FÓRMULA-1

Heroes: Hakkinen recalls accident with Schumacher in Macau

In this excerpt from the documentary Heroes, Hakkinen recalls his accident with the seven-time champion in Macau, before the two entered F1
In the documentary Heroes, available on Motorsport.tv, four sports legends share stories about their successes, failures, difficulties and accidents that marked their careers. Today you can see an excerpt from the film where Mika Hakkinen talks about the accident he had with Michael Schumacher at the 1990 Macau GP.
Macau is the most important event on the Formula 3 calendar, and Hakkinen arrived at the event as the British champion. His team, West Surrey Racing, would compete against Schumacher's WTS Racing Reward, champion of the German championship. Hakkinen had already won the first heat, and only needed to get three seconds ahead of Schumacher to win the event in the competition.
Hakkinen was clearly faster than Schumacher in the final laps, and was being hindered by Schumacher, who was ahead of him.

Mikka Hakkinen-1999

"What can I do? I need to overtake him," said Hakkinen in the film. "But he was so slow, and I was very close to him, getting the dirt."
"I did the maneuver to overtake him, and I could see his eyes in the mirror ... [Hakkinen starts to move an imaginary steering wheel to the right] - Boom!"
After the race, Schumacher said in an interview: "I knew he was there, I saw him in the mirror. And I saw him in the mirror all the time, he was close to me. And he took his foot off the accelerator and stayed behind of me".
"This time he got closer and closer, and I could see, so I went to the right. At that moment, he tried to overtake me. And he was so fast that he couldn't brake."
Hakkinen lamented: "I missed the race - a terrible time".
Schumacher ended up winning, even without the rear wing. But Hakkinen's mistake did not affect his career and the following year he joined Lotus in F1, months before Schumacher did the same, but with Jordan initially, and then with Benetton. 

Charles Bradley