World Champion 2000

„Looking back, I always say that that was my finest World Championship triumph with Ferrari. I wanted to win this title badly, it took five whole years until we finally tied it up, which a lot of people later forgot. We’ve never forgotten it. Funny enough, it was like in 1994, before my first title for Benetton. The first test runs showed us that we had a top notch car. We were driving times that we couldn’t even believe ourselves. And it got off to a very good start. We were finally on track to a World Championship. Until the summer came, when I dropped out of three of four races, and all of a sudden it got really tight. But then came Monza, the first redemption. And after that we were able to take off until the fateful race in Japan. That race was unbelievable. That was one of the most intensive, fantastic races I’ve ever driven. Mika and I pushed each other, no one let up, both of us drew on our last resources, that was really great. What helped me out was when it began to drizzle. I’ll never forget that race and the feeling when I drove across the finish line.“