Mika Hakkinen has decided to retire from racing in the DTM, the Finn announced on Saturday.
The former Formula One world champion has competed in the series for the past three years with Mercedes, scoring a total of three victories in that time.
"It's time for me to stop racing in the DTM," Hakkinen said at the Mercedes-Benz 'Stars & Cars' event in Stuttgart. "That's the bad news.
"The good news is for the other competitors, they can have some peace on the track now."
Hakkinen added that while he was retiring from racing, he will remain involved with Mercedes in some form.
"It's been great racing in the DTM," he said. "I won't stop doing things with Mercedes though. We will announce something soon."

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he gave us some entertaining races.

He's retired from DTM, not racing, paves the way for a return to McLaren?

I wish it would!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's retired from all professional motor racing, but will still probably race in one-off all-star type fun and show events, and ofc rent nordschleife out for a weekend with his mates

Mika Häkkinen, my all time favourite driver.. such a funny guy, never usually pushing the controversy line around, just goes out and races. And he is pretty ****ing good too!

Anyone ever considered, thats theres a spare seat at Maclaren. I dont think it would be a strange thing for him to slide back into an F1 seat for a season, with nothing to loose.....

Quote from Widdowmaker :

Anyone ever considered, thats theres a spare seat at Maclaren. I dont think it would be a strange thing for him to slide back into an F1 seat for a season, with nothing to loose.....

Or nothing to win...

I very much doubt he'd even consider it if he was given the chance. It'd be tempting, sure, but I think hakkinen has had his career planned from the get-go, and I don't see returning to competitive F1 fitting in. IMO, ofc.

Just think if he DID come back... What would that mean? It would be awesome..

I honestly doubt it would be. F1 -> DTM at a reasonable age, no probs. DTM -> F1 at ~40, think twice. Just look at what happened with was it Mansell..

I thinik he would make a great Mentor for a younger driver, and to be able to calm and motivate a younger driver, with the ability to score points as well.

Probably the wrong thread to continue this discussion as there is the other one about Macclaren.

What ever Hakkinen does, he made his own significant contribution to motor sport, I just think he left F1 prematurly, and with the abundance of "young" talent that is around at present, he may just be the level head that Maclaren may need at the mo.

Well, in the link it says that he'll still resume co-operating with McLaren/Merc, so he might end up doing just that as a talent spotter a la Schumi.