Wish Hakkinen was still racing F1

+1

 

He was an excellent driver and seemed like a great guy. The guy had class and never shot off his mouth.

 

He and Schumacher recognized and respected each other's talent. When MH beat MS for the driving championship, he deserved it 100%. It was not a give away like 2005.

And you are right Tony, he would never "do a Jacques Alonso" and talk out of place.

 

MH was a great F1 driver and had a great personality. It always puzzled me though why he retired when he still had the abilities and skills for winning more championships.

In hind sight maybe he retired at the right time when McLaren was starting to fall off pace.

 

It have been interesting to see if Ron Dennis would have dropped Coulthard and replace him with Raikkonen if Mika was still driving. They could have really pushed each other, Mika would get motivated again.

 

That is what I always thought as well.

 

well, i doubt it. as much as i like Mika and respect him, he just somehow lost the fire, will and motivation. aside from the car, which kept letting him down quite often, compared to the Ferrari, he had a son at that time. he must have given things a whole second thought. he did realise if he had stayed, i doubt he'll achieve much. as much as i hate to admit it, Kimi will be getting all the spotlight in case he beats Mika...worse still on regular basis.

the situation is pretty much the same as MS-Kimi pairing. not gonna work out, IMO. new blood...fresh blood..against old blood...probably demotivated blood. i still think Mika did the right thing, as MS have done quite recently.

sure, deep down, there'll be regrets. but i guess, they, both MIka and MS could have looked at every angle before making a decision like that.

 

How was 2005 a giveaway ?

 

yea. i would say so. those rule changes were meant to go against Ferrari, and they worked well. that shook things up a bit after what 5-6 yrs of Ferrari dominance...especially that stupid 1 tyre rule. i almost gave up watching F1 last year. was really the most stupid brainless rule ever. so much about safety.

 

When thinking of Mika Hakkinen, I always think of his qualifying lap during the 1993 Portugese GP. In that year, McLaren made use of the services of one Michael Andretti. It turned out to be one of the worst decisions in Formula 1. Come the Portugese GP, McLaren decided to replace Michael with Mika, and that turned out to be one of the best decisions in Formula 1. During the qualifyingsessie, Mika put in a stunning hotlap (which became his trademark), quick enough to even outpace Senna. He unfortunately crashed out of the race, but he made pretty clear he was heading to a great future with McLaren, and so he did.

Yes, I also miss him.

 

-1 Hakkinen was one of those drivers that only won when he had the best car on the day. When his car wasnt performing he would just hang around the midfield not really trying. He almost lost one of his titles to a Jordan, nuff said.