Motorsport Heroes: Hakkinen on his infamous clash with Schumacher
In Motorsport Heroes, the full-length feature film by Manish Pandey now available on Motorsport.tv, four legends of our sport share their successes, failures, personal struggles and life-threatening accidents. Today we hear from Mika Hakkinen, about the moment he clashed with Michael Schumacher in the 1990 Macau Grand Prix.
Motorsport Heroes
Motorsport 'Heroes' tells the story of five legends of motorsport, whose lives are intimately intertwined and interconnected as they all scale the heights of their sport, while contending with profound personal challenges along the way. Featuring Mika Hakkinen, Tom Kristensen, Michele Mouton and Felipe Massa, the 111-minute feature film written by Manish Pandey allows four of the greatest warriors of the sport to reflect on their lives, bringing out of each other the story of those transformations and their tales of the best and worst of times. It is also the story of the man who connects them, Michael Schumacher, viewed as the greatest winner of them all but whose story, like the others, is filled with the same fallibility and emotion that makes him human. Available in English with subtitles in: Japanese, French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Mandarin, German, Italian and Russian.
Macau is the biggest race of the Formula 3 calendar, and Hakkinen arrived as British champion, his Team Theodore-branded West Surrey Racing Ralt going up against Schumacher’s German Championship-winning WTS Racing Reynard. Hakkinen had already won the first heat, and only had to finish within 3s of Schumacher to take victory on aggregate in the second race.
Mika Hakkinen, Ralt RT34-Mugen leads Michael Schumacher, Reynard 903-Volkswagen
Photo by: Sutton Images
Mika Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Hakkinen was clearly quicker than Schumacher in the closing stages, and was all over the German as the race entered its closing stages…
“What can I do? I have to overtake him,” says Hakkinen in the film. “But he was so slow, so I was running really close to him, catching the tow.”
“I moved to overtake and I could see his eyes in the mirror… [moves an imaginary steering wheel to the right] – Erk!”
After the race, Schumacher said in his post-race interview: “I knew [he was there], I see him in my mirrors. And then the whole time I see him in my mirrors, he closed up to me. And then he goes off the gas and he stays behind me.
“This time, he closed up and closed up, and I see it, so I go to the right side, at this moment he tries to overtake me. And he’s so quick at this moment that he couldn’t brake.”
Hakkinen rues: “Lost the whole race – terrible moment.”
Mika Hakkinen, Ralt RT34-Mugen leads Michael Schumacher, Reynard 903-Volkswagen
Photo by: Sutton Images
Race winner Michael Schumacher, Reynard 903-Volkswagen
Photo by: Sutton Images
Schumacher went on to win, minus his rear wing. But Hakkinen’s error wouldn’t harm his career trajectory, and he joined Formula 1 with Team Lotus at the start of the 1991 season, months before Schumacher would do likewise with Jordan and then Benetton.
Pandey, who wrote the multi award-winning Senna movie, the 111-minute film interweaves the narratives of our Motorsport Heroes, telling their stories with both archive and first-hand testimony.
To stream the full movie, subscribe to Motorsport.tv from $4.99/€4.50/£3.99 a month.
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