“As few words as possible”

Adrian Newey is the engineer who designed the McLarens that helped Mika Hakkinen win two world titles in 1998 and 1999 (pictured above) and who remembers the Finnish driver fondly: 

“I really liked Mika (Hakkinen). He was very Finnish in the way he expressed himself with as few words as possible – until he drank two glasses of ‘Finnish white wine’ (vodka), and from then on, he used as many words as possible.”

Newey continues : “But he was a pleasure to work with. As long as you took the time and effort to understand what he wanted from his car, he repaid the trust you gave many times over.”

“He had the opposite approach to drivers like Alain Prost or Sebastian Vettel, in that after holding a briefing about the behavior of his car, he would simply leave and trust us that we would be able to find solutions, and would not return until the next practice session or race.”

Adrian Newey concludes: “Sometimes, drivers can get lost in the details or in analyzing data, and their driving becomes too mechanical, like methodical actors, instead of driving by feel. But look at the results, however, both approaches can work.”