http://www.motorauthority.com/wp-content/uploads/motorsport/F1/McLaren/mika_mac_1.jpg
"McLaren has adamantly denied rumors of the return of 38 year old Hakkinen to Formula One, but there’s mounting evidence that suggests he could be racing for McLaren by as early as next year’s season. This would see the Finn pairing up with Fernando Alonso, and would make McLaren a very formidable team. Hakkinen retired from F1 back in 2001, but has recently been spotted testing with McLaren’s driver simulator at its Woking base. A Spanish newspaper is also reporting that Hakkinen underwent a physical exam to evaluate his readiness for the sport, at the request of McLaren’s Ron Dennis.
The chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh, previously claimed that “they currently have no plans to run Mika alongside Alonso next year,” and that “the identity of our second driver will be announced in due course.” If Hakkinen does end up with McLaren, he will be joined by Pedro de la Rosa and Lewis Hamilton as well as Alonso for the 2007 line-up."
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/motorsport/more-evidence-of-hakkinen%e2%80%99s-f1-return/

Would be awesome to see him back, but it's not going to happen.

You can't not drive an F1 car for five years and drive it once and think that you're going to be a worthy opponent.

If he was going to get back into F1, he would have to start the Winter testing, which looks like it isn't going to happen, and if he goes in 2006 or 2007......well, he's getting on a bit isn't he?

But I'm not saying it's impossible.

Lauda turned his back on F1 for two years, and then returned and won a World Championship in his second season back.

It would be damn cool. He would be on same team as Alonso, so Mclaren would have one hell of a line-up. But I don't think it's gonna happen either, and it would be kinda bad for DTM. Needless to say I prefer DTM to F1. In fact, I love DTM, and it would be sad to see him leave.

return of a legend wonder and wish schumi returns.

I'd prefer a spanish "team" with Alonso and De La Rosa. Pedro has a lot of talent and knownledge of how McLaren works. He could help Alonso a lot with his experience.

makes me think maybe he was waiting for schumacher to retire, i remember when he left he said he was taking a year out, now schuey retires, and hes back.... coincidence?

Edit: 800 posts :D

Edit: 800 posts :D

congratulations ;)

I don't think that it's going to happen , he is 38 years old for god sake ! he is too old for the job . And i really don't like to see Raikonnen vs Hakkinen , don't know why.
And i wonder , why that idea of returning after the retiring of Michael Schumacher ?! mmm

Well if he comes back, it will be so that he can be a senior evaluation driver for McLaren.

It would be good for the sport to have a big name come back, but I hope he isn't coming back because of Schumi leaving, so that he can beat the "lesser" opponents.

Who knows, we will have to wait and see.

http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=135544

Looks extremely unlikely now, after he was appointed the ambassador to Johnnie Walker's F1 involvement with McLaren. Although he isn't actually apart of McLaren, I'm guessing this more or less cancels out any chance of him filling a race seat.

Yes, now he's Ambassador, I reckon he would like to have a one last race with McLaren, but he has to settle with Ambassador, but it's good to see Hakkinen back in the sport.

Meanwhile, Schumacher rules out ANY type of racing in the future:
http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=37986

He wont race in F1. PERIOD. But I think its a grreat idea to be strongly linked to mclaren so that he can influence the technical aspect of the team and also the development of the cars :>

^^ Yeah, I really don't think it will happen

^Yeah, he won't because he's not actually apart of McLaren at all, he's part of Johnnie Walker/Diego or whatever their parent company is called. Besides, how could Mika, who hasn't turned a wheel since 2001, have any real knowledge of how a modern day F1 car operates, especially since we've had some major aero regulations changed, and the introduction of V8's.

^^^^Nothing some practice and a little bit of off-season testing cannot fix.


Also when you have a driver who is so talanted, an ex champ, and a current racecar driver you don't expect too much work to get him back into high performance stance.

^Yeah, but it's all about having the right mind set and attitude too, he left for a reason, I don't suppose that reason has changed much..

^^^^Nothing some practice and a little bit of off-season testing cannot fix.


Also when you have a driver who is so talanted, an ex champ, and a current racecar driver you don't expect too much work to get him back into high performance stance.

Things have changed a lot since 2001. Practicing and testing for one month won't really help you overcome five years' doing nothing.

But anyway, I'm glad for Hamilton, Dennis seems to know what he's doing.