Ayrton Senna is easily rated as one of the greatest F1 drivers. However, no matter how great you are, there will be a time when someone younger and faster will be there as a threat to your position.
Mika Hakkinen joined McLaren after a successful stint at Lotus when the Brazilian ruled the F1 world. But the young Hakkinen was getting massive hype for his race craft. Rightly so, as he had out-qualified the legendary Senna in his first-ever Grand Prix with McLaren.
That somewhere bothered the three-time world champion back then. So much so that Hakkinen claims that Senna was confused over how the former could get so much pace.
The former F1 driver even reveals that Senna once asked how he got so fast. Hakkinen replied, ‘Ayrton, it’s balls,’ which reportedly offended the Brazilian.
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Ayrton Senna took it personally
Hakkinen talks about how his dramatic feat with McLaren was affecting Senna. “For him it was a very traumatic moment,” claims Hakkinen. The McLaren star was constantly asked who this new Finn guy was and thought of him as a threat in his den.
“This was an interesting moment for him because he recognised that he now had a big threat within the team, and if I started kicking his ar*e he would look ridiculous. After that, in Japan and Australia, he won both races, but I was on the podium with him in Japan,” said Hakkinen.
#OnThisDay in ’93 Mika Häkkinen (pic) drove his first #F1 GP for McLaren. He DNF’d on lap 33. But, the day before, he’d done something far more significant: he’d outqualified the great Ayrton Senna in the same car. pic.twitter.com/K2xnGBxHn9
— Matt Bishop 🏳️🌈 (@TheBishF1) September 26, 2022
The two-time F1 world champion reveals that Senna’s engineers started to work harder as they realised that the town’s young block was a threat. So much so that McLaren engineers isolated Hakkinen as they weren’t even speaking to him.
Taking the throne
But no matter how much effort was played by Senna to overpower Hakkinen, the latter survived his wrath. The following year, Senna left McLaren for Williams in hopes of extending his title count, as they were the best team back then by winning the 1992 and 1993 championships.
But neither of them happened. Senna tragically lost his life in 1994 after a fatal F1 crash. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher helped Benetton knick Williams’ world championship that year.
On the other hand, Hakkinen replaced Senna as the number-one driver at McLaren. Even after a life-threatening injury in Adelaide in 1995, Hakkinen returned to F1 to win two consecutive titles before the turn of the millennium.
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