Mika Hakkinen believes he was \u201ca little bit better\u201d than his \u201cincredible\u201d former rival, Michael Schumacher.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on a notorious Macau collision during their Formula 3 days, Hakkinen said the pair developed a no-nonsense approach on track\u2014something he feels earned Schumacher\u2019s respect and set their rivalry apart from the German\u2019s more fiery F1 battles.<\/p>\n
Mika Hakkinen reflects on Michael Schumacher rivalry<\/p>\n
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Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n It was Schumacher who ended Hakkinen\u2019s reign as F1 World Champion after back-to-back title wins for the Finn in 1998 and 1999.<\/p>\n Iconic rivals in the world of Formula 1, Schumacher struck back to return Ferrari to the F1 summit in 2000.<\/p>\n That marked the start of five consecutive title wins for the German, who retired as a seven-time World Champion, and the most successful driver in F1 history at the time.<\/p>\n Hakkinen reflects on his former rival as an \u201cincredible racing driver\u201d, though, in true racer fashion, insists he had the edge.<\/p>\n Speaking about Schumacher on the High Performance podcast, Hakkinen said: \u201cI followed him many times, studying his lines, why he\u2019s doing this, where he\u2019s using steering, understanding all of this, but it was nothing too special, in my opinion.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I was a little better.\u201d<\/p>\n Breaking out into a smile and laughter, Hakkinen was asked to clarify that he did regard himself as better than Schumacher.<\/p>\n Retaining the smile, Hakkinen confirmed: \u201cOh absolutely, of course!<\/p>\n \u201cBut he was physically very strong with the car. Physically very strong how he was able to use the tyres, tyres and the suspension, the loading a car, using just physical power to drive the car.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then his talent included, and how he was thinking, how the balance in a car. The car control what he had was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n More F1 nostalgia from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n Michael Schumacher\u2019s private bar as former \u2018Top Gear\u2019 producer shares wild story<\/a><\/p>\n Damon Hill rejected Ferrari over Michael Schumacher demand<\/a><\/p>\n Schumacher branded Hakkinen as as \u201cthe best opponent\u201d that he ever had; rivals on the track, but 100 per cent respect off of it.<\/p>\n For Hakkinen, their relationship was unique when compared with Schumacher\u2019s other title rivals, in part because they agreed early on: \u201cLet\u2019s fight on the track. Let\u2019s leave the bullsh*t out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, the duo had their \u201cmoments\u201d, as Hakkinen put it, the Finn reflecting on their 1990 Macau Grand Prix collision as a glaring example.<\/p>\n Asked if Schumacher ever tried to play mind games with him over a grand prix weekend, Hakkinen replied: \u201cHe tried, but it doesn\u2019t work. No, it just doesn\u2019t work. It doesn\u2019t make no difference really.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he tried a lot of different ways, and this and that, and maybe it was little bit his sense of humour. But it didn\u2019t matter to me.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so confident with the McLaren team and with my management, with myself, he\u2019s not going to change anything. That\u2019s why, when we put the crash helmet on, then we stopped talking.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say it this way, we had our moments in motor racing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I had a crash with him in Macau, for example, with Formula 3 in 1990. I won the first heat, he was second. There were two heats, and those two heats are calculated, and [the] overall time is the winner of [the] total race.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I won the first heat. Michael was behind me, couple of seconds. He got the second heat. He got the lead. I was behind him, inside in a couple seconds. So I know I\u2019m going to win. Lets follow him all the way to the end.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Macau is an unbelievable race track. It\u2019s like seven kilometres, street track, and racing with the F3 car.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, last lap, he just made an incredibly silly mistake in one high-speed corner, which gives me the opportunity to just easily overtake him. So easily I come in behind him and planning to overtake, and he looks in the mirror and turns a little bit his steering. I touch his rear tyre, and I\u2019m off.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I could go absolutely bananas and berserk about that, but I thought, what is going to change? It\u2019s not going to change nothing.<\/p>\n \u201cMichael was a very hard racing driver. I think he had quite a few problems with many other drivers, with Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard. He was a very hard racer. Sometimes not fair.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd every time there was a huge discussion after, and this and that, I thought, \u2018I\u2019ve got to change this guy. I\u2019ve got to change his philosophy, his mentality, how he\u2019s racing\u2019. It doesn\u2019t matter how I talk to his management, his team, or for the media, for anybody, it\u2019s not going to change nothing. I just focus on my own job, and I think that\u2019s where a lot of respect came that way.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t start verbally fighting, publicly blaming each other. We thought, let\u2019s fight on a track. Let\u2019s leave the bullsh*t out of this. I think that those were the things, a little bit maybe what influenced his attitude towards me.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd after the Macau incident, of course, I understood that way what kind of philosophy he has in his racing. So, every time when we raced, we played little tricks, but we didn\u2019t touch.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n