Biography
His success story began when he started primary school in 1973, when he registered as a member of his local karting club at the age of six. He remained loyal to karting until 1986 and became Finnish and Nordic karting champion five times, until 1987 when he started in the Formula Ford 1600 and became Finnish champion in the same season. In 1988 he moved to Opel Lotus in the English Euro Series GM Lotus and achieved first place overall with four wins. From 1989 he competed in the English Formula 3 Championship and finished 7th.
From 1990 he drove in the English Formula 3 Championship, won his first Formula 3 Grand Prix in Monaco and achieved 1st place in the overall standings. In 1991 he received his first contract in the premier class of Formula 1 at Lotus Judd, where he only managed to score two points. From 1992 he competed in Formula 1 with Lotus-Ford and achieved 8th place with 11 points. In 1993 he managed to join a top team in the series with McLaren Ford alongside Ayrton Senna. At first he only started as a replacement for Michael Andretti. In 1994, Ayrton Senna switched to Williams Renault and had a fatal accident at the Imola Grand Prix on May 1st.
Häkkinen became the first driver in the McLaren team and, despite the new and inferior engine from Peugeot, achieved 4th place in the world championship standings. In 1995, Mercedes-Benz left the Sauber F1 team and became the new engine supplier to the McLaren team. After initial difficulties, Hakkinen finished seventh overall and in 1996 already fifth with 31 championship points. In 1997 he finished sixth in the World Championship with West McLaren Mercedes. The 1998 season was a successful year for everyone involved. Häkkinen won in Australia, Brazil, Spain, Monaco, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Japan. He became the winner of the Formula 1 World Championship by a wide margin and gave Mercedes-Benz the title of the constructors' championship after 43 years.
In 1999 he again won the Formula 1 World Championship with victories in Brazil, Spain, Canada, Hungary and Japan, and together with his team colleague David Coulthard, Mercedes McLaren once again won the constructors' world championship. In the 2000 and 2001 seasons, the German Michael Schumacher dominated the World Cup rankings with Ferrari. Numerous technical defects forced Hakkinen out. Nevertheless, he achieved the Fize title as winner of the Grand Prixs in Spain, Austria, Hungary and Belgium. In 2001, despite two victories in Great Britain and the USA, he only finished fourth in the World Cup standings with 37 points.
At the end of the 2001 season he retired from the Formula 1 circus. From 2003 he successfully took part in numerous rallies again. In 2005 he signed a driver contract for AMG-Mercedes in the DTM touring car championship. He remained as a driver in the DTM until 2007, where he achieved 77 points, 3 poles, 6 podium places and 3 victories in 30 races.
