Mumbai, Oct. 19 -- The current F1 season is six races from its conclusion, and Kimi Antonelli looks poised to win his first World Championship. Mika Hakkinen knows what it takes to win the coveted title. The two-time F1 champion, who was in Mumbai with Fancode, the official broadcasters of F1 in India, met with Hindustan Times on Saturday. In a free-wheeling chat, he recounted his early days in the sport, relived one of F1's most iconic rivalries with Michael Schumacher, and backed India's return as a Grand Prix host. Excerpts: It has improved massively in all areas and safety is a very important factor. I had experienced quite a serious accident in 1995 when I lost control and I cracked my skull. I was in a coma for a couple of months in the hospital and came back to racing. Safety wasn't as good then, but Formula 1 learned along the way. It was horrible. Many lives were lost in F1 because the cars weren't safe enough, the tracks weren't safe enough. If you go back in history, for many years the cars didn't even have seatbelts. At the time when I had my accident, it was really hard to even think about it coming back. It took me a couple months. I was 25 when the accident happened. I felt like I was at the peak of my physical performance. What I had learned from F1, I thought there was no way I could stop now. So I went back. Then the McLaren team gave me a call and asked if I was ready to drive a test car. I said absolutely. The engine sounds were absolutely amazing. Going out of the pits, going through the pit lane, and listening to the sound of the engine was beautiful. But in high-speed corners, I did think I could go off in that corner, and it's going to hurt. But then I just thought, "Mika, you cannot think about that, you just have to switch off, you have to focus on what you do." And then suddenly the lap times started getting better and better. And did it make me a better racing driver? I think so. Michael was an incredible racing driver. Very hardworking and an incredible team player. But sometimes he was a bit of a naughty boy. When we were racing together, he was challenging me very often in quite a hard way - which I didn't always agree with. But it was his way of racing. We're all different characters and we all operate differently. In one sense I accepted his way of working, but we had some tough challenges and very good races together. And we had a huge respect for each other. He's doing a brilliant job. Absolutely fantastic performance. He's a great personality, very positive character and everybody likes him. He's a very fast, talented young driver. I think he's in the right place at the right time. There's a huge amount of great talent out there below F1 and in F1, but if you are not early enough to be able to find the way to end up in the right place, it can destroy your career. Kimi is an absolutely beautiful talent. I'm happy also for Italians, because in my childhood, I saw so many great Italian young drivers, but they never did make it. This is normal. He's leading the World Championship. The pressure is there. He is developing, becoming a better racing driver, but there aren't many more races left. So it's interesting to see how he continues to keep his focus. I think Lewis has done a brilliant job, particularly in maintaining his motivation and inspiring the team. He thoroughly deserves his world championships, and I am confident he will continue to deliver strong results. The biggest challenge in F1 is that you first have to beat your teammate. If your teammate is faster than you, it is game over. So, in a way, your teammate is your biggest rival. David Coulthard and I were teammates at McLaren for seven years, and in the beginning, it was quite challenging. I remember when we travelled from Monaco to England for team meetings. I would take my limousine to the airport, David would take his. He would fly in his plane, I would fly in mine. We would land, take separate cars to the factory and eventually sit across from each other in the same meeting. We barely spoke. Neither of us wanted to reveal our strengths or weaknesses. But then McLaren's management realised this was not good. The team was starting to split, with one side supporting David and the other supporting me. So they told us that we had to start working together. They said, 'When you put your helmet on, that is when you can fight. But in meetings and in front of the media, you have to communicate and work together.' And it worked. Today, David and I are very good friends. Looking back, we were two young drivers with big egos, both determined to succeed. That competitiveness was always there, but we eventually learned how to manage it. I think the drivers in my time were much better (Laughs). No, of course, today's drivers are better. It is a natural part of human development. They have access to far more knowledge and can start learning about F1 from a young age. Young drivers can ask questions about how a suspension system works and study almost every aspect of racing. In my time, we didn't have those opportunities. You had to walk to a library and hope you could find a book about motorsport....