FINN, INTERRUPTED

Less than four years separate Mika Häkkinen's maiden and swansong F1 victories between 1997 and 2001, when he bitterly battled against Michael Schumacher. As it happens, their history stretches far further, rendering the tragedy of the double champ's premature exit from F1 all the greater

- Braam Peens

"I see certain signs that leave me to doubt whether he will continue racing for a long time. He has been racing for a long time; he has children; he has had his success; he has had his accident. It doesn't matter how much you love the sport; Michael, too, will ask himself sooner or later, 'How long is this to go on for?' I find it difficult to judge whether he has the same reasons for a certain fatigue as I have. Did he have to struggle to get his own way like I did and did the full support of his team make his life a lot easier?" And just like that, Mika Häkkinen's back-handed projection of his own post championship-winning demons on to champion-elect Michael Schumacher in September 2001 during an interview with Auto Motor und Sport - was nothing but a coded justification of retiring from Formula One at the end of that year.

FORKED PATH

It is almost impossible to imagine a championship-winning F1 career lasting a mere decade. Of the nine drivers to have won successive crowns in F1's 73-year history, only Fangio's eight-year blitzkrieg pips Häkkinen's to the post for brevity.

Motorsport's ladder of formulae sees to it that rivalries are already forged in junior categories. As far back as 1990, Häkkinen met his ultimate future nemesis, Michael Schumacher, in Formula 3. The German was about to wrap up his domestic F3 championship at the season-concluding Hockenheim round, when Häkkinen's West Surrey Racing team entered as a one off wildcard. The interloper nabbed pole position, fastest lap and the victory from an um-pressed Schumacher on that day.