Mika Hakkinen Teaches Captain Slow to Drive - Top Gear - BBC

this is a typical Finnish back road it's full of sudden kress and hidden dip so as you drive along it you need to know about power on power off feeling the cargo light and the grip disappear you're going to become a racing driver so to find out how the Finns wrap all this up into one big bundle of skill I went for a drive with one of the locals unfortunately the only person I could find was a retired bloke mind you he's still quite sprightly it's a heron he's going through the left-hander make a hackin and won the f1 world championship twice on both occasions beating the most successful driver of all time Michael Schumacher serving you were the only driver you really feared where did you learn car control because they say the Finns you know they have an instinct for it that other nations on earth don't have you can just do it we start doing this sport very very young so automatically we learn to control I'll give you example if you put a British person learning to play cricket when he's 25 years old it is too late to understand the name of the game are you thinking through these colours or you just feel it and you know no honestly what what's going on not really I've got really really slowly oh wait yeah sitting next to micker you get a fantastic demonstration of finished car control but if I was to learn more I couldn't just be a passenger tomorrow in the interest of science though probably more for your entertainment I suspect the office has entered me in an amateur race on a rally circuit thankfully though mickr has offered to train me up there's something else about enigma is not just helpful he's quite modest in travel last year I went out with Jackie Stewart if he won the World Championship three times I don't know said of just two Wow but he told me to be quite smooth and fast on a tarmac circuit but could you teach me to be finished fast on a loose surface you think I can empty the first and most important thing they could we teach me was a cornering move known as the Scandinavian and because he didn't want his mates rally car wrapped around a tree we started off with some cones when we come with the car how to trace the back end to touching all these cones to find the perfect slide okay this is how we get the back end around then it was my turn little left later ride on the gas get the back end loose that's not enough is it yeah action medical first run and then finally you did it you're dead Mini's way after we demolished all its cones I took Nick out on the proper course which he found relaxing no second third in a bit of a flick I was bad sorry I forgot which way to go there okay first and then with Yoda's guidance now back end out nicely here spare the gas yeah good really wrong it all came together good excellent lesson over we stopped for a cup of hot reindeer blood and talked about why the Finns are so suited to motorsports tell me a bit about Sisu what Sisu see so in English means courage what is the what is the finnish courage let me give you example okay climbing a tree it jumped down from there so that doesn't mean see so that is the courage a stupidity that is exactly so see so we can relate very much that in in a motor racing the example you try and rally car in a forest extremely really fast and you need courage to able to brake late to call throttle really early or very claw closer to a box off the corners and they're also they're quite quite reserved the Finns I mean you famously when you were a Formula One driver they'd ask you a really complicated question and you just say yes yes that's right is it but the reason I'm asking is because I wondered if I might be in some way a bit Finnish myself I don't like noisy people so does that make me finish do you think yes at home I quite like to have the spanners in my toolbox in order of size yeah so that I can always find the right one is that quite finish yes it is very much personally that's what I do if you're talking about the toolbox and everything has to be very organized I quite like to have the air vents on my car all pointing the same way exactly is that finish no the next day it was time for me to mix it with the Finns I've been entered in one of their folk races which are run on part tarmac part gravel and take place every weekend all over Finland the Finns had kindly sorted me out with a typical folk racing car at 1967 Volvo Amazon own actual fact it has 200 horsepower but in every other respect it's scrapped but there's a very good reason for this you see there's a clever rule in folk racing all the cars in the race are given a nominal and equal value let's say it's a thousand euros then at the end of the race you can go to any other competitor and say I want to buy your car and he or she has to sell it to you it stops people spending too much money getting sponsorship and generally taking it too seriously it also means that the cars stay equal and the racing stays close which in turn sharpens the skills but frankly when the other drivers arrive I stopped worrying about their skills like over there's about 85 and alongside him the grid featured some housewives a child a teenager and Bill Oddie surely this can't be that difficult that girl next to me should be doing a maths homework you by the time we hit the first corner it was obvious that these were no ordinary pensioners children housewives and valadis LT Brandon have a Scandinavian flick Finnish person damn down I've lost it I've forgotten what mickr had said that these guys start doing this as soon as they can see over the wheel I'm getting burned I started to fight back a pasta pen w that was an overtake on the Finnish person she's only 12 burn us on the boy but the 12 year old wasn't having it hi now normally I'd have been happy to stay there in the nice comfy ditch but that's not what mickr would have wanted it was time to summon up some seasonal I'm gonna have to all vote opportunity for overtaking using knickers training I overtook a housewife charts for glory and then granddad you but bail on you is too much for me and in the end I finished somewhere near the middle I think all my top-level Finnish motorsport training has made me exactly average but that was average in Finland anywhere else I might have been brilliant you

Channel: Top Gear

Views: 5,163,897

Rating: 4.9403315 out of 5

Keywords: BBC, BBC Worldwide, Motoring, Top Gear, James May, Finland, Mika Hakkinen, Mercedes, Race, Drag Speed, Rally driving, Tips, Lesson, Cars, Drive

Id: 2bmqdnx5R1U

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/noroadsleft]

This is my second favourite segment ever of Top Gear. Can't watch this enough.

(Favourite is the Ayrton Senna tribute, when Lewis Hamilton drives Senna's McLaren.)

[u/[deleted]]

Top Gear needs less Richard Hammond and more F1 drivers.

[u/Ronkerjake]

Yes.

[u/GodHatesNascar]

One of my favorite segments they've done. Mika's a great guy. Funny too. Does he have some sort of deal with Mercedes still? Or does he just like the automaker that much? I notice he's driving all Mercedes and kind of wearing the colors.

[u/NecronomiconUK]

I freakin' love Mika, he's just such an awesome guy. Loved to watch him race, but he had personality too, he's always had this cheeky fun edge which Kimi lacks.