Mika looks forward to racing with gizmos

The double world champion supports the FIA's decision to bring back a basket-full of tricks including traction control, launch control and fully automatic gearshifting, claiming it will make the races more challenging.

"I definitely think it is a positive thing for Formula One," said Hakkinen, who is bidding to win the Spanish race for the fourth year in the trot.

The Finn was fifth fastest in the Friday's first session of the weekend, which was dominated by his team mate David Coulthard.

"It has always been a challenge to set-up the car in different conditions, but certainly now, with new regulations, it gives more options to drivers and teams to find different limits in different corners," said the Finn. "In the past, it was definitely a case where high speed and slow circuits were very similar in terms of electronics.

"There are definitely a lot of different parameters you can use. It is not only traction control, which is the main gain in the performance of the car. There are lots of things you can do to help the performance," he added.