Hakkinen ends retirement speculation
Mika Hakkinen has laughed off speculation he is set to retire at the end of the season
The 31-year-old was rumoured to be tiring of the frantic pace of Grand Prix racing and the constant strain of competing at the very front, weekend after weekend.
The Finn was also reported to be under person pressure from his wife Erja to leave the sport behind.
But as he prepared for the European Grand Prix on Thursday Hakkinen said he would be seeing out his McLaren contract which runs until the end of 2001.
"Maybe the stories were started by Michael Schumacher," he joked.
"There is no truth in them at all. I will retire one day - everyone has to.
"But at the moment I still love getting in a racing car and driving and I am in no rush to walk away from it all.
"I can't promise I will be racing next year because you never know what's going to happen in life, but at the moment it is my intention to carry on racing."
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
The rushed McLaren F1 car that elevated a reluctant Senna's legacy
F1 champion Mika Hakkinen to mentor rising F2 star Maini
Archive: Why Hakkinen retired from F1 – in his own words
Krack: Aston Martin frustrated by inconsistent F1 penalty decisions
Gravel Notes Podcast: WRC Croatia review
The monstrous Capri born from 40 Light years of work
Penske's Newgarden loses St. Pete IndyCar race win after violation
How Stroll and Magnussen revealed the scale of F1’s racing and rules problems
Did F1's new sprint format work?
Chinese Grand Prix Driver Ratings 2024
Why Verstappen's China F1 win was a sideshow to the real battle
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