Häkkinen wants a new tire war

Mika Häkkinen is well placed to know what a tire competition can create as a spectacle in F1. The old pilot McLaren won the first of its two titles in 1998 when Bridgestone still faced Goodyear until the American manufacturer withdrew at the end of the season.

The 50-year-old Finn who was present last weekend at Suzuka for the Japanese GP spoke of the loss of this competition in terms of tires which is currently penalizing F1, Pirelli now being the sole manufacturer of the discipline.

“There is no competition. There should be other manufacturers and the competition would then be there, he explained. I understood from talking to the drivers that the tires reach a certain peak of performance and that they start to overheat if you push a little harder. This is not a criticism of Pirelli's production, it is simply a fact that there should be more competition at this level. It's the same as if we had only one driver on the track. You need competition, that’s what’s exciting. »

Mika Häkkinen also spoke about the difficult situation for young drivers seeking to achieve regular status in F1, with these contenders lacking opportunities to train behind the wheel of F1 cars with the testing limitation.

“It's quite difficult for them because they can't do tests, underlined the double world champion. In my opinion, it would be much more useful to use young drivers for tests so that they develop. Whatever the sport, how can you progress without training? This also restricts the technical part which cannot develop the chassis and the engine properly without doing tests. We can obviously use computers and simulations, but that does not replace reality. »