Hakkinen Hints at Helping Coulthard

Two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen has hinted he could be ready to help McLaren teammate David Coulthard is his title bid this season.

After a disastrous year, Hakkinen lies 69 points behind Championship leader Michael Schumacher with only seven races remaining in the season. Coulthard, meanwhile, is 31 points adrift of the Ferrari driver.

Hakkinen, who has not won a race or scored a pole position since the Belgian Grand Prix last year, hinted he could help his teammate if it's needed.

"There has not been a lot of discussion inside the team and at this point in the season but I have been looking at how many points I have, I have extremely small chance to be there in the end," said Hakkinen.

"So we're going to work like a team very hard towards the end of the season and we'll see how the races develop and then we'll make decisions together when it is appropriate."

At the same time, the Finn driver again denied the retirement rumours and admitted he was still in talks with McLaren boss Ron Dennis concerning his future with the team.

"The first part of my answer is no," Hakkinen said when questioned if he was retiring. "The team has an option on me for next year and we are going through discussions with Ron and looking for good solutions for the future. "

McLaren boss Ron Dennis has been reluctant to discuss the subject of team orders when asked at previous races. But, speaking at the same news conference, he said both Hakkinen and Coulthard had clauses in their contracts obliging them to follow "any instruction given by the team at any stage of the season."

"There is an appropriate time when that instruction is given but of course it's not something that is necessarily linked to a specific time in the season," he said. "For any driver to help another the track position has got to be right, the circumstances have got to be right, and it's at that stage the decision will be taken if it needs to be taken. I'm sure whichever driver is involved will follow that instruction."

But Dennis added that he could recall only two occasions over the past 14 years when such an instruction had been given to one of his drivers. Hakkinen has not yet been in a position in the late stages of any race this season where team orders would have made any difference to Coulthard's position.

The Finn almost won the Spanish Grand Prix in April but his clutch exploded when he was leading five corners from the finish, allowing Schumacher to take the win. Ferrari, despite Schumacher's dominance of the season, have already used team orders once this year when Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was ordered to let the German through at the Austrian Grand Prix.