According to autosport.com, Gerhard Berger instigated Mika Hakkinen s recent test with McLaren. Speaking about the Finn s return to GP racing, the Scuderia Toro Rosso Boss admitted to coercing the driver to drop his DTM career and try F1 again.
Speaking to Autosport, Berger said, “Let’s put it this way, I had some discussions with him and asked why he was mucking around in the DTM and not doing a proper job again, I rate him as an extremely competitive guy, and so we started to talk and discuss if it was the right thing for him to stay in the DTM. I told him that if he was going to the gym and training hard then he might as well get in a proper car! That was how it all started.”
After travelling to watch Michael Schumacher s final race in F1, Hakkinen’s interest in a comeback grew and was rumoured to approach several key McLaren personnel to discuss potential roles with the Woking-based team. Following several days in the team’s simulator back at Paragon, he finally tested a 2006 spec car at a test in Barcelona.
