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Tuesday, July 10
Irvine is two years older than Hakkinen
Reuters
LONDON -- Mika Hakkinen may be
contemplating quitting Formula One but Jaguar's Eddie Irvine,
some three years older than the Finn, says retirement never
crosses his mind.
McLaren have yet to announce their confirmed line-up for
next season and speculation has begun to grow that the
32-year-old Hakkinen, who partners Briton David Coulthard, might
decide to quit at the end of the season.
|  | | Formula One veteran Eddie Irvine, 35, says retirement has not crossed his mind. |
"Mika's a very different person from me," the Northern
Irishman told reporters after a news conference on Tuesday to
announce the continuation of his team's sponsorship deal with
HSBC bank.
"I've known Mika since he was probably 17 or 18 and he's
done what he thinks he probably can achieve.
"I don't know whether he's going to retire or not, I really
don't know, but he's won two world championships and is probably
not going to win another one unless he wants to stick around for
a long, long time.
"So maybe that's what he thinks and he's going to say right,
enough's enough. I don't know. But I haven't achieved what I
want to achieve.
"So that (retirement) is not something that even crosses my
mind to be honest," added the 35-year-old whose next race is the
British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.
Hakkinen, world champion with McLaren in 1998 and 1999, has
scored just nine points in 10 races and has not won since the
Belgian Grand Prix last August.
Germany's Auto Bild magazine reported Sunday that
Frenchman Olivier Panis would replace Hakkinen for 2002. However
Norbert Haug, the Mercedes motorsport boss, dismissed the
suggestion as pure speculation.
Tuesday's Italian Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reported
that McLaren boss Ron Dennis had taken up his option on
Hakkinen. But it said Hakkinen wanted a one-year deal while
McLaren wanted two.
Irvine said Michael Schumacher and Ferrari's domination of
the season, with the triple champion winning six races out of 10
so far and being on pole seven times, had probably given
Hakkinen plenty to think about.
"I think Mika probably realises Michael's got the car that
isn't bad enough for anyone else to win the championship.
"The only thing is if Michael has a problem so Mika probably
realises that it's not going to happen.
"Mika's a very different character to me, I don't know
what's going on in his head to be honest," said Schumacher's
former teammate at Ferrari who has another year to run on his
Jaguar contract.
But Irvine added that he was delighted by the prospect of a
media circus unsettling McLaren until an announcement was made
to end all the speculation.
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