Mika Hakkinen has revealed he seriously questioned his future in motorsport following his life-threatening crash at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. Speaking on the Up To Speed podcast alongside former McLaren teammate David Coulthard, the two-time Formula 1 champion detailed the psychological and physical hurdles he faced after the accident in Adelaide that left him with a fractured skull.
The crash occurred during qualifying when a puncture sent Hakkinen's McLaren airborne and into a high-speed spin before hitting the tyre barrier on the outside of Brewery Corner. "When I was sideways and I hit that huge kerb in the exit and the car launched in the air, that was the moment I realised this is going to be a big one," he recalled. "The car didn't slow down at all, and I knew the barrier was not far away. It was so high speed, and then the car was spinning in the air."
Hakkinen described the terrifying moment when he tried to move but couldn't. "I tried to move my hands or my legs, no chance. I said, 'Oh s***.' When the guy came in front of me and said, 'Just relax, don't do anything, try to stay calm,' then somebody turned off the lights," he said. The impact caused a skull fracture, internal bleeding, and a blocked airway. F1 safety and medical delegate Sid Watkins and volunteer doctors Jerome Cockings and Steve Lewis saved his life, with Cockings performing an emergency tracheotomy trackside. Hakkinen remained hospitalised for approximately two months.
Despite the severe head trauma, Hakkinen was back testing an F1 car just months later. However, he admitted the decision to return was hard to make. "This decision moment is one of the most challenging," he explained. "You could easily say, 'Let's move life in a different direction and forget motor racing.' You have to make this decision alone, and you have to go through so many different things in your life. What do you want from your life? What is the future of your life? The questions are coming to your head all the time: 'A couple of months ago I nearly just died, so do you want to go back to this same business?'"
Ultimately, Hakkinen's passion for racing outweighed his fear. "It is such a huge passion, motor racing and driving the car, controlling this incredible Formula 1 car at a very high speed," he concluded. "When everything works, and there's great teamwork with mechanics and engineers. So I decided to go back, and I don't know if it's something to do with your youth, your ego, you want to prove that yes, I can do it. I made the decision to come back, but it wasn't an easy one. You have to work on your mindset. When you sit in a car after an accident, you have to put your mindset to not think about the fear of the crash. It will happen again. You will crash again, but not to be afraid of that crash."
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