Mika Hakkinen at centre of special McLaren announcement
Mika Hakkinen attended the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix as part of McLaren's 1,000th GP celebrations
McLaren has unveiled a new bronze statue in honour of two-time F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen as part of the team’s 1,000th grand prix celebrations.
McLaren marked its 1,000th race in Monaco earlier this month, with the team celebrating the milestone by running a special livery for the last two rounds of the F1 2026 season.
McLaren unveils bronze Mika Hakkinen statue at MTC
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Hakkinen, who won consecutive world championships with McLaren in 1998/99, attended the Monaco Grand Prix, where he drove the M2B car used for the team’s first F1 start at the same venue in 1966.
Following last weekend’s Barcelona Grand Prix, McLaren has taken the covers off a bronze statue of Hakkinen, crafted by the renowned motorsport artist Paul Oz, at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking.
The statue (above), which was revealed in a presentation at the MTC this week, will sit alongside the MP4-13 car – driven by Hakkinen to his first title in 1998 – in the factory’s famous boulevard.
It shows Hakkinen in a celebratory pose after sealing his maiden world championship at the 1998 Japanese Grand Prix.
Hakkinen is the latest McLaren world champion to have his likeness recreated in the form of a bronze statue, joining James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
A bronze statue of Bruce McLaren, the legendary team founder, also sits in the boulevard at the MTC.
In reaction to his statue, Hakkinen said: “Wow… Good memories!
“This is me in Suzuka, when I won my first world championship, the beginning of something very special.
“When you spend your whole life racing, there is pressure on you to win a world championship and you never know whether you are going to.
“That day in Suzuka, before the race, I just remember thinking: ‘OK, let’s do this, let’s go for it.’
“An amazing moment. Thank you all.”
He added: “Every time when I walk in here [McLaren’s factory], I feel like I want to go back to racing. But I have to do something with my six pack first…
“I joined McLaren 35 years ago. It was a different time, we were in a different location, it was a smaller factory.
“But the family feeling, the team spirit, and the determination to win was exactly the same.”
Following a lean period, McLaren has returned to the fore over recent years by winning consecutive constructors’ titles in 2024/25, as well as the drivers’ championship with Lando Norris last season.
Norris and Piastri, as well as McLaren bosses Zak Brown and Andrea Stella, were in attendance at the MTC for the official presentation of Hakkinen’s statue.
Asked what advice he would give to the team today, Hakkinen said: “Keep working hard and believing in these two guys [Norris and Piastri].
“I have spent 35 years with McLaren and I think what the team is doing right now is incredible.
“The most important thing for people to remember is that it is not individuals behind McLaren’s success, but the whole team.”
Extended interview: How Mika Hakkinen defeated Michael Schumacher in 1999
Part 1: The inside story of Mika Hakkinen’s dramatic 1999 title victory against Ferrari
Part 2: The inside story of Mika Hakkinen’s dramatic 1999 title victory against Ferrari
Asked how the success of McLaren’s previous drivers fuels him, Norris said: “Every driver who has raced for McLaren has achieved something great, so that adds pressure for any new drivers coming in, because you feel like you have to live up to them.
“Whether that is drivers like Senna, Prost or Mika, or drivers like Fernando [Alonso] and Lewis [Hamilton], whom I grew up watching and am now racing against.
“In Barcelona last weekend, I got to share a podium with Lewis and George [Russell] and it was the first time there were three Brits on the podium since 1968.
“Moments like that are ones you appreciate hugely.
“When I was a kid watching Formula 1, I looked up to Lewis. I would see him on the podium and wonder what it felt like.
“Now, I get to be up there with him. That’s very special.
“So many of the best races in Formula 1 history involve McLaren drivers like Mika and Lewis.
“They’re amazing guys, not just because of what they have achieved, but because of who they are as people.
“For me, they set a gold standard for what we should want to be like.”
Piastri added: “It makes you want to add to their success.
“It adds a bit of pressure, because a lot of people have won with this team, but that’s good pressure. There is an intensity to keep winning.
“In my short time with this team, from us being in quite a tricky place when I joined, to climbing to the top of the mountain, now we want to stay there.
“The success in our past inspires us to go and do it again. We want more world championships.
“We are the second-oldest team in Formula 1 history – we’ll never be the oldest, but we can definitely become the most successful. That’s what we are striving to do.
“There aren’t many other teams that are as connected to their history as we are, and whose former drivers are still so actively involved with the team.
“Sitting next to Mika right now, I can’t speak for him, but I imagine that if he didn’t want to be here, he wouldn’t be.
“It means a lot that Mika still wants to be such a big part of this team.”
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