Originally posted by ExigeExcel
Why can't Michael Schumacher be like that?
What's that supposed to mean?
Mika Hakkinen quit because he'd worked hard to win anything, driving a pathetic excuse of a Lotus in '91, which became a decent car in '92 with abetter engine. He sat out nearly an entire year to be a test-driver for McLaren while Michael Andretti and Ron Dennis misjudged what it took to jump stright into racing around the Old Continent (and a stop or two in Africa and South America, but who's counting?)
He drove the woefully unreliable McLaren-Peugeot (think the current Benz engine is crap?) for a year, and did likewise for the next two years of Mercedes/Ilmor power...the engine still was unreliable, but he never complained, never looked at driving for other teams, never blamed his engineers and technicians, or blamed anyone. Things got better in '97, and he won awell-deserved title in '98 and a close one in '99 (although Ferrari did their best to self-destruct).
In 2000, Ferrari was stronger, and McLaren wasn't as reliable. By the end of th year, Hakkinen was starting to lose interest, it seemed. He wasn't on form as much, even when the car was great (Coulthard was out-performing him). By 2001, there were races where it looked like he wasn't trying...and proposed the idea of the "sabbatical" (which no F1 driver has ever truly given himself the opportunity to do). At the USGP in 2001, he won it with style, with a very Alain Prost-like conservation of fuel and tires and perfect judgement of when to pit and when to overtake or be overtaken.
Mika knew he had nothing more to prove in F1, probably didn't care for all the hype and hoopla, and called it a career. As soon as Raikonnen was drafted in to the second McLAren, I knew that was it for Hakkinen's career. Kimi was just too quick, and we wasn't going to boot his former teammate out nor the sensation that McLaren had with his replacement.
Hakkinen had the opportunity to quit when he was ahead. Most F1 drivers have to be rejected or offered a Minardi drive (sorry to kick Minardi like that) before they know their number's up.
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