Häkkinen remembers his near-death F1 crash: 'The pain was unbelievable'

“It was extremely challenging,” he says. “When you have accident like that, and you have that [kind of] pain, nothing else in your life is important apart from getting rid of it.

“It’s not just a one-day headache, it’s months [of a] headache.

“You’re not thinking about racing. You cannot even imagine that [you] would like to go back in a racing car, because you cannot even live a normal life.”

Eventually though, there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“Luckily, step by step, I got better and stronger. Then the team told me: ‘The new season is starting, do you want to test? Do you want to even drive a car?’

“Naturally, you’re sitting there on a terrace in Monaco, looking at the city. And you go, ‘Look: I started when I was racing, when I was six, and now I’m 26. Shall I just now sit in this terrace rest of my life?

“The doctors didn’t even let me go jogging. Half my face was paralyzed, and they’d shaved off half my hair [for surgical procedures].”

Häkkinen would famously make to the test though, and clearly still be up to standard. That return in 1996 was the platform for him to eventually step up and become a double world champion in 1998 and 1999.

However, the challenge didn’t quite end with his return to fitness. Coulthard was highly rated and very much the coming man in British motor sport. Ron Dennis duly signed him up for ’96 and beyond. Health issues weren’t Häkkinen’s only barrier to success.

“Then I had David Coulthard! He was a young, fit, strong racing driver, full of energy and looking to win races, absolutely going for the world championship,” remembers Häkkinen.

“So he didn’t give me no chance, no way. Of course, he asked me: ‘How are you doing Mika?’, he was always a gentleman, but when we were on track, there was no mercy whatsoever.”

The accident also had the unlikely effect of bringing the team, and particularly principal Ron Dennis, closer to Häkkinen, much to his benefit.

“When I go back to those times, it makes me really see how lucky I was having a great team like McLaren, a good family, lucky to have a good management, and that helped me to make me stronger – you know, [I thought] ‘It’s time to time to kick some ass!’”

Coulthard had a unique vantage point on the situation as McLaren’s newly-signed driver.

While the team was worried about Häkkinen even surviving the crash, the Scot for a period represented their only chance of success.

“When I crashed in the pitlane while leading the Australian GP, Mika was in an induced coma in hospital fighting for his life,” he says.

“We all left Australia unsure as to whether he would ever race again, and when we became team-mates, it was in a darker period of Mika’s life – testing alone at Paul Ricard, just to see if he could do it again, if he could even continue with a normal life.”

Coulthard now concedes that the scenario created a situation which he simply couldn’t overcome – the crash had brought Dennis and Häkkinen together with a closer bond than is usual compared to most driver/team boss relationships.

“I think what sums it up is a conversation I had with Ron, about how he’d never lost a driver in one of his cars [and therefore feeling a paternal responsibility towards him],” says the 13-time grand prix winner.

“When he was standing over Mika’s bed in Adelaide, and he’s on life support, and not knowing whether he’ll survive, never mind would he ever come back and race for the team.

“I completely get that, because when you put all the bravado and all of the desire and all of the hunger to one side, we’re human beings, and we have feelings and we have relationships.”

When Häkkinen is asked for his view on the situation is he says, “I didn’t complain – I did my job”. I.e. he was Dennis’s star boy, and he delivered.

The two would go on to be one of F1’s most successful driver pairings, winning 30 races, two drivers’ titles for Häkkinen and a constructors’ title in 1998, driving Adrian Newey’s sensational late ‘90s creations.

Häkkinen would announce an F1 sabbatical at the end of 2001, which became a retirement. One of the main motivations for the break was another huge crash that season, again at Australia and not dissimilar to his one six years earlier.

The risk for the Finn had now become too great, but only after he had managed to look death in the eye, yet still become an F1 great.

‘An Evening with Racing Icons Mika Häkkinen & David Coulthard’ begins its tour on September 22 – tickets and more information can be found here.