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Thursday, July 12
Hakkinen discussing new deal with team
Reuters
BERLIN -- Mika Hakkinen has denied a report he was planning to retire at the end of the season and said that he was in talks with the McLaren team about a new contract for the 2002 season.
And he has also said he will help teammate David Coulthard try to beat Ferrari's three-time champion Michael Schumacher to the world title.
|  | | Mika Hakkinen, 32, won the Formula One world championship for McLaren in 1998 and '99. |
"No chance - there is no way I am quitting," the two-time world champion told Die Welt newspaper in an interview published Thursday.
Hakkinen said he had no idea where rumours that he was planning to retire at the end of the current season -- which has been a huge disappointment for the Finn who won the world championship for McLaren in 1998 and '99 -- came from.
"No one asked me -- that's something one should have done," he said, referring to a report in Germany's Auto Bild newspaper that said he would retire.
Hakkinen said he first learned of the report Monday evening as he was feeding his eight-month old son Hugo.
The 32-year-old said negotiations with McLaren about a 2002 contract were going at full speed and only a few details still had to be worked out.
Another German magazine -- Auto, Moto und Sport -- said the only open issue was contract length.
The report said Hakkinen wants a two-year deal while McLaren only want a one-year commitment. The contract extension is expected to be announced at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim in late July.
McLaren issued a statement at Silverstone, which hosts the British Grand Prix on Sunday, confirming that they hold options on both their drivers "and that no decision is required in the immediate future in either case."
Team boss Ron Dennis said an announcement would be made "as and when appropriate."
Hakkinen was quoted in the statement as saying that he had been on holiday in his native Finland after the French Grand Prix and confirming the team had an option on him.
"I am currently in discussion with Ron and am very relaxed about the situation but, as I have repeatedly said, my main objective is to win races this year and this is what I shall
be focusing on at Silverstone," he said.
Hakkinen, who has scored just nine points in 10 races this season and not won since the Belgian Grand Prix last August, told Die Welt he would support Coulthard.
Coulthard, with 47 points, is in second place behind Ferrari's Schumacher, who has 78 points after 10 of 17 races.
Hakkinen said he wanted to help take McLaren back to the top and "if there is a possibility, I will try to win myself."
Auto Bild magazine reported in its Tuesday edition that Olivier Panis would replace Hakkinen for 2002, but Norbert Haug, the motorsport boss at McLaren's engine partner Mercedes, dismissed the suggestion as speculation.
Haug was quoted in Die Welt praising Hakkinen.
"The great thing about him is that even negative events, like in the recent past, do not break his morale," Haug said. "He had so many good races and success in the past years and he wants to have that again." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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