By R Prashanth VidyasagarTwo-time Formula One world champion Mika Häkkinen built his legacy on blistering one-lap pace and a fierce rivalry with Michael Schumacher. But ask the Flying Finn what makes F1 tick, and he talks less about the driver than the team behind him. In Bengaluru for a fan event, the two-time champion exclusively speaks to Bangalore Times about what the sport costs, his hopes for Kush Maini, and why he won’t be in the next F1 film.‘McLaren hired a ballet choreographer to teach the mechanics’Back in his McLaren days, Häkkinen says, the team hired a ballet choreographer for the mechanics. Cars were refuelled mid-race then, stops lasted about eight seconds, and McLaren wanted every move to be identical.“To get everything perfect, McLaren hired a choreographer from London ballet to teach the mechanics exactly the right movements,” Häkkinen says. Part of it was simply safety. “Also, the tyres, they’re bloody heavy. You can hurt your back if you are not in the right position,” he adds.‘Formula One, in simple words, is teamwork’“F1, in simple words, you can say it’s teamwork. It’s teamwork. And this is something that this world requires. Is it the businesses? Is it the family? It is teamwork,” says Häkkinen.It’s an unexpected answer from a man famous for speed. Häkkinen won the title in 1998 and 1999, both times ahead of Schumacher’s Ferrari. The sport nearly killed him, too. In 1995, a tyre failure in qualifying in Adelaide sent him into the wall, and doctors performed an emergency tracheotomy trackside. Both titles came after that.Today’s pit stops take about two seconds, and he counts the crew aloud. “One, two, three… fourteen guys. All these 14 guys must function perfectly in two seconds.” That takes practice and technique, he says, all under massive stress.He tells Grand Prix guests much the same. “I always try to tell them: take something with you when you leave from here. Don’t just leave home and say it was a nice Grand Prix. Try to learn something, take something.”Teams run on emotion too, and that has to be managed. “Sometimes you’re so angry. So you need to have a system for how you handle that.” Let it out, he says, then look at the data, then act. “It’s a very systematic operation, and that’s why Formula One is very fascinating.”‘If you want to be a driver, that’s a different story’In India, F1 looks like a rich man’s sport, a bit like golf. He doesn’t really disagree but points out that drivers are only a small part of it. “There’s many, many different areas where you can work in Formula One, if you have a passion for it. If you want to be a driver, that’s a different story.”He started racing at six. By ten, his parents realised, “Oh my God, this boy has got talent,” and began building a network of sponsors and well-connected people around him. “But these networks, they need to be passionate about motorsport. And they need to also recognise that I’m a good driver. Then they start supporting, they start using their network, helping this young driver to move forward,” says Häkkinen.“India, it’s very difficult. It requires tracks. These are expensive sports,” he explains. India hasn’t hosted a Grand Prix since 2013, the last of three races at the Buddh International Circuit. He’d like young Indian racers to consider other categories too, then quickly adds, “But a Formula One driver’s job is the best job in the world.”‘Let’s hope Kush can end up in Formula One’A Formula One seat remains elusive for Bengaluru’s Kush Maini. Häkkinen has mentored him for three years and once said he wanted all of India cheering for him. Last year Maini became the first Indian to win at Monaco, in the F2 sprint race, and he’s now a reserve and test driver for Alpine’s F1 team.So what next? “I don’t know,” Häkkinen says. “There’s still F2 racing. Anything can happen. Never, never give up, basically. He is a talented driver. He can always have a great profession driving top racing cars. But let’s hope something really can happen, so that he can end up in Formula One,” he adds hopefully. “I like him. He’s a great personality. He’s a fantastic guy. So I wish him all the best.”‘I would not act in an F1 movie; I could not’Many non-fans have only started paying attention to F1 because of the Brad Pitt film F1, in which Pitt plays a 1990s driver whose career is wrecked by a crash. With talk of a sequel, we asked if he’d take a role. “No. No, no. I would not act in it. I would not. I could not,” he says, his tone serious but a smirk on his face.For the real thing, he recommends Drive to Survive. “You can see the real stuff, what’s happening behind the scenes,” he adds.
