Hakkinen wants more F1 tests

Although the two-time champion ended his comeback at the bottom of the timesheets, three seconds off the pace, the Finn told Autosport that he is hungry for another try out because he feels there is plenty more to come from himself.

"Naturally to start doing a second test or more tests I will get stronger and quicker," he said. "I will have more knowledge about what tools we can use and can help more for the future. But I don't know. We have to discuss and think about it. And see what happens."

Hakkinen seemed far from put off by his ultimate laptime, which was 2.3 seconds slower than team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

He used only one set of new tyres, saying he lacked "confidence" to push on more sets, and said that the aim of the test was not to show how quick he still was, but to deliver vital feedback to the team.

"If the timesheet was upside down I would be happier!" he joked. "But it looks actually good. Yes, I mean after five years to come back in F1 and to go very hard, flat out, I think I would make mistakes. The risk would be damaging the car. That would first of all not look professional and I don't think I would learn anything then.

"I think it would be unfair for the people to expect that automatically after five years I could go maximum attack and bang in a time."

Hakkinen added that rather than the test ending his own personal intrigue about whether he is still quick enough for F1, it has actually led to more questions about what he can do in the future.

"I got the answers for the questions I had, but now I have more - like how to make the car better? The way the car was behaving, there are things to be improved. The team, the driver, the car can always be better.

"That is the case with me, the car could be better. So automatically we need to discuss with the engineers better, but I have a lot of answers for my questions."

When asked whether his feelings meant that he would definitely be back in an F1 car in the future, Hakkinen said: "I really don't know what the team says about this. Let's see what we can do."

And Hakkinen has also admitted that he is still not certain to return to the DTM yet, as he toys with whether to find some form of role within F1.

"My answer is still the same. We will see..."

For the full interview with Mika Hakkinen, see here.