However, there would be no F3000 drive. The Lotus Formula One team snapped up Hakkinen for the 1991 Grand Prix season, and we see the Silverstone test which secured him the seat. It is the first time Hakkinen sat in an F1 car, and he immediately impressed Lotus boss Peter Collins, who reveals in an interview his admiration for his new charge.
Of course, it is behind the wheel of a McLaren Formula One car that Hakkinen is best remembered, and archive footage from 1993 shows him getting his first taste of the MP4/8 alongside first Michael Andretti and then the great Ayrton Senna. It is a delight to have access to the rarefied atmosphere of a McLaren test in the presence of a legend, and a legend-in-the-making ? especially when they take to the testing track!
The film concludes with Hakkinen?s installation as McLaren?s number 1 driver in 1994, the final piece in the jigsaw which would lead to race wins and championship glory in 1998 and 1999, and secure Hakkinen?s place as a Grand Prix Hero. Running time: 52mins.
