character of "the flying Finn". He became mature and, at least around the track, he always appears to be very serious and focused on his work. Actually, there are "two different Mikas," his wife Erja once explained: Mika, the Formula 1 driver on one hand and the "private" Mika, whom only few people really know on the other. When among close friends, Mika loves to joke, and he enjoys a good party whenever there is reason for celebrating.

Mika's patience has been sorely tried during his Formula 1 career; when his excellent performance was so often not repaid. He was stopped, when leading the race, by engine failures and other technical problems time and again. However, Mika always remained controlled and never said one bad word about the team. He often seems to be very calm and reticent or even shy and indeed he prefers listening to people to telling stories himself. However, if you get to know him better you will also recognise him as a humorous, honest person, who always infects the members of the team with his optimism.

During the off-season Mika will now have to attend countless PR events and prize-giving ceremonies before he will be able to relax on a long, well-deserved holiday. Then, however, he will surely have some time to set his sights on something that in Formula 1, so far, only the great Juan Manuel Fangio has ever achieved: the title hat-trick.

written by Tanja Fröhlich in November 1999

If you want to read the old version, written in 1997 click here