As the rumour-mill concerning Jacques Villeneuve and Mike Hakkinen goes into overdrive, drivers attending today's press conference in Germany, were asked for their opinions on the 'return' of two former champions.

"I think it will be difficult being completely out of Grands Prix for two years," said Michael Schumacher of Mika Hakkinen, at which point Ralf indicated that the Finn has put on weight.

"Yeah, he gained," said Michael, but apparently he's lost it all.

"He has this natural talent," continued the six-time World Champion. "He will always have that but to come back after a long pause and not doing anything with Formula One - even testing here and there - will be difficult. But I think a lot of people will be very happy - and I would be one of them - to see him back. He has been a great competitor. We'll find out, but obviously we're in the silly season, that's the other point!"

And the possible return of Villeneuve?

"He obviously has a great name and Formula One is always happy to have those names," Said Michael. "There are 20 drivers in Formula One. You are friends with some, but you have less to do with others, but that's life, that's pretty normal and I have no feeling at all in a bad way not to see him back, honestly. I would be quite happy.

"We saw each other at the party after the race in Monaco," he added, "we had a chat. The atmosphere between us was pretty relaxed."

"I don't know what to say," said Montoya, when asked about the possibility of Villeneuve returning to F1. "Great! You know. Good for him, that's the only thing I can think of. The last few years he probably had some really tough years at BAR and I think, for him, it has to be really sad to see the car become competitive as soon as he left and he worked so many years with the team to try to get that, so I think it was pretty tough."

Asked about the return of Hakkinen, Montoya quipped: "So, Jacques and Mika next year at Williams?"

"If he does plenty of testing he will probably be competitive," added the Colombian, referring to Hakkinen. "I think something you learn like driving you are not going to forget. You probably need more time to get the experience back but it would probably be okay, same as Jacques."

"I think he would have to do a lot of tests to come back," added Fernando Alonso, "but he would still be quick."