Ferrari were hurting. They hadn’t won the drivers’ world championship for nearly two decades, and they hadn’t bet that Flying Finn Mika Häkkinen would thwart the Scuderia for another two seasons.

In 1998 and ‘99 his silver machine kept Schumacher’s scarlet car at bay. But during that time, criss-crossing the globe en route to the crown, did you know Mika had left a pet tortoise all alone at his Monaco gaff? “I love dogs but travel too much to own one. A tortoise can be left on its own,” he said. And it’s name? “Clarence”.

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