How a Mika Hakkinen joke backfired and left Ayrton Senna fuming

Mika Hakkinen’s sense of humour landed him in some hot water with Ayrton Senna in their first race together as McLaren teammates.

After spending most of 1993 on the sidelines, Mika Hakkinen landed a race seat with the Woking-based squad for the final three races of the year and, immediately, made his mark by outqualifying Ayrton Senna at Estoril.

Mika Hakkinen: Ayrton Senna didn’t take me being faster very well

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Hakkinen had initially been signed as a race driver for McLaren in 1993, intended to be a teammate for Michael Andretti.

But Hakkinen’s deal was such that he would step down if Ayrton Senna, a well-established multiple World Champion with Ron Dennis’ squad, opted to continue with the team.

Senna chose to continue, and Hakkinen duly stepped aside into a test driver role as Andretti stayed in his car alongside the Brazilian driver.

But Andretti struggled massively and, by year’s end, Hakkinen had done enough to convince Dennis that it was time for him to be given a chance. At the third-last race of the year, the Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, Hakkinen was officially paired with Senna in the two MP4/8s and, immediately, showed McLaren the error of its ways in sticking with the underperforming Andretti for so long.

In qualifying, Hakkinen popped his car into third place with a 1:12.956. While almost a second off the pace set by the two Williams drivers in first and second, his time was 0.048 quicker than what Senna had managed as the three-time F1 World Champion claimed third on the grid.

“I was testing a lot that year, developing the car, and then Michael Andretti, who was racing at McLaren with Ayrton Senna, was crashing a lot, so the relationship just didn’t work,” Hakkinen recounted to the High Performance podcast.

“Andretti didn’t race for the last three Grands Prix, so it gave me the opportunity to be a teammate for Ayrton for the last three races.

“So first race I did with McLaren, I crashed. No chance for victory when I crashed, but I out-qualified Senna in qualifying. That was great! In my first Grand Prix, that was incredible.”

Used to being top dog within a team, Senna was thrown by the speed shown by Hakkinen, and his mood wasn’t lifted by Hakkinen’s electing to make a joke of his accomplishment.

“Not very well,” he said when asked if Senna had taken the moment well.

“The time difference between Senna and me in qualifying was only maybe half a tenth of a second, so absolutely hardly anything.

“I knew the difference was coming in the very first turn. The Estoril track in Portugal, it’s an extremely fast right-hand corner, where you enter the corner, and you touch the brake pedal just a tiny bit, come down the gears and just foot down again. Super fast.

“But I was using left-foot braking, and Ayrton was using right-foot braking. So when he had to come off the throttle to go on the brake pedal and then get back on the throttle, that’s where he lost that half a tenth.

“So he came to ask me after qualifying, ‘Mika, how did you do it?’ And of course, I didn’t tell him!

“I didn’t tell him, but I said something very naughty to him. A little bit of joking there, the Finnish sense of humour, and he didn’t take it so well.

“I said, ‘I had the balls!'”

While intended as a light-hearted quip, Senna’s sense of competitiveness meant he failed to see the funny side.

“No, he went really… he got really upset,” Hakkinen said.

“I said, ‘How many championships do you have, and how many race victories? It was just a joke’.

“He got upset, and he didn’t speak to me for a couple of weeks, he was really pissed off.”

Senna got ahead of Hakkinen early in the race and was on for a podium until his engine blew up on Lap 20. Hakkinen’s race lasted little longer, with the Finn crashing at the final corner 13 laps later.

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It was a month until the following race, the Japanese Grand Prix, and, once again, there was little in it in qualifying as Senna took second and Hakkinen third, the duo separated by just 0.032 seconds. But, in the race, Senna took a comfortable win as Hakkinen claimed third place, almost half a minute behind his illustrious teammate.

Having seen Senna’s response to his authority coming under threat, Hakkinen, who would go on to win two consecutive Drivers’ Championships in 1998 and ’99, said the Brazilian’s no-nonsense reaction had opened his eyes to the reality of the learning curve ahead of him.

“We started communicating again, and he put his act together,” Hakkinen said.

“He really put his professionalism, maximum experience together. Then, the last two Grands Prix with him, he just went flat out. I didn’t have a chance.

“I was close to him at times, but his experience was so powerful that way. I had no chance, and that opened my eyes big way; I have so many things to learn.”

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