Mika Hakkinen believes McLaren’s “new era of success” will continue with title glory for Lando Norris coming in F1 2025.

McLaren secured its first Constructors’ Championship since 1998, successfully holding off a late Ferrari charge for the title as Lando Norris won the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Mika Hakkinen: It’s beautiful to see McLaren’s success

Norris’ victory, ahead of the two Ferrari drivers, was enough to keep McLaren 14 points clear of the Scuderia – ensuring the first Constructors’ win for the Woking-based squad since 1998’s double title win with Mika Hakkinen wrapping up the Drivers’ Championship.

The Finn’s title year was a stellar year for McLaren under then-team boss Ron Dennis, with the Adrian Newey-designed MP4/13 the class of the field. While Hakkinen would defend his crown in 1999, McLaren was defeated by Ferrari and it took until 2008 for another title win.

Lewis Hamilton secured his maiden title that season, but McLaren was defeated by Ferrari once again, although its 2007 campaign would have secured the title had McLaren not been disqualified from winning the title in the wake of the Spygate scandal.

A decade ago, a McLaren slump resulted in a change of direction as Zak Brown took over as CEO. With management changes being made, the rebuild project finally resulted in McLaren becoming race winners again in 2021 before this year’s successful run to the Constructors’ Championship.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com in Abu Dhabi, Hakkinen said he doesn’t find it bittersweet that McLaren’s most recent title success is no longer linked to his own glories in Formula 1.

“I feel that way everybody who works hard and makes the right decisions and plays good team play… this is what matters,” he said.

“People need to deserve something for their hard work.

“We worked hard. The management made the right decisions and the mechanics did fantastic work. Now McLaren is doing that kind of work.

“The kind of work McLaren is doing at the moment will make them stronger and feeling even better about McLaren’s success.

“What we did [in 1998], the history keeps repeating itself.

“So it’s beautiful to see that. So I feel that… I think it’s great.”

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Mika Hakkinen: McLaren’s success journey will continue

McLaren’s title win came about as a result of the most versatile car on the grid, with the MCL38 frequently proving the class of the field as Red Bull’s development direction went awry.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also proved one of the strongest driver pairings on the grid, with both drivers securing their first Grand Prix victories this season.

Stable regulations in F1 2025 suggest further success is possible, while strong investment into the team’s facilities, including an overhaul of its wind tunnel, places the outfit in strong stead ahead of the 2026 regulation changes.

It’s for these reasons that Hakkinen believes a new era of McLaren success has begun.

“McLaren started a new era and it started when Zak Brown took over running the McLaren team,” he said.

“This is a comment which is nothing to do with the history of McLaren or what Ron Dennis did, but McLaren needed to have a person like Zak who can generate the right team spirit, generate the people to do the right things for the team, and that was the time when everything changed.

“I’m a good friend of Zak and, when he asked me to work together [as a brand ambassador, a role Hakkinen took up in 2017], I already saw that this was going to be incredible.

“But actually, at the same time, I did recognise that this is not just an overnight change of the success of McLaren. It would take a certain time.

“If the investors, if the partners of the team, and the great engineers and mechanics, marketing, are willing to follow Zak in how he’s moving the team forward, the success will be there.

“This is not just [about] this weekend or this year. It will continue really far, the new success journey for the McLaren team. That’s how I see it.”

Asked whether he reckons a Drivers’ Championship will follow after the Constructors’ win, Hakkinen put his chips down on Norris for F1 2025.

“With the experience that Lando has, I believe he and McLaren can do it next year in a big way,” he concluded.

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