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The duels between Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher are known in F1 as one of the most famous in the history of the sport and Mika Hakkinen spoke to F1 insider about the period in question.
At the end of the 1990s, Michael Schumacher was on his way to a third world title for himself and the first in a long time for Ferrari. In 1998 and 1999 it was Mika Hakkinen who came out on top, but this was preceded by bitter, razor-sharp duels.
Just as is usually the case, Schumacher and Hakkinen already met in the youth series, the Finn explains what he admires most about his then rival.
“He was a pretty tough opponent, never left much space and always defended extremely hard. There are so many aspects I admire about him. Most importantly, he never gave up. Giving up just wasn’t in his vocabulary. I hope that quality also helps him today.”
This also meant that Schumacher sometimes went quite far to achieve his goal and to illustrate this, Hakkinen cites the example of the Belgian GP in 2000.
“He pushed me onto the grass at 300 km/h. At that point I told him to use his common sense. It’s a matter of life or death at this speed! He tilted his head and looked at me questioningly. For him it was racing. That ultimately made him the best of us.”