Michael Schumacher isn’t the only Formula 1 champion who can’t live outside a racing car’s cockpit; after a four year absence, two-times F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen will sit behind the wheel of racing car for the final event of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, which will take place on November 13 at the Zhuhai track in China.
Hakkinen, who after retiring from F1 competed in 31 DTM races for Mercedes-Benz, will be competing in the six-hour long endurance race along with his teammates CongFu Cheng and Lance David Arnold in an SLS AMG GT3.
Mercedes-Benz Motorsport vice president, Norbert Haug, who has worked with Hakkinen for 15 years, said:
“Mika Hakkinen is one of the most successful, best-known and best-liked racing drivers in the world. He won back-to-back Formula 1 championships in 1998 and 1999 with our McLaren-Mercedes F1 team and later had a successful career in the DTM. Mika is a prominent member of the Mercedes family and enjoys enormous popularity, especially in China. That’s also why he was so willing to play an active role in the race debut of the SLS AMG GT3 at Zhuhai.”
The Finn, as always, was more laconic. “Although I’ve visited China many times, I’ve never raced there, which is why I’m looking forward to Zhuhai,” said Hakkinen.
“It will be a tough race, but I’ll do my best for Customer Sports Team AMG. It should be a lot of fun, especially in the SLS AMG. It’s a great motorsport vehicle which is both fast and extremely good-looking,” he added.
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