so again google images has granted me some beautiful photos from the ancient times
here we have baby Mika Salo and baby Mika Häkkinen and I feel the need to point out that while Mika S manages to smile very charmingly Mika H looks like a dork (a cute one but a dork)
it’s cute because they didn’t really like each other
i’ve posted this one before but it kinda proves my point above, there’s barely any change even after they entered F1, Mika S smiles and poses like a pro and Mika H is like “are you taking the photo now or did you take it already what am i doing”
also this one is perf because there’s JJ Lehto all “fuck yeah bitches imma winner look at my pepsodent smile and beautiful hair” and Mika H who finished third is like “trophy”
#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.
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
HUH!?
#Mika #Lewis
Mika presenting an award to Lewis at the Autosport Gala 1996
#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)
Jenson is literally the capybara of the 00s-10s F1 they put that man with the most mentally unhinged competitors and teammates and he was chill. He was like the dogs they give to cheetahs in zoos to calm them down except it was him, one dog, and 22 cheetahs.
#Mika #Michael
Since this website likes to flag every photoset I make, Makkinen shirtless compilation!