Mika H�kkinen content to sit back as Michael Schumacher makes comeback

By Oliver Brown Published: 10:00PM GMT 06 March 2010

Friend and foe: Mika H�kkinen (right), with his extreme rival, Michael Schumacher, on the lectern again Photo: AP

Straight out of a notoriously formidable motor-racing enlightenment in Finland, where, as new exploits by fellow citizen Kimi Räikkönen attest, the rallies take place in conditions so cold that competitors risk hypothermia, this blue-eyed blond was between the really couple of to have taken Schumacher on in a true quarrel and won.

Few who witnessed the insolence of Häkkinen"s flitting move on the German at Spa in 2000, a path after Schumacher had shunted him on to the weed at 200mph, are expected to dont think about it.

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Few who recoiled in abhorrence at the puncture tracheotomy he had to continue trackside in Adelaide five years progressing would ever have believed he could be so successful, either.

But hardly after dual seasons after he had hermetic a second true universe pretension to plea the Schumacher supremacy, he gave it all up.

Häkkinen claimed, on his early retirement in 2002, that he longed for to bite some-more time with his wife, Erja, and to watch his son, Hugo, grow up.

But don"t all good diver who fright the career night before section contend such a thing? It sounded suspiciously similar to the evidence modernized by Schumacher for his quip after he detected that quiescent days by Lake Geneva with Corinna and the immature kids did small to slake his simmering adrenalin.

The some-more boring reason for Häkkinen"s removal from the radio detector was that he was edged out, eclipsed by the frighteningly fast climb of Räikkönen, afterwards his stablemate at McLaren.

Ultimately, it is formidable to brawl his proof in on foot afar at 32 with his biggest triumphs, that span of universe championships in 1998 and "99, still uninformed in the memory. He has given ordered immeasurable fees as a expert to companies, from Ralph Lauren to his dear Mercedes, who gave him his initial F1 drive, and he does not even have to do it full-time.

Meeting him in the absurdly prosperous run of the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, where he is discharging his duties as an envoy for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, it is protected to inform that he has never looked happier, or healthier.

While Schumacher is donning his Silver Arrows overalls in willingness for a punishing F1 season, the goods of that on a 41-year-old physique can still usually be guessed at, Häkkinen is celebration a coffee, ready to go in blue jeans and a frail white shirt and explaining that, however most he empathised with his good nemesis, he would never come in from the cold himself.

"I can assimilate since he did it," Häkkinen admits in his measured, staccato English. "You have the big house, the family, the kids; but infrequently it"s not usually enough. It"s such a personal decision. He still has the fire, clearly. Knowing him as I do, he would not come behind if did not think he could kick these younger guys. He is usually ever there to win.

"But there are most formidable aspects for him to overcome: he has to master multiform new marks this season, he cannot usually contend "I am going to win". Winning is probable even if, opposite the Ferrari and McLaren guys, it will be intensely difficult. Do not see past the preparations by Ross Brawn and Mercedes, however. I know all about Mercedes. I know how rebuilt they are, how ardent they are. If any organisation can assistance Michael to do this, they can."

What of Schumacher"s personal gamble, though? Will he not have to be in the excellent state of fitness to mount even the smallest possibility of an eighth universe crown? Häkkinen, carrying additionally defended the temperament of a autarchic athlete, has small time for this notion.

"Michael is as fit as he has ever been," he assures. "He is the fittest man the competition has well known and he knows usually what condition he has to be in."

The enticement to stick on him has not surfaced, nonetheless Häkkinen acknowledges, in the vacant monthly calendar that rught away followed his retirement, that the thought of giving the competition a last possibility was tough to resist.

"I thought about it," he says. "When this hold up has been in your red blood from the age of five you cannot assistance it. But I did not cruise it this time, since I knew that with F1, you need to have a outrageous joining from your life. You cannot go in to it meditative this is a hobby, usually a bit of fun. Truly, you have to work hard.

Häkkinen knew, too, that he did not wish to pull his fitness any further. He remembered all as well vividly what had happened in 1995 and could not anticipate being harm again.

Far some-more sensible, he reasoned, to deposit his time in his corporate sidelines, his Laureus work, and his burgeoning career as a physical education instructor of immature engine racing talent, borne out of his enterprise to indicate drivers the sort of await he was denied as a exposed teen in the commercial operation

So distinguished has his Monaco-based Aces organisation turn that usually this week he was referred to as a front-runner to take over the government of Lewis Hamilton from the Briton"s father, Anthony. He contingency be well-placed, then, indicate what Hamilton can do to outmanoeuvre Schumacher or, some-more resolutely still, clamp versa?

Häkkinen breaks in to the broadest smile. "Oh man, that is usually as well easy "