- Born
- Birth nameMika Pauli Häkkinen
- Nickname
- The Flying Finn
- Height5′ 10½″ (1.79 m)
- His success story began when he started primary school in 1973, when he registered as a member of his local karting club at the age of six. He remained loyal to karting until 1986 and became Finnish and Nordic karting champion five times, until 1987 when he started in the Formula Ford 1600 and became Finnish champion in the same season. In 1988 he moved to Opel Lotus in the English Euro Series GM Lotus and achieved first place overall with four wins. From 1989 he competed in the English Formula 3 Championship and finished 7th.
From 1990 he drove in the English Formula 3 Championship, won his first Formula 3 Grand Prix in Monaco and achieved 1st place in the overall standings. In 1991 he received his first contract in the premier class of Formula 1 at Lotus Judd, where he only managed to score two points. From 1992 he competed in Formula 1 with Lotus-Ford and achieved 8th place with 11 points. In 1993 he managed to join a top team in the series with McLaren Ford alongside Ayrton Senna. At first he only started as a replacement for Michael Andretti. In 1994, Ayrton Senna switched to Williams Renault and had a fatal accident at the Imola Grand Prix on May 1st.
Häkkinen became the first driver in the McLaren team and, despite the new and inferior engine from Peugeot, achieved 4th place in the world championship standings. In 1995, Mercedes-Benz left the Sauber F1 team and became the new engine supplier to the McLaren team. After initial difficulties, Hakkinen finished seventh overall and in 1996 already fifth with 31 championship points. In 1997 he finished sixth in the World Championship with West McLaren Mercedes. The 1998 season was a successful year for everyone involved. Häkkinen won in Australia, Brazil, Spain, Monaco, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Japan. He became the winner of the Formula 1 World Championship by a wide margin and gave Mercedes-Benz the title of the constructors' championship after 43 years.
In 1999 he again won the Formula 1 World Championship with victories in Brazil, Spain, Canada, Hungary and Japan, and together with his team colleague David Coulthard, Mercedes McLaren once again won the constructors' world championship. In the 2000 and 2001 seasons, the German Michael Schumacher dominated the World Cup rankings with Ferrari. Numerous technical defects forced Hakkinen out. Nevertheless, he achieved the Fize title as winner of the Grand Prixs in Spain, Austria, Hungary and Belgium. In 2001, despite two victories in Great Britain and the USA, he only finished fourth in the World Cup standings with 37 points.
At the end of the 2001 season he retired from the Formula 1 circus. From 2003 he successfully took part in numerous rallies again. In 2005 he signed a driver contract for AMG-Mercedes in the DTM touring car championship. He remained as a driver in the DTM until 2007, where he achieved 77 points, 3 poles, 6 podium places and 3 victories in 30 races.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- SpouseErja Häkkinen(May 30, 1998 - February 6, 2008) (divorced, 2 children)
- He finished the 2000 Formula One season second overall in the drivers championship. Although he won four races and finished in second place seven times that season, he also retired from three races with a mechanical problem and eventually lost the title to Michael Schumacher, who won each of the three races.
- He raced in the Formula One championship between 1991 and 2001. He drove for the Lotus team in 1991 and 1992. He moved to the McLaren team for the 1993 season and drove for them until leaving Formula One at the end of the 2001 season. In a McLaren car, he recorded 20 Grand Prix victories and won the Formula One drivers championship in 1998 and 1999.
- In November 2004, more than two years after announcing his retirement from Formula One, he joined the Mercedes team in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM), a touring car championship based in Germany. He started to race in the DTM at the beginning of the 2005 season and spent three seasons in the series before announcing his retirement from competitive motor racing in November 2007.
- Son, Hugo Ronan (b. 2000). Daughter, Aina Julia (b. 2005).
- Suffered a serious accident in practice for the 1995 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide when a tyre deflated, slamming his car into the wall at 120mph. His head struck his steering wheel resulting in a fractured skull; his life was saved by a track-side tracheotomy. He made a full recovery in time for the 1996 season.
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