#Mika #Keke #Nico

#Mika #Keke #Nico

“Eleven months later, Hakkinen was once more heading down a cul-de-sac when the contract he had signed to drive for Williams proved to be worthless. Again, [Keke] Rosberg instigated the rescue by securing a meeting two days before Christmas with McLaren’s Ron Dennis, who was skiing in the French Alps. Rosberg dashed across the mountains to meet his old boss against the worrying background of a mystery illness to his young son, Nico. But that late-night rendezvous at the small airport at Courchevel was critical to Hakkinen’s destiny. […] ‘I’d first gone to him [Ron Dennis] with Mika before Christmas 1992. We had a signed contract with Williams, but Lotus objected that Mika was still under contract to them. In the end, Frank pulled out and, eventually, paid us damages. ‘After Ligier messed us around, I called Ron. We arranged to meet, even though my son, Nico, was ill with a blood disease.’ […] He returned to his family to spend that troubled Christmas at Nico’s side and this afternoon he will be with his son, now 13, as he races in the Italian kart championship.”

— from “Schumacher can’t bully my man Mika”, 30th August 1998 (x)