Where Are They Now: Mika Häkkinen

Mika Häkkinen is a two-time F1 World Champion and the most successful Finnish driver of all time. Everyone felt incredible regret when, in 2001, suddenly Häkkinen decided to leave racing. 

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In the life of every sportsman there comes a moment when they have to part with a professional career and move on. In the past, these people could have been successfully continuing to collect titles, but in the present day, they simply have to reinvent themselves. Let’s see how Mika did it.

Racing

There’s no such thing as a former racer, it’s a certain calling. After a short break in Mika’s career, he returned to DTM and raced for 3 more years. Recently, Häkkinen entered the 2022 Race of Champions at the Havsbad circuit in Sweden, which was his first race since his one and only McLaren 720s appearance in the famed 10-hour Suzuka race.

Media

Häkkinen leads a fairly active life in social media. For several years, Mika has been covering the events of each Formula 1 GP on his blog. In addition, since 2017, the Finnish driver has been actively publishing archival pictures from his career, as well as current photos and videos on Instagram. Autumn 2021 saw the premiere of a film about Mika’s path to both of his F1 titles.

IT technologies

Unexpectedly, Mika Häkkinen is a co-founder of a technology startup. The developed INZDR app became the first premium application to monetize and raise funds on social media. Fans around the world can access exclusive information about the lives of various celebrities, including sports stars before the content is released to the web. Mika also writes about F1 for this app.

Racing management

Mika is a part of the Aces Group which is based in Monaco and founded by his own former race manager Didier Coton. As a racing manager Häkkinen identifies and develops new racing talent, and passes his own experience on to young drivers.

Ambassadorship

Since 2017 Häkkinen partnered with the Unibet brand, the number one company in the gaming industry. Mika leads a responsible company that aims to support Unibet customers by raising their awareness of various tools in the gaming industry. Häkkinen also sits alongside Executive Director Zak Brown and the staff of McLaren marketing when working with sponsors and potential new partners.

FAI Aviation Group, one of the world’s leading global providers of mission-critical aviation services, collaborates with Mika too, and so do Nokian tyres. He is a spokesperson for a know “don’t drink and drive” campaign for Johnnie Walker. He led the company to join the pact campaign to spread commitment to preventing drunk driving. Furthermore, Häkkinen is a brand ambassador for Mercedes Benz, UBS, and, of course, F1, often participating in roadshows and giving demos of various high-performance vehicles to this day.

Biography

Full name	Mika Pauli Hakkinen
Date of birth	28 September 1968
Nationality	Finnish
Place of birth	Vantaa, Finland
Height	1.79m
Weight	70kg
Blood type	A RH++
Residency	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Marital status	Married Erja Honkanen on 30 May 1988, divorced in 2008 Married Markéta Remešová 2017
Children	With Erja: Hugo (son), Aina (daughter) With Markéta: Lynn (daughter), Ella (daughter), Daniel (son)
Family	Harri (father), Aila (mother), Nina (sister)

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