Past actions mold 1998’s champions
Hakkinen: Almost unbeatable once he started winning
Posted: Thursday December 31, 1998 06:11 PM
| |
Hakkinen won eight of 16 races in 1998 en route to the world title, edging out Michael Schumacher in Japan
Mark Thompson/Allsport |
LONDON (AP) -- At first glance, one might think that the victory in the Japanese Grand Prix two months ago, the one that gave him his first Formula One title, was the biggest event in Mika Hakkinen's career.
Yet to the 30-year-old Finn, the 1997-season-ending European Grand Prix had a much bigger impact.
It was in Jerez, Spain, after nearly seven full years and 95 races on the circuit, that he finally won a race and uncorked the champagne.
"It made a huge psychological difference," Hakkinen said. "When you finally win it makes you look at racing differently. It takes a lot of pressure away."
Hakkinen has barely stopping winning since.
After one victory in 96 tries, Hakkinen won eight of 16 races in 1998 en route to the world title, edging out two-time series champion Michael Schumacher in the season finale in Suzuka, Japan.
Schumacher needed to win in Japan and have Hakkinen finish no better than third. But the 29-year-old German stalled his engine starting from the pole, restarted from the back of the grid, and then blew a tire midway through the race to end his season.
The tire failure was also an inglorious end for American tire maker Goodyear, which equipped Ferrari and was running its final grand prix. Goodyear entered Formula One in 1965 but said last year it was pulling out because of rising costs.
Granted, McLaren-Mercedes had the fastest cars all season. But Hakkinen, often described -- but not wholly accurately -- as cold, taciturn, and colorless -- proved he was as good as the silver McLaren.
Hakkinen won four of the first six races, while teammate David Coulthard won one and finished second three times. That allowed Hakkinen to build a 17-point lead over Coulthard and a 22-point margin on Schumacher.
With his Ferrari showing better reliability -- strange but true, Schumacher managed to tie Hakkinen on points (80) going into the Luxembourg Grand Prix in Nurburgring, Germany, the next-to-last race of the season.
But Hakkinen, in possibly the best drive of his career, defeated the pole-sitting Schumacher to dispel any notion he was feeling the pressure, taking a four-point lead (90-86) heading to Japan.
The pressure, in the end, got to Schumacher, who earns US$40 million annually and was trying to win this third world title to match Ayrton Senna, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. Alain Prost has won four and racing pioneer Juan Manuel Fangio has five.
"We didn't lose the championship today," Schumacher said after the Japanese Grand Prix. "We lost in the early stages when we were too far behind."
Ferrari has not won a series title since 1979. Lauda, a two-time champion with Ferrari, says the team needs a radical overhaul.
"In Japan, we saw there is something not right in the team," he said. "I could not say what it is, but it surprises me."
Hakkinen finished with 100 points, 14 more than Schumacher, who was followed by Coulthard (56), Eddie Irvine and his Ferrari (47), 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve and his Williams (21) and 1996 champion Damon Hill (20), who after struggling for a season with Arrows returned the fight with Jordan.
McLaren also won the constructor's title, its first since 1991.
As for Hakkinen, 1999 could be his year again.
"Winning a championship for the team, it gives you more confidence," he said. "It makes you feel stronger and it makes you go faster."
"It makes you be more relaxed. There's no more pressure in terms of winning or being a world champion. Now it's done. I think this gives me a lot of strength."
Well documented was Hakkinen's sideswipe with death on November 10, 1995, in the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide when he suffered a near-fatal skull fracture in a high-speed crash.
Three months later has was back driving like nothing had happened.
"As soon as I began to recover, I think the spark inside me to start racing again was impossible to stop," Hakkinen explained.
Hakkinen was not the only Finn to top the year in auto racing.
Fellow Finn Tommi Makinen claimed a record third straight world rally title when rival Carlos Sainz's Toyota engine caught fire just 300 meters from the finish of November's Network Q Rally, depriving the Spaniard of the crown.
Running in fourth at the time, the Spaniard needed only to cross the final stage's finish line to claim his third season title.
Makinen, who entered the rally with a two-point lead on Sainz, slid out of the race on the first day when he hit an oil slick and struck a concrete pillar.
The Finn was waiting for a car to go to the airport when he heard he had won the season title.
"My brother rang from the last stage to tell me what had happened to Carlos," Makinen said. "I couldn't believe it - I told him to stop joking. I thought nothing would happen to Carlos, and I feel very sorry for him. He was very unlucky."
Someone who was lucky and good was Alessandro Zanardi. The 32-year-old Italian won seven of 19 races and took his second straight CART Indy-car championship in only his third season on the American open-wheel circuit.
But he disappointed many followers of the west side of the Atlantic by choosing to return to Formula One in 1999.
Driving for Target-Chip Ganassi Racing, Zanardi put away the championship with four races remaining -- the earliest in series history. He became only the third repeat champion in CART's 20-year history, matching Bobby Rahal (1986-87) and Rick Mears (1981-82).
Zanardi was rewarded for his title with a ride in Formula One, returning him to the circuit he left after four seasons in 1994.
He will move into Williams' stable along with Ralf Schumacher, who left Jordan, and replaces another Indy-car alumnus, Canadian Jacques Villeneuve.
Villeneuve jumped the Williams ship with Germany's Heinz-Harald Frentzen, joining the new British American Racing team as lead driver along with rookie Ricardo Zonta. Frentzen moved to Jordan to team with Hill.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
