McLaren Star®
International Network
Presents:
"MIKA HÄKKINEN BEFORE F1"
How it all started
(1973-1986)
Karting
In 1973
at
the age of 5 Mika Häkkinenstarted
to race karts at the Keimola racing circuit in Finland. His father worked
six years, besides his regular job, as a part-time taxi driver to pay for
his sons karting career. He bought his first kart (model Zip) from rally
driver Henri Toivonen.
In 1975 he won his first karting race
at Keimola.
In 1978 and 1979 he raced in the
Keimola Regional Karting Championship, FK 85cc Mini class. Both years he
became Keimola club champion.
In 1979 he competed against other
(future) world class drivers like Jyrki Jarviletho (JJ Letho) and Mika
Salo.
In 1980 he ended 4th in the Lapland
Karting Championship class 85cc Formula Mini. His Finnkart was built by
Pekka Pirkola. Mika was champion in the Swedish Lapland Cup.
In 1981
at the age of 13 he drove for the Blue Rose team and had his first major
success: Finnish Kart Champion in the F-mini series (85cc). The dark blue
colour on his helmet still reminds to this period. The Blue Rose team was
owned by Mr.Carisolo of the GWS company, one of Mika's personal sponsors
in the early years. He beat the number 2 Taru Rinne, a girl who was really
though to beat and Mika Rinta-Jaskari who finished 3rd. Mika Häkkinen
raced at Lappeenranta (beaten by Taru Rinne and a girl named Ninna Österholm),
Lahti, Ruukki, Espoo, Kouvola and Riihimäki (pushed off the track).
His Finnkart Partner was again built by Pirkola. His mechanic was Taiso
Laine from Lahti, Finland.
In 1982
he finished 2nd in the FK 85cc Formula Mini class after champion Taru Rinne.
3rd place was won by Ninna Österholm. Mika won the Ronnie Peterson
Memorial Race in Sweden and the Salpauselka Cup in Lahti just before Ninna
Österholm and Mika Rinta-Jaskari. He also won in Ruukki before Rinne
and Österholm and the Kuopio race. The Finnish Karting Association
chose Mika Häkkinen as the FK Junior of the year 1982.
In 1983
Mika competed in the FK 100cc Formula Nordic class. He won the championship
with a Finnkart Parilla built by Pekka Pirkola. The kart was tuned by Taisto
Laine from Lahti City and sponsored by Restaurant Allun Grilli in Vantaa.
Taru Rinne used forbidden gasoline in the last race, that's why she lost
the title to Mika. She was disqualified for one year. 2nd was Jukka Savolainen,
3rd Timo Palenius. Rinne dropped to 4th.
In the "A Junior team races" Finland
became champion beating Germany and France at Horrem, Germany. The Finnish
team consisted of Mika Häkkinen, Taru Rinne, Janne Nyman and Marko
Mankonen from Porvoo and drove a Birel Parilla kart.
In 1984
Mika continued his FK 100cc Formula Nordic class Finnish Championship title.
He beat Jari Laine (2nd) and Jukka Savolainen (3rd). Mika drove an imported
Italian Birel Parilla kart. Maintenance was done by Pirkola and tuning
by Sami Pensala, a later Formula VW 1600 champion. In Laval, France Mika
finished 14th in the A Junior class cup. In 1984 he competed in the race
for the karting worldchampionship but had to retire. The 1984 worldchampion
karting became Michael Schumacher. (The first Häkkinen vs Schumacher).
In 1984 he tested for the first time a Formula Ford car at the Ahvenisto
track in Hämeenlinna. The car was owned by Arno Kotilainen.
In 1985
Mika was Finnish champion of the FK 100cc A-class, before Jukka Savolainen
and Mika Salo, in a Birel Parilla kart. He finished 2nd in the Nordic Championships
A-class after Tom Kristensen from Denmark. Jonas Karlsson from Sweden finished
3rd, Mika Salo 7th. At the World Championship race in Parma, Italy, Mika
Häkkinen did not made it to the final due to some mechanical problems.
Salo finished 14th.
In the 135cc Formula K-class Mika
drove a Birel Komet kart fixed by Pekka Pirkola. He won in Lappeenranta
before Mika Rinta-Jaskari and Ari Loivanne.
At the Kemora track Mika tested
a Formula Ford 1600, a Van Diemen RF83 owned by Arno Kotilainen.
1986. Again
Finnish champion in the FK 100cc A-class with a Birel Parilla. 2nd and
3rd Mika Utria and Minna Kuoppala, a girl from Kauhajoki. In Zaragoza,
Spain, Mika finished fourth after Bonanno, Wilson and Tom Kristensen, driving
a Birel Komet. In the rest of the European races Mika was unfortunate finishing
11th in Goteborg, Sweden, 18th in Jesolo, Italy and 28th in Liedolsheim,
Germany.
His 'left foot braking' is a skill
he learned in the karting period. Between 1981 and 1987 Mika Häkkinen
became five times Finnish Karting champion.
Mika also drove a VW beetle on
ice tracks.
Formula 1600
In 1987
Mika raced Formula Ford 1600 in a '86 Reynard he bought from Jyrki Jarvilehto
(JJ Letho), the 1986 champion. During the winter the car was rebuilt by
Taisto Laine from Lahti. With 9 wins out of 15 races Mika became Finnish,
Swedish and Nordic champion. Every lap he was almost a second quicker than
Lehto was the year before.
In that year he also drove two races
of the EDFA 1600 Championship in Zandvoort, the Netherlands (Sept. 13th,
pole position but crashed in the rain) and Zolder, Belgium (Sept. 27th,
1st). In November he raced the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in
a Reynard. He raced against fellow Finn Mika Salo, Eddie Irvine, Karl Wendlinger,
Alain Menu and Allan McNish. In the Formula Ford Euroseries he ended as
number 7.
At the end of the season, in October
1987, Mika competed in a FF 2000 Marlboro test-day at Donington. Young
drivers were tested and judged by McLarens' Ron Dennis and former world-champion
James Hunt. Among the contesters were Mark Blundell, Gianni Morbidelli
and Roland Ratzenberger. Jean Alesi and Volker Weidler were chosen to drive
Formula 3000, Eddie Irvine and JJ Letho to drive Formula 3 and Allan McNish
and Mika Häkkinen to drive the Vauxhall Lotus Challenge in 1988.
Opel-Lotus
In 1988
he joined the British Dragon Motorsport/Marlboro-team of Hywel Absalom
and Doug Bebb in the GM Vauxhall-Lotus Challenge in England. Pole position
in the first race, victory in the second and almost every race the fastest
lap. Despite this perfect start he ended up with 127 points as number 2
in the championship behind his Scottish team mate Allan McNish (142 points).
Number 3 was Justin Bell (son of Derek) with only 77 points. Allan McNish
never entered the F1 except as a test driver from 1991-96. In 1998 he won
the 24 hours of LeMans, and drove in 1998 in the FIA-GT series with a Porsche
911 GT-1 98 together with Yannick Dalmas. In 2000 Allan McNish drove the
American LeMans-series.
In that same year Mika Häkkinen
also competed with the Dragon team driving a Reynard in the Opel-Lotus
EDFA Euroseries, and drove on several European circuits like Zandvoort
(1st), Paul Ricard (pole, fastest lap and 1st), Silverstone (1st), Hockenheim,
Spa (1st), Nurburgring, Estoril and Jerez. In the Euroseries he took victory
four times, was two times second and two times third. In this championship
he beat Allan McNish who ended third. Mika became European champion with
126 points beating number two Henrik Larsen from Denmark by only 1 point.
6th finished a young German driver named Heinz-Harald Frentzen....
In this year Mika also served in
the Finnish army at Lahti Sports Military School.
Formula 3
In 1989
Mika and his team took the big step from the Vauxhall/Opel- Lotus Challenge
to the Lucas British Formula 3 championship. He raced 16 races in the Dragon/Marlboro-Reynard
TOM's Toyota team with a Reynard 893 chassis and a Toyota engine. That
this was not the fastest combination of the field became clear at the end
of the season when Mika finished 7th with 18 points. Mika did manage to
archive one 2nd and one 3rd place, two pole positions and one fastest lap
in 16 races.
British Formula 3 champion became
his former team mate Allan McNish in the best British F3 team of the last
couple of years: West Surrey Racing. The team that made Ayrton Senna find
his way to Formula One. Mika's worst memory that year was the crash at
Snetterton, when he landed upside down with his Reynard.
In the same year he was invited to
race the Monaco F3 GP (16th), the Macau F3 GP (retired) and the Cellnet
F3 Superprix at Brands Hatch as a guest driver of the West Surrey Racing
Ralt RT 33 Mugen Honda team. That this was a much better car than the Dragon-Reynard-Toyota
proved the pole position, the fastest lap and the victory he took at Brands
Hatch.
This year he changed the colour-scheme
of his helmet to the current dark-, middle- and light blue horizontal stripes,which
is still the same until today.
After his success at Branch Hatch,
a move from Dragon to West Surrey Racing in 1990
was a logical step. With his WSR/Marloro-Ralt-Mugen Honda (car nr.2), Mika
was the whole year the man to beat in the British Formula 3 championship.
Among the other competitors in the series were his team mate Christian
Fittipaldi (nephew of Emerson), Damon Hill (son of Graham), Paul Stewart
(son of Jacky) and Mika Salo.
Because Häkkinen and Salo
won almost every race, it was also called the MikaMika-series. 11 pole
positions and 11 wins made Mika Häkkinen British Formula 3 champion
of 1990 with 121 points before his fellow-countryman Mika Salo with 98
points.
Races outside the British championship
were held at Imola, Italy (1st, beating Italian F3 driver Domenico 'Mimmo'
Schiattarella and 5th place driver Jacques Villeneuve who also competed
in the italian F3 series), Hockenheim, Germany (Pole, fastest lap and 1st,
before local favourite Michael Schumacher) and the F3 World Championship
race at Macau.
At Macau he started from pole position,
drove the fastest lap but did not finish, due to a crash with Michael Schumacher
on the last lap of the second heat. (The second Häkkinen vs Schumacher).
Mika did won the first heat, more than 2 seconds before Schumacher, but
tried to overtake the German in the second heat to impress the Lotus F1
team. Mika crashed and Schumacher won.
After this race his manager Keke
Rosberg told him he would drive Formula One next year for Lotus, although
he already did a test drive for Benetton on Silverstone's south circuit.
He skipped the F3000, which is normally the entry to F1.
Keke Rosberg
Mika's manager Keke Rosberg is former
Formula 1 champion. Keke's real name is Keijo and was born at December
6, 1948 in Stockholm, Sweden but is Finnish citizen. He was F1 World Champion
in 1982 with a Williams-Ford winning only one GP that year: The Swiss GP
held in Dijon-Prenois, France. 1986 was his last season as a F1 driver,
driving for McLaren-TAG. He has raced 128 F1 races and earned a total of
157,5 points. He had his own DTM team and is now running a German F3 team
together with Ellen Lohr. Keke is Mika's manager from 1987. Keke is also
manager of Finn JJ Letho and since 1999 from Olivier Panis. In May 1998
he was witness at Mika and Erja's wedding in Monaco.
Formula 1
In 1991
when he was 22 years old, Mika's Formula 1 career started with Team Lotus.