Hakkinen Still Has that Winning Feeling, Says Ramirez

McLaren team co-ordinator, Jo Ramirez, believes Mika Hakkinen is still capable of winning World Championships if he decides to return to Formula One after his one-year break.

Ramirez, who is retiring from Formula One this weekend after forty years in the sport, has worked with Hakkinen since the Finn joined McLaren in 1993 and is very close to the former World Champion and his family. Speaking exclusively to Atlas F1, Ramirez said: "Mika is one of the best drivers today and that hasn't changed simply because he had a bad year. Unfortunately, people in motor racing have a very short memory and you're only as good as your last race, but when you analyse the races this year you realize that the vast majority of Mika's problems were McLaren-related, not driver-related.

"He was on target to win in Australia and the car let him down; Monaco was the same thing. Spain - he would have won if the car would have lasted 500 more meters. Brazil - he didn't start. The French GP - he didn't start. The Austrian GP - he didn't start either. And so forth. I agree that in Imola he had a bad race: he got stuck behind Trulli and didn't make an effort to pass him. But would you blame him? He's only as human as anybody else. He had only 1 point coming into the race and he was genuinely demoralised.

"If he would have won in Australia, he would have had a good starting point. If he would have started in Brazil... all that would have motivated him. And us too, I admit. The start ruined the rest of the year - for him and maybe for us too, as a result. But look at the British Grand Prix: we gave him a good car and he was in a class of his own, nobody could touch him. That proves the ability is there. It wasn't taken away from him. And I'm sure if he gets a good car again, you will see him perform like that again - whether it's until the end of this season, or in a year's time."