Mika Hakkinen Shares Yet Another Positive Prediction For McLaren

Monday, 18 December 2023 at 05:00

Former F1 driver and two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen said he believes McLaren's next victory is "getting very close."

Mika Hakkinen is the person who predicted that McLaren would challenge Red Bull in 2023 during times when McLaren was sixth in the Championship with 17 points.

While many people believed he was crazy when he gave his prediction, he turned out to be right. The Finn recently shared another small prediction when he told McLaren he believes their next victory is very close:

"It's getting very close. When I was racing at McLaren, we were in difficult situations many times. Some of the grands prix were so frustrating, the car wasn't working at all. My teammate and I were complaining like there was no tomorrow, so I have experienced that."

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Lando Norris stated that after the 2023 season, the Papaya team is in the best place it has been in the last ten years. While Hakkinen agrees the team is in a very goo place, he suggests the team still has to improve.

"I have seen the bad days as well as the good days, so when I am walking around the factory after all these years, I can sense that everybody has a positive drive. It's getting very close, but I think both the drivers and the team know they need more."

The Red Bull Racing team in the front has been flawless over the last two years, and all the remaining teams need only one mistake from the team from Milton Keynes, and they will have a better chance of catching up.

While Hakkinen believes the victory is getting close for the McLaren, he suggested the team needs a little bit of luck in order to get there. The 55-year-old added:

"They must keep developing and finding the right solutions for the car to be quicker. But I feel that the victory is getting very close. I don't want to use the word luck, but you need that sometimes. It's a part of this world, you have to believe in luck a little bit, but it can happen."