Interview: Hakkinen Bids Farewell to Coulthard and F1

Mika Hakkinen's wife Erja had the broadest smile in Suzuka, as she wandered up and down the pit lane saying her goodbyes before taking her husband away for a well-earned rest. But his boss Ron Dennis was still working hard at convincing anyone listening that the flying Finn will be back at McLaren Mercedes-Benz and in harness also with David Coulthard.

The driver pairing met the media late on Saturday for a knockabout session of questions in which there were memories and jokes and plenty of laughs. When Hakkinen goes, after all, it will mark the end of the longest-serving partnership in Formula One history.

The Japanese race will be their 99th Grand Prix together since the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 1996. In that time they have won 30 Grands Prix, taken 33 pole positions and outperformed McLaren's perceived all-time greats Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who claimed 28 wins and 30 poles.

"It has been really good," said Hakkinen. "We have had a couple of moments. When David joined McLaren I had been in F1 quite a few years, I still had not won and I was very hungry and motivated. David, coming from Williams, had already won and he was also very motivated. That was difficult at the start.

"We had a couple of little incidents on the race track which didn't help, but slowly you start to realise that life isn't only what happens on the race track. All these years we've been challenging each other all the time, and it's hard. You have to switch off, look the guy in the eyes and look inside him. But now it's cool."

Coulthard added: "I have a picture from 1996 when we came together (at Estoril). I'm spun sideways in the gravel after he hit me up the rear. He would claim that I shut the door. I'm sitting there with my middle finger in the air! But we got better..."

For the pairing, this was a slapstick hour before Ron Dennis intervened to remind them there was work to be done. By then, of course, Hakkinen had talked about his decision to take time off.

"The first time I discussed the possibility with Ron was in Monte Carlo, but what happened in that first Grand Prix in Melbourne didn't help at all. We were looking competitive and our tactics were good and then I had a big shunt. I had to go to hospital and everything and it pissed me off, to be honest. I thought that I had to do something about that feeling."

Hakkinen, of course, suffered a near fatal accident at Adelaide in 1995 and the accident in this year's opening race brought back bad memories, just three months after the birth of his first born son, Hugo.

"That has certainly affected the way I see the racing," Hakkinen admitted. "You have your family and your work and you try to do both. But it's a dangerous sport and when you have something in your life that you really don't want to lose, you start to think about it. It's true that when you are young and you cross the road, you look left and right once, but as you get older you look twice."

For the future, he said: "We'll just have to wait and see what happens next year. Maybe after three or four months I'll be screaming to be back racing. I don't know"

Asked about his feelings if Hugo was to start racing and follow in his footsteps, he said he would be delighted. Perhaps that is the Hakkinen of the future that Ron Dennis is thinking about.