McLaren’s Lando Norris pictured alongside Mika Hakkinen, 2024.

Mika Hakkinen believes it’s time for McLaren to throw its full weight behind Lando Norris in the push for the F1 Drivers’ World Championship.

Norris is chasing Max Verstappen for the title, with the British driver 62 points down on the Dutchman with eight Grand Prix weekends remaining in the season – a gap that could have been closer still if McLaren was employing team orders.

What would Mika Hakkinen do as McLaren team boss?

While McLaren has had the quickest car at several recent races, Verstappen has managed to keep the gap as significant as it is thanks to the Woking-based squad being reluctant to reel in Oscar Piastri’s pace.

In Hungary, Piastri was taken out of the lead due to McLaren giving Norris the undercut, with the team then pleading with Norris to allow Piastri back through – costing the British driver seven points.

In Italy, Piastri finished second to Charles Leclerc after overtaking Norris on the first lap – McLaren didn’t intervene to swap positions back, with Piastri duly coming home ahead of his team-mate.

This willingness to let their drivers race may be commendable but, as a championship-winning tactic, isn’t helping Norris very much.

Mika Hakkinen, speaking to Ilta Sanomat at a Unibet event in recent days, believes the situation may not be straightforward, citing Piastri’s contract potentially having caveats to ensure he doesn’t have to help his team-mate unless mathematically out of contention.

But the Finn, who won the title with McLaren in 1998 and ’99, believes McLaren do need to make a decision on how to play the rest of the season.

“It’s a very difficult question because there are many factors involved,” he said.

“If you look coldly at the numbers, it’s clear: the fastest driver gets all the credit, and the other driver does what he’s told.

“Both are given a chance to win. If you don’t get to win, you throw a bundle of paper on the table and say this is not how it’s going to be!”

But, with eight races to go and the gap still quite hefty, Hakkinen said Norris now needs the support of his team.

“Today, the race has changed a lot,” he said.

“I would make the decision [to favour Norris] straight away. It’s logical at this point. It hasn’t traditionally been McLaren’s policy, but the team has to find a consensus.”

Hakkinen pointed to the example of racing for McLaren in 2000 when, as a double World Champion, the Finn found himself being bested by team-mate David Coulthard on occasion and, with McLaren not intervening, this cost him points in the championship that eventually went to Michael Schumacher.

“In my situation, I won the first championship, then the second and the journey continued,” he said.

“The next year we went again and I said to the garage on the radio several times during the season, ‘Tell David to let me pass!’

“It didn’t make any sense. I had a chance to win the championship, and this guy was holding me back.”

But, with then-team boss Ron Dennis ensuring fairness between his drivers at individual Grands Prix until one was mathematically out of the fight, Hakkinen said it was a tactic that cost him the title.

“It certainly did!” he said when asked if the approach had cost him the title.

“It was exhausting and exhausting. Of course, I understood David’s point of view. He wanted to win too. But hey… come on!

“We saw time and time again that the guy was three, four tenths slower in qualifying. If you get passed by chance at the start, don’t let it take points away from me. But that wasn’t McLaren’s policy.”