2000 saw the year that Häkkinen conceded the title to Schumacher with 2001 yelding two victories and the announcement of a sabbatical that later turned into retirement.

Häkkinen was close to winning the 1990 Macau Grand Prix but missed out due to a controversial accident with Michael Schumacher, which resulted in his promotion to Formula One with Team Lotus.

However, in the next three races, Schumacher won the next three allowing him to close the championship gap to Häkkinen in the drivers ' standings.

At Monza, Schumacher and Häkkinen were imposed only finished fourth due to a gearbox problem.

Schumacher took pole at the Nurburgring with Häkkinen taking victory.

In the last race of the season, Häkkinen won again with an unfortunate Schumacher who took pole position was forced to start from the back of the grid due to a problem encountered on his warm-up lap and had made a good recovery in the race before a puncture forced him to retire.

Barrichello had a consistent debut season for Ferrari, finishing most races on the podium, but was outscored by the other three reliable drivers: Michael Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard.

Barrichello finished the season ranked fourth after supporting Schumacher as he battled and defeated Häkkinen for the drivers ' championship, and helping Ferrari win the constructors ' championship.

It saw Michael Schumacher return to the sport after his absence due to a broken leg sustained at that year's British Grand Prix, dominating the race and handing the victory to title-hopeful team-mate Eddie Irvine, only for both Ferraris to be disqualified due to a technical irregularity, handing the title — until the steward's decision was overruled — to Mika Häkkinen.

The inaugural Championship race in 1994 saw Michael Schumacher take an easy victory after Ayrton Senna was involved in a first corner accident with Mika Häkkinen and Nicola Larini.

The Benetton B197 had a lacklustre opening to the 1997 season at Melbourne but the team and Berger bounced back at the 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Berger finishing second having overtaken Mika Häkkinen and Michael Schumacher.

In 2001, Mika Häkkinen suffered a clutch failure while leading the race on the last lap, handing the win to Schumacher.

The drivers have been and are a mixture of young and older drivers, including well known former Formula One drivers David Coulthard, Bernd Schneider, Allan McNish, Jean Alesi, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Ralf Schumacher, JJ Lehto, Pedro Lamy, Karl Wendlinger, Emanuele Pirro, Stefano Modena and two-time F1 world champion Mika Häkkinen.

1998 saw Mika Häkkinen gain revenge for his engine failure at the previous race by taking victory at this one, with Michael Schumacher second despite qualifying on pole, and team-mate Coulthard third.

After the re-start Schumacher led away again from Häkkinen and Barrichello, though Häkkinen's race was to end on lap 25 when his front-right suspension broke under braking and he spun off into a tyre barrier.

Fourth was Berger in the other McLaren followed by Schumacher in the Benetton, Herbert a very good 6th in the Lotus, Brundle in 7th, the two Ferraris of Alesi and Capelli in 8th and 9th and Häkkinen rounding out the top 10 in the Lotus.

Two further future champions ( Michael Schumacher and Mika Häkkinen ) scored points.

The Williamses were 1-2 in qualifying ahead of the McLarens but Hill, desperate to keep his Championship hopes alive took pole from Prost, with Häkkinen surprisingly ahead of Senna with Alesi and Schumacher behind.

Alesi led Senna, Häkkinen, Prost, Schumacher and Berger.

On lap 20, Senna's engine blew as Alesi, Häkkinen and Schumacher pitted, with Alesi losing out to both.

This left Prost leading from Blundell, Hill, Häkkinen, Schumacher and Alesi.

Schumacher passed Häkkinen on lap 25 and pulled away.

When Hill stopped as well, Schumacher was leading from Prost, Häkkinen, Hill, Alesi and Berger.

After success in karting and a near win at the 1990 Macau Grand Prix, Häkkinen joined Lotus in 1991 where he remained until 1992.

Following a life-threatening injury during qualifying for the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, Häkkinen made a considerable improvement in 1996 and took his first victory at the 1997 European Grand Prix.

During 1993, Häkkinen, along with Ayrton Senna, tested the Lamborghini V12 engine in a modified version of the McLaren MP4 / 8 race car dubbed the " MP4 / 8B " at both Estoril and Silverstone.

Häkkinen driving his McLaren-Peugeot to third place at the 1994 British Grand Prix

Häkkinen driving for McLaren at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

Häkkinen missed the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida due to an appendix operation.

Häkkinen climbed back into a Formula One car at Paul Ricard three months after the accident.

Häkkinen came close to an elusive breakthrough victory a number of times in 1997, not least at Silverstone, A1-Ring and Nürburgring.

Kimi Räikkönen replaced Häkkinen at McLaren-Mercedes in 2002, and has also been referred to as the Flying Finn, although he is better known by his other nickname, The Iceman ( Finnish: Jäämies ).

He eventually retired at the end of the season, his final race seeing him finish a very close fourth in Jerez only seconds behind the victor Mika Häkkinen.

The teams usually abide by this rule, but in 1997, Mika Häkkinen was stripped of his third place finish at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium after the FIA determined that his fuel was not the correct formula, as well as in 1976, both McLaren and Penske cars were forced to the rear of the Italian Grand Prix after octane number of the mixture was found to be too high.

At the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, Mika Häkkinen crashed heavily during the Friday qualifying session at the Brewery Bend at high-speed due to a puncture having been sustained by his car.

* a Youtube video where Mika Häkkinen explains what sisu is ( starts at 4: 32 )

For a long time it looked as if Mika Häkkinen would take his first F1 win as he pulled away at the front from his McLaren team-mate David Coulthard.

Häkkinen went on to win the World Championship in the final race at Suzuka ; interestingly, this means that every winner of the Luxembourg GP went on to win that year's World Championship.

Mika Häkkinen had second at this point.

The win gave Häkkinen a four point lead in the championship heading into the final race in Suzuka, meaning he would only needed second place there to clinch his first title.

With Mercedes-Benz engines, West sponsorship and former Williams designer Adrian Newey, further championships came in 1998 and 1999 with driver Mika Häkkinen and during the 2000s the team were consistent front-runners, driver Lewis Hamilton taking their latest title in 2008.

After retiring from Formula One, Häkkinen has driven in the DTM series where he won three races with Mercedes before retiring in 2007.

Häkkinen grew up with one sister, Nina, who ran a fan site for her brother until its closure in 1998.

His father bought Häkkinen his first go-kart, one that Henri Toivonen had previously competed with.

Häkkinen finished the season in eighth place in the Drivers ' Championship, with almost six times as many points as during the previous season.

In, Häkkinen joined McLaren as test driver with a view to be promoted into the race team later on.

Both drivers were impressed with the engine, with Häkkinen reportedly lapping Silverstone some 1. 4 seconds faster in the MP4 / 8B with its V12 engine than he had with the team's race car fitted with the Ford V8.

With Senna departing to Williams for, Häkkinen became the leading driver for McLaren with Martin Brundle as his teammate.

The year began with Häkkinen winning the first four of six rounds.

Constructors ' and drivers ' world championships were won with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton.