In what seems to be a continuing trend another retired F1 driver has returned to the cockpit over the winter. This time double World Champion Mika Hakkinen once more strapped himself into a McLaren after a 5 year abscence.

The difference between this outing and those like Alex Zanadri’s recent run is that it wasn’t an emotional gesture or a publicity stunt, but during a full working official F1 test session. Despite finishing at the bottom of the session’s time sheets a good 3 seconds off the pace, Hakkinen has indicated that he would like to do more testing for the team. Is this in preperation for him taking on a role as “driver’s coach” so that he has an idea of what a modern F1 car is like to drive – in much the same way that Niki Lauda did a few laps in a Jaguar a few years back?

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 at 2:38 am and is filed under Formula One. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.