Hakkinen slams pretenders

In a strong assault that will shatter any feelings of complacency in the pit lane, in which he turns an unblinking eye on every team and every driver, Hakkinen also predicts that Michael Schumacher will not retain his world title this season. Mika doubts that Fernando Alonso is the fully formed talent that fans and press believe, claiming that the Renault driver is no match for McLaren's young gun Kimi Raikkonen.

"I don't think Fernando is quite in Kimi's class," Hakkinen tells F1 Racing. "I haven't seen anything that really justifies the level of hype that has surrounded him so far. He's quick, but is he Kimi-quick? Is he Michael-quick? I'm not convinced. After all, he and [fellow Renault driver] Jarno [Trulli] tied eight-all in qualifying last year; if Fernando was really quick he'd have done better than that."

Hakkinen also criticises BAR's Takuma Sato (whom he calls "far too wild") and Sauber's Felipe Massa (whom he brands "fast but wild"), before expressing his regret that, while Jaguar had a promising 2003, "it wasn't any better than that, to be blunt, and I really can't see where the next major push is coming from."

Hakkinen added: "Jaguar's F1 operation has always confused me. There's been no continuity. To build a really good car, and a really good engine, and a really good team with a really strong vibe, you need to have a really strong leader. A charismatic leader. Jaguar don't have that at the moment. To really turn the team around, Jaguar need a serious figurehead at the top: someone like Jackie Stewart."

Mika's most stinging criticisms are reserved for the Williams pairing, Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya.

"Ralf is much too inconsistent for someone who's driven more than 100 grands prix," he said. "Sometimes I think he should work a bit more and moan a bit less. Sometimes he can be very, very good - Magny-Cours last year, for example. But then, after that, even though he had no mechanical failures, he scored only five more world championship points. I hope he'll look at statistics like that and admit to himself that, overall, he just wasn't good enough last year."

Hakkinen admires Juan Pablo's feisty temperament, but "consistency-wise, he's much more like Ralf. In 2002 he scored seven poles, which was a fabulous performance - but last year he often looked slower than Ralf, especially in qualifying. This sounds like a strange thing to say, but sometimes he was just too careful. I hope Juan Pablo is aware of that."

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