#Makkinen

Jenson Button pays tribute to his race engineer Andrew Shovlin in the post-race press conference at the Malaysian Grand Prix - Sunday 5th April 2009

transcription under the cut

Jenson: One final thing, can I just say a massive thank you to my engineer [Andrew Shovlin] who came out on the podium with me today. We've been through a lot of tough times and he's been wicked and today, as we saw, we came out on top and a lot of it was down to him. So thank you very much.

#Mika

hi could you explain to us why michael... obeyed mikka?? lol like young michael wouldn't be afraid to annoy the other drivers but with mikka he was always reserved

fsdjgfds okay so not to psychoanalyze a celebrity but. The thing to understand about michael - and this is key to everything - is that he had an absolutely rigid, unbreakable separation in his mind between the track and his personal life. Like to Michael, as soon as he was in the car that was another person with another goal, and I think Mika was the only person who ever really understood this and changed his approach accordingly to get Michael's respect in both areas. I think there are 3 main reasons Michael was more inclined to listen to Mika.

1- Damon Hill once said that Michael simply didn't understand that other people couldn't do what he did. To him, it was the other drivers' fault that they couldn't keep up with him and weren't prepared to push the limit as far as he was. To him, what he could do was normal and the other drivers were just not trying hard enough. So he didn't respect them and treated them accordingly on track. Mika understood that you had to take the fight to Michael, and he was one of only a handful of drivers who COULD take the fight to Michael. So you get moments like Spa 2000, where Michael is driving dirty and Mika - instead of backing down and cursing him like the others - reinvents the fucking overtake, picks the PRECISE spot where he can catch Michael out, and doesn't let Zonta or ANYTHING stop him. Michael loves racing for racing's sake, it's his passion. So he's not angry that Mika just HUMILIATED HIM. He's impressed, he's grinning through the podium and press, and he respects Mika for it. So when Mika tells him "don't do that again" about the defending Michael just did to him, Michael doesn't do that again. (To him anyway.) Because he knows Mika will just put his head down and counter it. It won't work.

2- When Michael bullied other drivers on track they were - understandably, rightly - furious with him off track. They talked shit about him in the press, they argued with him and each other about it. To Michael, this didn't make sense. Racing was not reality, and them holding grudges against him for things he did in the car made him lose respect for them. It also made him less inclined to actually patch things up, so their relationships only deteroriated and he cared even less what they had to say about his driving. Mika, on the other hand, arguably hated the press even more than Michael. He said the bare minimum to them. He was there to race, not talk to a camera. So he never talked shit to the press about Michael because... why? Why bother? If he had a problem he took it straight to Michael. So off track Michael also gained respect for Mika - and vice versa I think - because they let each other live in peace as soon as the helmet came off.

3- Just. The sheer amount of history he had with Mika compared to other drivers. They went way back. Mika was arguably one of the first drivers to get a taste of Michael's outrageous defending ruining his entire day. They were friendly WAY before they were actually racing each other on a regular basis. When Mika had his horrible accident and almost died - before they were even anything approaching Iconic Rivals - Michael visited him in the hospital very quickly, and Mika returned the favour when Michael had his worst crash at Silverstone. I think Michael, for all he expected others to rigidly separate the personal life and the track, sometimes slipped up himself. Defending too hard at Monza in 2011 because he was in front of the *tifosi* comes to mind. And I think his personal history with Mika, plus the massive reminder of Mika's mortality he received during their careers because of Mika's big crash, made him marginally more careful with Mika than he was with other drivers.

But then this is all speculation and me guessing really. It could have been as simple as Mika's bluntness got through to Michael sdhsfdhgfsd.

Kids.

Mika Hakkinen  1991

#Nico

Nico juggling :)

#Mika

Mika²

#Mika #Lewis

Mika presenting an award to Lewis at the Autosport Gala 1996

F1 drivers at the Independence Day Reception, annually hosted at the Presidential Palace on 6th of December

Mika Häkkinen

Kimi Räikkönen

Keke Rosberg

Keke & Sina Rosberg sparked controversy in 1986 with Sina wearing a suit and bowtie not far from his husband's style; on the contrary to the style etiquette of women having to wear gowns at the time. They later disappeared from the ball, leaving quite early.

++BONUS:

Sebastian (in Finnish): "It was a good day. Where's my invitation to the Palace? I'm almost a Finnish man."

#Mika

Young Mika*

#mika

Sporting rivalries: Michael Schumacher vs Mika Häkkinen

Ok but imagine racing each other from formula 3, rising through the ranks together to finally compete against their heroes, only to be the only two who witnessed Ayrton Senna's car spinning out to his death from their rearview mirrors as Imola 1994 forever became an intertwining bond between those that death seems to cheat.

Imagine going to compete for world championships together, breaking world records together, but still remaining the only competitor each other ever feared. Imagine having accepted their fate to always die on the track, mourning friends and peers who left them, leaving f1 irredeemably thankful for the lives they got to walk away with.

Imagine years later finding out about the accident, the comma, realising that maybe you two weren't the lucky ones anyway, and that perhaps it is the greater pain after all, to be the one left behind when the other is gone.

Michael Schumacher hanging out with Mika Häkkinen in their pre-F1 days

Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen standing on the podium of the 1994 Imola race that killed their childhood hero, Ayrton Senna

Mika Häkkinen comforting a crying Michael Schumacher, who was told that with his win that day he has equalled Ayrton Senna's all-time records

Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen celebrating their world championship wins together

After Michael Schumacher's decade-long comma inducing skiing accident, Mika Häkkinen wrote him a letter, asking him to keep fighting, and that he will wait for him for as long as he needs.

Their eternal Ferrari and McLaren racing through Spa, 2000.