Coulthard not ready to stop

David Coulthard is disappointed former McLaren team mate Mika Hakkinen has now officially retired but says he can't imagine not racing himself. Double word champion Hakkinen took a year sabbatical from the sport but announced at the German Grand Prix he would not be returning. Coulthard was surprised 'The Flying Finn' lost the urge to race so quickly.

"Ultimately I am happy for him if he is happy to stop, but I really doubted whether he could lose the bug that quickly because for me the racing bug is that strong that I cannot imagine stopping," Coulthard said. "But I think Mika, in his last year, was starting to change as a driver and wasn't able or wasn't prepared to hang out as much as he'd done when the package was working well for him,"

"That's one difference you could put forward between him and Michael Schumacher because when he hasn't had competitive cars he has always given 100% but you've got to admire someone who is strong enough to make the decision to retire. He has done what he has wanted to do and now he has moved on to the next stage of his life."

"Naturally I am disappointed I will never get the opportunity to have a real race with him in equal circumstances and see how it goes. All I will have is what was left from the time we were together and he definitely had the upper hand psychologically and was at the top of his game when we had a competitive car. That part of our careers is finished and we are on to the next part. I'm still there and still hungry."

Coulthard is set to continue at McLaren in 2003 alongside Kimi Raikkonen and test driver Alex Wurz.

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