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Mika Hakkinen has admitted that he wanted to retire from Formula 1 before going on to win two world championship titles.
Hakkinen, 57, is one of the best F1 drivers of his generation, having raced for Lotus and McLaren during a career that lasted 10 years.
Nicknamed ‘The Flying Finn’, Hakkinen won his first world championship back in 1998, beating Michael Schumacher by 14 points.
A year later, the Finn defended his title by finishing the 1999 season just two points ahead of Ferrari’s Eddie Irvine.
Despite enjoying a successful career, Hakkinen recently admitted that he wanted to quit before even winning his first F1 Grand Prix.
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Mika Hakkinen wanted to retire from Formula 1 after incident at British Grand Prix
Speaking on the OFFTRK podcast, the 57-year-old revealed that he told his manager ‘I’m finished’, after an incident at the British Grand Prix.
He admitted that every year was ‘difficult’ for him as his winless streak went on for seven years.
Hakkinen then stated that he enlisted the help of a doctor, which ended up being the catalyst for him going on to win his first Grand Prix and then back-to-back world titles.
His first Grand Prix victory came in 1997 at the European Grand Prix in Jerez, Spain, where he beat David Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve.
He explained: “I started F1 in 1991 and I retired in 2001. Took me seven years to win my first Grand Prix, and that was a long time.
“Every year was difficult because you think you’re doing everything right, but you are not winning. In my seventh year, I was leading a Grand Prix at Silverstone, and the engine failed, and I said to my manager, ‘That’s it’.
“When I was going back home, I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I’m finito, I’m finished’. And luckily, he was able to talk; he said, ‘It was not you who did the mistake, the engine failed’.
“He was able to speak me out of that, but it still didn’t help me too much. So I called my friend and said, ‘Do you know a good doctor?’
“This doctor came to see me; I explained I wasn’t winning races. What he recognised was that when I was travelling, I was wondering about my mother, my sister and my girlfriend.
“He asked, ‘How long do you want to work together?’, I said, ‘Rest of my life’. That year, I won my first Grand Prix; the following year, world champion; again world champion.”
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In 2000, Hakkinen was again involved in a title fight against Schumacher, but after failing to win any of the last four races, the German driver clinched the title by 19 points.
During his final season in F1, Hakkinen vowed to again challenge for the world championship due to the birth of his son Hugo and the fact that he was under less pressure to compete.
While Schumacher won the title again, Hakkinen endured a tough season as he only finished fifth, scoring 37 points.
Nine months into his planned sabbatical, Hakkinen confirmed that he would be retiring from F1 and has since appeared as a pundit at multiple races.
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