Grapevine: Dennis Undecided about 2003 Line-Up
McLaren team boss Ron Dennis has refused to commit to who will drive for his team after the 2002 season.
McLaren team boss Ron Dennis has refused to commit to who will drive for his team after the 2002 season.
Dennis will replace Finn Mika Hakkinen with compatriot Kimi Raikkonen next season, while the former takes a break from the sport, but the team boss is not sure what will happen when Hakkinen returns. Paddock rumours suggest Dennis is lining up a future all-Finnish line-up of Raikkonen and Hakkinen, which would signal the end of a McLaren drive for Briton David Coulthard.
But when asked if he would team two Finnish drivers together, Dennis said: "It's possible, yes. But it could be two English, two French or whatever.
"Having two drivers from the same country can give some political pressure but we want the two best available. If that happened to be two from the same country we wouldn't hesitate. I wouldn't care if they both came from the Isle of Wight."
Hakkinen's future is not set in concrete by any means as his year-long sabbatical could turn into early retirement from the sport.
Share Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments