Grapevine: McLaren comment on Hakkinen return

McLaren say they do not currently plan to draft in former champion Mika Hakkinen as Fernando Alonso's Formula One teammate next season, amid speculations that the Finn could make a comeback

The Mercedes-powered team did confirm, however, that the 38-year-old Finn had recently spent time in their race simulator.

"Mika has been in the simulator, and following his visit to Brazil (last month) wished to understand if he could contribute to our programme," said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh.

"We currently have no plans to run Mika alongside Alonso next year. The identity of our second driver will be announced in due course."

Hakkinen, world champion with McLaren in 1998 and 1999, retired from Formula One at the end of 2001 and has been racing for Mercedes in the DTM German touring car series.

He was in Brazil as a guest of Mercedes to watch old Ferrari rival Michael Schumacher bow out in the final race of the championship.

The Finn revealed earlier this year he had turned down a chance to drive for Williams last year after that Formula One team approached him in 2004.

Spaniard Alonso, 25, joins McLaren from Renault at the end of the year after becoming the youngest double champion in Formula One history.

His teammate for 2007 has yet to be confirmed, with Kimi Raikkonen departing for Ferrari and McLaren saying only that they expect to make an announcement before the end of the year.

Briton Lewis Hamilton, 21, is a front runner while 35-year-old Pedro de la Rosa hopes to be part of an all-Spanish line-up after moving up from being a test driver to replace Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya as a race stand-in this year.