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How Hakkinen gave Senna a wake-up call in 1993

To celebrate Mika Hakkinen being honoured at the Autosport Awards this year, we joined him for a look back at his big break with McLaren in 1993, when he rocked the boat of none other than Ayrton Senna

Charles Bradley Dec 3, 2018, 12:22 PM

The 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix was significant for a number of reasons - not least Alain Prost's announcement that he was retiring from Formula 1, the day before he wrapped up his fourth world title. But it was a big weekend for a young Finn called Mika Hakkinen, too.

Hakkinen spent the majority of the season on the sidelines, thanks to Ayrton Senna's late decision to take up a race-by-race deal with McLaren alongside Michael Andretti. Honda's withdrawal had left the Brazilian unsure of the Ford V8-powered car's potential, matched against the Williams-Renaults of Prost and Damon Hill, but Senna then won three of the first six races of the season.

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Author Charles Bradley

Charles Bradley is Motorsport.com’s Global Editor in Chief. After spending five years in the aerospace industry in his native North Wales, while working weekends as a freelance writer at racetracks around the UK, Charles joined the staff of Motoring News in the heart of London. He transferred to the nascent Autosport.com team in 2000 before transitioning to the magazine, becoming its Editor between 2011 and 2014. Charles then upped sticks to work in America, as Motorsport.com’s Editor in Chief, where he created the multi-national and multi-lingual editorial team that quickly became the world’s most-read motorsport website. He was instrumental in delivering three of the biggest Global F1 Fan Surveys in sports history and is also a multiple award-winning scriptwriter. Charles is an overseas member of the Guild of Motoring Writers. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife Helen – and a cat that’s named after Serbia’s top football club.