Ron Dennis once snubbed the ever-popular Lewis Hamilton and the maestro Ayrton Senna to pick Mika Hakkinen as the best driver he ever worked with. Speaking at an interview, the former McLaren boss made the surprising pick, which baffled many.
Naturally, the pick is something the fans and experts as a whole found tough to digest. Hakkinen is an F1 legend, with two world championships to his name. Fans, however, feel that bigger names were left out. Leaving aside the seven-time and three-time world champions, respectively, Dennis also made no mentions of Alain Prost or Fernando Alonso.
The boss, who is regarded as a disgrace for his active role in the ‘Spygate‘ controversy in 2007, kept out Prost and Alonso. This was despite the fact that they both had brilliant stints with the Woking squad. But why did he choose Hakkinen over the other legends?
Dennis picked Hakkinen over Hamilton or Senna
As per an Instagram video by Caraway reports, F1 commentator and former driver Martin Brundle asked Dennis to pick the “greatest driver” he employed and why.
Answering this, the 75-year-old said,
“If I had to choose one driver, I would choose Mika Hakkinen. He was super quick, he was super loyal. There was one magic moment after his head injury, he came back, went to Paul Ricard, and he hadn’t been in a car for months.”
This was in reference to the two-time world champion suffering a critical skull injury in the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.
In the context of how fast the Finn- who once startled Senna- was, Dennis went on,
“Michael Schumacher had been testing for three days and Mika’s third lap, was two-tenths quicker than Schumacher’s three days. That sums Mika up.”
Despite being “the greatest” in McLaren, why Hakkinen failed to reach Lewis Hamilton or Senna’s level?
Lewis Hamilton and Ayrton Senna are regarded as two of greatest drivers in F1 history. Hakkinen, in comparison, doesn’t get the same recognition. Even though the Finn has two world championships under his belt, his fame isn’t anywhere near to Hamilton or Senna’s.
The Flying Finn (as he was called) spent most of his career as Michael Schumacher’s rival. Being in the shadows of the man who won seven-world championships didn’t help bolster his popularity.
Despite snatching the world championship from Schumacher in 1998 and 1999, losing five consecutive world titles to Schumacher in 2000 and 2001, blew Hakkinen and his glory away.
While the F1 world was in awe of Schumacher’s brilliance, Mika Hakkinen quietly retired at the end of the 2001 season. Schumacher meanwhile, left the sport with seven-world championships, the same as Hamilton.
