In an exclusive interview with Pitlane Magazine Mika talks about his life post racing, looks back at his F1 career and gives his thoughts on current motor racing.

 
DC - What are you up to these days?
MH - In my business life I am an ambassador for Mercedes Benz which takes up a lot of my time especially in China.

I am also an ambassador for Johnnie Walker for their Drink Aware Drive Aware program which I have been doing for several years, basically educating people not to drink and drive.

Also I am an ambassador for a logistics company based in Germany. There is a connection with Formula One as it is about speed, customers want things on time not one day later.

 
Also I help with driver management for Didier Coton with Aces Management which is an interesting and challenging program. When I was a driver I had Keke Rosberg as well as Didier looking after me, so I understand how important it is for a driver to have a manager. It is important for a driver to have a manager to take care of everyday life so that he can concentrate on racing, it is a very complicated life when you are a racing driver so you need good management like I had with Keke when I was a racing driver so I am helping with Valtteri.

DC - Do you think a driver who has a manager who has not been a driver is at a disadvantage?
MH - Every person is different, every driver is different, some drivers can do more than other drivers but when you are in F1 you are there for winning the world championship and every driver needs a great team and a great manager to give advice.

DC - What more can be done to help young drivers make it in their chosen formula? I know for example in Finland there is a mechanism in which young drivers with talent are identified early and supported.
MH - For the readers I can say that motorsport is bloody expensive and that is the problem, a serious problem, especially when you are talking about young drivers just starting out in karting from scratch and finishing at 16 or 17.

In these times a normal family can’t afford to run this young person in karts all the way because it is ridiculously expensive.

This is already hurting talent in every country because they just can’t afford to get the success.

It was expensive when I was young and now it is 10 times more expensive which is ridiculous and this needs to change, this (karting) is the sport for the children, for them to have fun and the cost is too much in todays world, after karting the costs are even higher and need to be bought down.

DC - A driver I help, Dan Wells moved to China to race in the Formula Pilota series backed by the Ferrari Drivers Academy, it is much cheaper. Do you think more and more drivers are going to have to look at alternative feeder series like these as a means of getting over this problem?
MH - It is difficult, I don’t think that young talent is coming up in the right way because of the costs involved. The cost of racing is too much and the rules must change to bring down the cost as the way the economy in Europe and the rest of the world is it is difficult to find the money.

DC - Going back to Valtteri and young drivers do you feel the testing restrictions in F1 in particular are holding back drivers from getting experience in the seat?
MH - For sure it makes things more complicated and solutions need to be found.

When I was driving in F1 I used to test a lot, nearly every week, I found it an unbelieveable experience and got more confidence in the car and car handling experience. Now that it is difficult to get as much experience of the car it makes it more risky as drivers don’t have as much experience and accidents are more likely to happen, it makes the drivers life much more hard.

Yes they have simulators which are unbelieveable and I have tried some but it is not the same as the real life experience of driving a racing car it is no replacement from actually sitting in the car. Definitely Formula One needs to look at this, if you are not driving the car you are losing learning experience.

DC - What are your views on the 2012 world championship? Kimi is back and doing rather well, do you think he can win the world championship?
MH - It is only halfway now and a lot of racing still to come so you can’t at this stage point a finger at anyone and say they will win the world championship. So much can happen in the rest of the season, drivers making mistakes, car development. Things are still too open to call who will be champion.

DC - Do you think the unpredictability of the Pirelli tyres even for the leading teams has been detrimental to the racing? Do you think F1 is too unpredictable?
MH - Tyres have been a bit of a mystery but it is the same for every team, you have to live with it it is the same for every team, the same challenge. So far the tyres have been safe and reliable.

DC - One of your great rivals Michael Schumacher is still racing at 43 and arguably still very competitive. When you see him racing do you ever wish you were still out there going wheel to wheel with him?
MH - No, I had great results and great memories of motor racing and they will always be with me but I know I would not be competitive, you have to be physically in the right condition and to be motivated to race.

When you are in F1 you have to want to win so much more than any other driver and if you don’t feel like that there is no point in racing. I had/have done enough. Retire when you are on top.

DC - One of your most spectacular moments in F1 was your overtake on Michael Schumacher at Spa 2000, that was pure driver skill, do you feel with the likes of KERS and DRS that overtaking is too artificial compared with when you were racing?
MH - There are two sides to the story. The show must go on and the public want to see a great show and enjoy what they have seen, and without KERS and DRS they are not going to see so many overtakes, I think it is a great idea to have these.

As a driver I do not know how it feels to have them and to overtake so easily but from a marketing point of view it is important to have overtaking, and these gizmos help the show.

DC - Finally Mika, your son Hugo is currently racing in karting. Does he have ambitions to race in F1? are we in the future likely to see another Hakkinen on the grid?
MH - Hugo loves karting. He loves doing it and that is all at the moment, it is far too early to think about F1. He is having great fun karting, if everything goes right in his motorsport education and learning, as he gets more experience you never know what is going to happen, but it is important for him to focus on karting.

Thanks to Mika Hakkinen for sparing his time to talk to Pitlane Magazine, to Didier Coton of Aces Management for organising the interview and to David Clifford of MotorsportXS for conducting the interview.