Of course I mean the Flying Finn that is Mika Hakkinen, the two-time World Champion that was famous for being silent but deadly under the realm of Ron Dennis at McLaren. I could never work out what it was about Hakkinen that made me such a fan as I grew up watching Formula 1 though. There was always Rubens over the years but behind that you had Mika Hakkinen being pretty amazing. He just had that sense of mystery that I think made him so interesting and why I think he’s a one of a kind driver that Formula 1 is very lucky to have had.

Of course it could have been far different if it weren’t for the incredible work done by Professor Sid Watkins to get to Mika’s car at Adelaide in 1995 and perform an emergency tracheotomy at track side. Thankfully, with that amazing work saving his life, Hakkinen went on to be one of the fastest drivers in the modern era with a ‘no messing about’ ethic to his driving and straight to the point style of humour – all which came together excellently to allow Hakkinen to grab the 1998 and 1999 World Championships.

Number 1. Quite right, too.

It’s strange that I actually remember quite vividly hearing about the decision he made to take a sabbatical from Formula 1 all the way back in 2001. I’m fairly sure, if a little misty in my mind, that I’d actually found about it after a say at school, and from turning on the teletext on BBC1 to page 360 and reading about a sabbatical I immediately took to our bookshelf at the time to work out what the word meant. Whilst I made not be 100% accurate on the order of these events the heart sinking feeling of working out what it meant was unfortunately unforgettable. It was actually quite gutting.

There’s a whole heap of reasons to remember why Hakkinen was, and remains, so appealing though. I mean, the man was fast. It was ridiculous to watch him sometimes because he was so good and the fact he was so quiet as well as a man who never really gave anything away made him a unique character in comparison to his rival at the time in Michael Schumacher who was fast but not afraid to get his way if necessary. There’s more to take from this though…

This rivalry definitely made Hakkinen even better in my book because he was going up against the dominance of Schumacher and wasn’t messing about in any sense of the word. Before I became a big Barrichello fan in his latter years at Stewart, my initial years of watching F1 in 96 and 97 were having this guy really taking it to Schumacher and matching him move for move with Villeneuve not too far off before it all went a bit mental at Williams. My dislike of Schumacher even back then made Hakkinen the perfect driver to look up to – it was just meant to be!

Of course, Barrichello would then move to Ferrari and whilst his car because much faster and his chances of victory increased greatly the weight of Schumacher’s dominance at Ferrari once he’d returned from his broken leg soon became evident – and it was pretty rubbish to put it bluntly. Is it hardly surprising that the man who really tested Schumacher at every chance he could get was to become such a highly regarded driver in my eyes?

Then you have the move at Spa; a move that everyone Formula 1 fan both old and new should respect and adore for how ridiculous it is but how absolutely breathtaking stunning it was too. Is it the greatest overtaking manoeuvre of all time? Arguable, but it’s definitely up there. What it does do though is provide just a little glimpse as to the genius of the man behind the wheel – even if Plan A isn’t going to work, if you’re good enough to go for Plan B you’ll make it work and with Schumacher not willing to give up the position despite being slower and Zonta in the way, Hakkinen didn’t even put a foot wrong. It really is something else.

A few years ago my girlfriend and I took a trip down to Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey and for a brief while we had the pleasure of being in the company of the McLaren MP4-14, Hakkinen’s 1999 car that went on to take his second and final World Championship. It’s these little bits of history that make you thankful that places like this exist and you can stand next to a machine that is more complicated that anyone you could construct in your entire life yet look as elegant and simple as the driving style that was being reflected from Hakkinen driving it on track. That was a real pleasure.

In retrospect the car seemed to match the man up rather well. Appropriate, really.

I suppose like this generation’s Flying Finn in Kimi Raikkonen, every so often you’d get his Scandinavian humour coming through to a befuddled world’s press who didn’t quite get it and yet it was just Mika being Mika. That’s who he was though – quiet and fast, compellingly mysterious from time to time but utterly brilliant. Hakkinen was just masterful at what he did and, to me, he’ll go down as one of Formula 1′s greatest drivers because of how efficient he was and the focus he had behind the wheel to win. He was Formula 1′s man of mystery. He was just one of a kind.

We’re Supposed to be Woking Together

One of the more entertaining parts of the Bahrain Grand Prix had to be the inter-team battle between Jenson Button and Sergio Perez. Now that Perez has finally come to life we saw a much more entertaining and, at times, worrying side to his driving as I felt like every time he fought for position a crash was inevitable. However it’s credit to both his driving and to Jenson’s too that when these two McLaren drivers squared up against each other it was a fiery battle without any disasters even if it got too close for Jenson from time to time. You think back to the last race at Turkey when Jenson and Lewis had that great battle for position that had you on the edge of your seat but it was so clean and professionally handled between the two that it was pretty impressive – this wasn’t so much the case here as Perez seemed a bit too wild for my liking at times but it was still a good message to send out amongst F1 that team mates can battle and not end up in a disastrous rivalry full of tension and paranoia.

The Mull of Keen Tyres

I was pretty impressed with Paul di Resta’s drive during the race too as he looked strong and had a good amount of pace in that Force India as was suggested in qualifying for both sutil and himself. Whilst Sutil’s bad luck at the start of the race hampered his chances of a good finish like Australia, di Resta took the opportunity and made the most of it mist definitely. He was pretty unlucky that his tyres ended up costing him his first podium in Formula 1 with Grosjean easily catching him back up towards the end of the race. It’s a shame as Di Resta needs that first real podium to try to break him out from the rather unexceptional time he’s had in F1 so far but he had a real standout performance this weekend that should give him good stead for the season ahead if the car continues to do as well as it did here. although fair play to Grosjean, he really improved during this race than his substandard 2013 has shown so far.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

On the topic of tyres, I think this weekend was the first time this season I’ve been genuinely a bit suspicious about Pirelli’s tyres this year. Lewis had a pretty severe puncture during practice and poor Felipe Massa just had no luck with debris causing a puncture and another puncture to match that too during the race. I don’t have an issue so much with multiple stop races and whatnot but you’ve got to wonder how much strength a 5/6 lap stint on weak tyres is worth keeping hold of. Pirelli are trying to make it a completely different affair to that of Bridgestone’s time in F1 and they’re doing exactly as they’ve been ordered by the FIA but I think over time thinks will get a bit more conservative with the degradation.

Race, It’s a Race, And I’m Gonna Win, Yes I’m Gonna Win

It was nice to have a good Bahrain Grand Prix too without any controversy from the possible protests and to see lots of action going on without having to complain about DRS. Mercedes seemed to struggle in the desert and I was a bit gobsmacked to see Rosberg fall back so quickly in fact, which was a shame as I wanted him to do well at the front. There was a lot of exciting action too at the fast flowing corners which was refreshing to see and turn 4′s hairpin with multiple lines made for great entertainment too. There was some fairly aggressive driving into this corner but its just nice to see a Tilke track actually doing it’s job especially as Bahrain hasn’t exactly been the most reputable of locations for exciting, flowing racing much like Bahrain provided in this race.

So I enjoyed the Bahrain Grand Prix even if it was a bit of a walk in the park for Vettel who pretty much had the win from the get go in the way he was so used to in recent years. The midfield seems pretty close at the moment and Mercedes really need to get over their tyre woes to have a continually fast car – they seem strong on the straights but so bad in the corners. Still, it’s off to Europe next and the start of the european season so I’m sure we’re still a long way from determining who has the best car seeing as it continues to jump from race to race. I’m just glad Bahrain wasn’t as dull as I was expecting!

Luckily, I’m here to enlighten you today as it turns out the world’s chickenest creeper has creeped his way into some of the most famous, epic moments brought to us throughout the world as we know it. Yes, he’s creeped his way into the winners circle over the last few years in Indy Car but why not take a look through the history of the FireChicken and his many creeptastic ways around the world and times as we know them!

Who knows where the Firechicken might lurk his way into next?! All I’m saying is, always check behind you in the bathroom even when you can’t see anyone in the mirror.

Fernandon’t Stop Me Now

You’ve got to give it to Fernando Alonso, the guy is a bit of a beast in that Ferrari. After a really strong start from both Ferrari drivers following the red lights, Alonso seemed to have the race in his control as others fought around for position behind them. It’s of great credit to Ferrari to how much better their car is from the get go this year as they seem to be in a far, far better place than they were this time last year. Massa was unlucky to fall so far back behind his team-mate as he looked to be pretty impressive once more but it was Alonso who was the man today without a doubt.

Smiley Happy People and Unlucky Charms

I was really pleased to see Smiley Dan Ricciardo doing so well in the Toro Rosso as that team need a bit of a break from such poor form that seems to have plagued them recently. Dan seems a good driver and I’m sure Jean Eric Vergne has something there too but it was a resoundingly strong performance from Dan in his second year in F1. A strong qualifying following up with a consistent drive is really helping his argument to replace the man who is having absolutely no luck this year and that man is of course Mark Webber. I don’t know who he has upset with the F1 gods but things are just going so against Mark at the moment. The race saw Webber starting from the back following running out of fuel and having a fuel issue in qualifying before, after momentarily having a fight back in the midfield, losing his wheel not long into the race after a pit stop and this was already after a lazy move into the side of Jean Eric Vergne too which was surprising for Webber. As much as I love mark he seems awfully frustrated with how things are going right now and who can blame him? Not a good weekend for the popular Aussie.

Don’t Get in a Flap Over It

It was fairly disappointing to see how underwhelming the effect DRS had on this race and how easy it was for cars to overtake. My issue with overtaking is, as much as we all want it to happen, it loses its spark when cars are merely drifting past without a fight because of things like DRS. Overtaking a driver should be through the form of a solid battle for position, so a driver can actually defend his position and his competitor actually earns that position correctly. To me, there is a considerable difference between overtaking and DRS passing and sadly there felt like there was more DRS passing than overtaking in this race and that ruined a lot of it for me. I’m not saying we should give up on DRS as it’s had a great impact on F1 – I’m just saying it was poorly suited for a track that has a straight such as this that doesn’t need DRS. It’s hard to call something a battle for position when one side of the battle can’t do anything about the inevitable result. There were some clever moves around the track in other moments through so it’s not all bad, it’s just a shame so much depended on that rear wing flap.

Here Comes Chinatown

What I will say I was impressed by this weekend was how much interest seems to be growing in China for Formula 1 and, in particular, how Shanghai seems to be growing around the track itself with a lot, lot more activity in terms of new buildings areas of residence and whatnot being noticeably new. This can only be a good thing – the circuit was built in a sparse marshland that had absolutely no activity and atmosphere going for it and bringing life closer to the track will only make it feel a lot less in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully this will be a good thing!

That’s Not How You Do It

There were a few odd little moments through the race too with a few drivers that surprised me too, and as I’ve already mentioned one of these includes the surprisingly clumsy crash between Webber and Jean Eric Vergne. Once again Sergio Perez looked way out of his depth and seems to be really struggling with some of his defensive positions too, although I’m no entirely convinced he was totally to blame for the Raikkonen crash where Kimi lost part of his nose. I must say, it’s a little disconcerting that a damaged Lotus still utterly overwhelmed a fully functional Lotus in Grosjean who continues to do nothing this year, but after his antics in 2012 maybe this is a good thing? The final little thing which really surprised me was Gutierrez’s silly crash at the hairpin where he was way out of his braking zone and hit the unfortunate Sutil rather heavily.  I want to put this down to a rookie error but even rookies should know their braking zone by the time they get to a race…

There’s Always Next Time

So China provided a fairly average race that didn’t match up to the impressive races we’ve seen in previous years but this shouldn’t discount the impressive drives we saw from Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Ricciardo too who all deserved what they got, especially with Hamilton’s excellent defensive driving against the far faster Vettel in the final few laps of the race. It was just nice to have a happy podium again with no tension and anger! Of course, let’s just hope we get no tension and anger as we go to the delicate surroundings of Bahrain this weekend…

Well, that provided a real kick to the wonderfully crazy world of politics and drama that Formula 1 can so often provide. Before the race the talk was very much about whether it would be a wet race or not but, despite a damp opening few laps, we were treated to a dry race that’s only moisture was due to a salivating amount of drama and questions that have developed thanks to a quite controversial victory by Sebastian Vettel. When you hear that it’s a Vettel win, you worry whether it was a simple domination victory he’s become  accustomed to over the last few years but luckily, such an idea was never even close today after a dramatic and quite crazt moment involving team mate Mark Webber and Vettel himself where Seb completely ignored team orders for his own victory. As well as this, further team orders were thrown out for Mercedes guaranteeing their podium finish too but let’s look at these in far greater detail…

I want it all, and I want it now

Well the main talking point is, of course, the controversy involving Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber for the lead. The long story short is that Webber had the lead and Red Bull were happy to settle for this, they threw a call to both drivers to settle, and Vettel ignored it and went for the win and caused a whole heap of drama. It made for fascinating television and it really didn’t help Vettel’s case that he was on the pit radio shouting ‘Mark’s slow, get him out of the way’. It only adds even more to this perception of Vettel being a spoilt child when things aren’t going his way and he’s not number 1 – whilst Vettel was faster, this was down to Webber slowing down to preserve the tyres. Vettel’s moves were incredibly crazy especially when you consider how many times Webber himself has had to put up with team orders for Vettel’s benefit and when it’s on the other foot this petulance occurs from the 3 time World Champion. It all felt very ‘Schumacher’ and Vettel knew he was in the wrong the moment he got out the car, with the team telling him he had to explain himself and even Helmut Marko saying it was all out of control. The face of fury that greeted the paddock from Mark Webber was fully justified and Vettel needs to have a serious think about handling these situations as once again he’s just come across as a childish, selfish driver.

Sebastian Vettel

Down in the Pits

It was an incredibly odd day for the amount of shocking moments in the pitlane too as it seemed like everyone was affected by the pits in some way. In a brilliant moment, Lewis Hamilton had a bit of a brain fade and pulled into the McLaren pitbox before realising his mistake and, still at McLaren, their infamous pit stop issues came back to haunt them as Jenson Button lost a whole heap of places thanks to his front right not being correctly put on for his final stop. It was really unfortunate as Jenson was having a very strong race but team issues ultimately let to his downfall once more. Down in the backmarkers, a very poorly timed release by Toro Rosso saw one of their drivers going straight into the side of Charles Pic as he pulled into his pit box which made for a surreal sight in the pitlane to say the least. However, the biggest losers in the pitlane today though had to be Force India as pretty much every pit stop they made today was plagued by serious tyre changing issues that were serious enough to force both drivers to retire from the race. A really frustrating day for Force India which is not what they will be looking for after a strong race in Australia for Sutil.

Battle of the Best Buds

Not too far behind the Red Bull palava was a similarly escalating affair between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in their Mercedes’ cars for third position that also provided a compelling amount of entertainment for position that was handled completely different to that of Red Bull’s moments. Whilst Nico Rosberg was understandably frustrated by being unable to pass Lewis on the request of Ross Brawn, at least with Ross Brawn we had him on the radio explaining the desire to hold back for the sake of fuel and guarantee their position that they looked to safely had. In fact, Lewis seemed pretty apologetic on the podium and quite sorry to be up there following the team orders for him to secure third place. However, I don’t think this rivalry for position will have anywhere near as much bitterness as anger as the two cars ahead of them had following the race and the aftermath of the grand prix. It was just interesting to see the difference in how the orders were handled and how Rosberg doesn’t consider himself bigger than his bosses orders…

Malcolm in the Middle

Whilst the race provided about 75% excellent and a dull patch in the middle where nothing much happened out on the track, I found it fascinating to see how close the midfield is in Formula 1 this year even down to the backmarkers Marussia who appear to have really closed the gap with Bianchi so far. Sauber grabbed themselves a few points today but they really need to push themselves up towards the higher positions as they were hinting at in 2012 whilst Force India were showing some pace again before their tiresome pitlane issues.  It should make for a brilliantly close season but I’m still very much unsure as to the pecking order right now which is great fun and very unpredictable. Grosjean should be pretty pleased too finishing ahead of Raikkonen today and having a fairly quiet race whilst Massa came in at a strong 5th place finish too which I’m sure he’ll be happy about. If anything, it’s Perez I’ve been rather unimpressed by so far but still early days.

Oompa Lumpur Doobety Dee

Despite Sebastian Vettel’s striking impression of Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka and his childish demands, it really was a great race today that seriously came to life in the second half with plenty happening on the track and in the pits too. McLaren should be happy with their increased pace based on Jenson’s performance but it’s most definitely Red Bull who have people’s tongues wagging tonight. Whilst a dry race in general today, we were still provided with excitement and some very controversial moments that perhaps Formula 1 has been lacking for a while but who says a bit of drama is a bad thing?