Mika Hakkinen is convinced that Lando Norris is ready to win his first Formula One world championship this season.
The British driver won four races last season, his first victories in the sport, as the McLaren man took the fight to Max Verstappen but ultimately fell 63 points short of the Dutchman.
McLaren, who have been nominated for the Laureus World Team of the Year award, clinched their first constructors’ championship since 1998 and enter the upcoming season as favourites again.
Hakkinen won the first of his back-to-back world titles that season with McLaren and believes 25-year-old Norris has been through the experiences needed on the journey to becoming champion.
“Absolutely yes,” Hakkinen told the PA news agency when asked if Norris has what it takes to win the title.
“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.
“When I have been studying and looking around, people say ‘is he ready, can he mentally take this kind of pressure’?
“When you are not world champion and you are working towards that goal it requires a lot of mistakes.
“I believe Lando is ready, he is flat out ready to achieve his goal and he can become a world champion.”
Norris is favourite ahead of the new season, which gets under way on March 16 in Australia.
Verstappen, who is in contention to win the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year prize, held off Norris’ charge over the second half of the season to clinch a fourth consecutive drivers’ world championship despite struggling with his Red Bull car.
There were a number of controversial wheel-to-wheel battles between the pair, particularly at the USA and Mexico races, with Norris critical of himself for losing out at times.
Hakkinen believes that Verstappen’s mindset is crucial to his success and lauded the Red Bull driver for being able to maintain the standard needed to win four consecutive championships.
“You can be talented and a fantastic racing driver but becoming the level of being world champion requires more than that. It requires hard work with the team,” Hakkinen added.
“Max has won the world championship four times. I won it twice and that was mega hard work!
“Winning four times, that kind of achievement does not just happen without incredible psychological power inside of you and huge preparation all the way through your childhood.”
The Laureus World Sports Awards take place in Madrid on April 21.
