2007 Stars & Cars Day

Stuttgart -- Nov 03, 2007 -- More than 60.000 Daimler- and Mercedes-Benz employees and motor sport fans celebrated Formula 1 runner-up Lewis Hamilton (22) and his Mercedes-Benz driver colleagues from Formula 1 and DTM during today’s Stars & Cars Day in Stuttgart. On this occasion, two-times Formula 1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen (39) announced his retirement from motor racing. Mika will remain a long-term brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz. More than 60.000 spectators attended the motor sport action day around the museum and the Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz subsidiary.

The Stars & Cars Day is the traditional final event of the Mercedes-Benz motor sport season and was held for the second time around the Mercedes-Benz World outside the main plant. It was staged for the 13th time in total since 1994; last year, a crowd of 50,000 attended the event.

At the end of the 2001 season, Mika Häkkinen had retired from Formula 1. During the 2004 Stars & Cars Day he announced his comeback in the DTM in which he participated in 2005, 2006 and 2007 as the darling of the public. Today, again at the Stars & Cars Day, the popular Finn declared the end of his career as a professional race driver. He said goodbye to his supporters with parade laps in the original McLaren-Mercedes MP4-13 with which he became the 1998 World Champion, a really historicially valuable and precious car in motorsports which belongs to the museum today. This final drive was a surprise of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport for Mika.

The spectators of the event experienced a packed and interesting programme with many demonstration laps with up-to-date and historic race cars, with Mercedes-Benz production cars from the present and the past and as highlights pit stop competitions of mechanics of Formula 1, DTM and historic cars. Tributes to the successful drivers by Daimler CEO and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Dr. Dieter Zetsche as well as interview and autograph sessions, an entertaining programme with live music and a special programme for children rounded off the event. The visitors honoured this event with constantly growing enthusiasm from the beginning at 10am until the end of the event at 4pm.

Lewis Hamilton, who became World Championship runner-up in the Brazilian Grand Prix on 21st October with a gap of one point, was enthusiastic about this season and thanked his “friends” exuberant how he called the many thousands of Mercedes-Benz supporters at Stars & Cars: “During my first season in Formula 1 I achieved much more than I had dreamt of one year ago. This is also thanks to the great support in the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and by my fans. I thank all of you for this with all my heart. I believe, that next year we will be even stronger and I promise all my colleagues of Mercedes-benz that we will again fight for the championship, and this time I will take it. I feel extremely comfortable as a member of the Mercedes family and I really appreciate particularly the support I receive from Germany. I have great memories of Untertürkheim, for example that I came here with my original Formula 3 race car to the engine shop as European Champion two years ago. Now, only two years later, I am World Championship runner-up, isn’t this bombastic?”

Mika Häkkinen: “The decision to retire now was not an easy one; however, with 39 years, it’s about time to say goodbye to professional motor racing. Of course, racing is still in my blood and this decision does not mean that this will prevent me from racing for pleasure. I leave with mixed emotions. On the one side, it is hard to say ‚Auf Wiedersehen‘ to the many friends I found in motor sport and particularly in the Mercedes-Benz motor sport family. Together with Norbert Haug and the brand with the star I have celebrated all my successes in Formula 1 and DTM here and this makes me very proud. On the other side I am glad to remain closely associated to the brand Mercedes-Benz. We agreed on a long-term co-operation and we will announce more details in due course.”

Norbert Haug, Vice President Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “A great day. It’s great how much enthusiasm and support our racing team experience and how impressively clear this turns out at Stars & Cars. In the course of the season, we won 15 out of 27 races in Formula 1 and DTM, all 20 of the Formula 3 Euro Series, from which Lewis Hamilton came, and also all 22 races of the British Championship and the Formula 3 Masters. In the history of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport there have never been more victories in one season: In Formula 1, DTM and Formula 3 our drivers won 58 times out of 70 starts. A dozen races we did not win and 11 of them we finished on the podium.

Today I’m really sad about Mika’s retirement, we all will miss him as a race driver. In Formula 1 and DTM together he drove almost 200 races for Mercedes-Benz, but he will remain with us a a brand ambassador and this is important.

Lewis Hamilton finished his first year in Formula 1 as runner-up and started six times from first place on the grid and 12 times from the first row. In the end, Kimi had one point more – a pity for us and cordial congratulations to him. This result and particularly today’s enthusiasm is our challenge to try and finish one position better next year.”

Source: Daimler

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