Former F1 Champ Says McLaren's Lando Norris Is Ready To Win The Drivers' Title

During the 2024 Formula 1 season, I don't know that any driver impressed quite as much as McLaren's Lando Norris. After winning his first Grand Prix in Miami, he then went on to win three more.

He was arguably the most consistent driver last season and had Max Verstappen not gotten off to a strong start in the first couple of rounds, there's a good chance Lando would be champion.

But does he have it in him to run a championship-caliber campaign from the moment the lights go out in Melbourne to the moment the checkered flag waves in Abu Dhabi?

Well, one guy who knows what it takes to be a champion sure thinks so, and that guy is none other than two-time world champion Mika Häkkinen.

1998 and 1999 champion Mika Häkkinen talked about why he thinks McLaren's Lando Norris is primed to win a title of his own.. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP) (Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images)

"Absolutely yes," Häkkinen said in an interview with the PA news agency, per The Independent, when asked about Norris' championship prospects. "I experienced so many years of racing in F1 without the success. Why I did not get the success, it was partly because of my development to become a good racing driver and also that the car was not good enough.

"You keep developing and pushing to become a good driver and that means you are taking risks and risks mean that you are putting yourself in positions to make mistakes. I think that Lando has reached all these elements in his career. He has been taking risks, he has been critical of himself, he has been pushing flat out."

Hakkienen knows what he's talking about. "The Flying Finn" raced in Formula 1 from 1991 to 2001, and won two consecutive championships with McLaren in 1998 and 1999, won 20 Grand Prix, and made 51 podium appearances.

Far be it from me to disagree with a legend like Häkkinen. This could very well be Norris' year and the first time a McLaren driver has taken the Drivers' championship since Lewis Hamilton won his first title driving for the team back in 2008.