Formula One news

Button derailed Hakk return

Mika Hakkinen came within a Button of returning full time to Formula One. The double world champion, who retired a McLaren driver in 2001, revealed in a biography that Frank Williams phoned him on Good Friday 2004. "He offered me a job," the Finn immediately informed wife Erja.

The book, called 'Return of the Champion', said Hakk - now 36 and a little older than Michael Schumacher - met with Williams, but got the impression another driver had entered the frame.

He was right -- it turned out to be England's Jenson Button, who 'complicated' the matter, Mika said, by becoming embroiled in the CRB dispute. Hakkinen wrote: "It wasn't my thing anymore. I'm not going to BAR, Williams or any other team."

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• 24 Nov.
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