Hakkinen is adamant: "Ferrari has the best car in Formula 1"
Ferrari's victory at the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix proved that their car is now capable of winning on a range of different circuits, rather than just the fast power dominated circuits. In fact, they've won the last three races as their development finally appears to be on track.
Because of all this, two-time Formula 1 world champion Mika Hakkinen is adamant Ferrari have the best car in F1. During the night race, Mercedes made some strategy mistakes as they failed to beat Max Verstappen for a podium place.
"Singapore was proof that Ferrari now really has the best car in Formula 1. At Spa and Monza it was all about pure speed, in Singapore, it should have been different. A bumpy circuit with many different movements and a few slow turns. Many people had expected a fight here between Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, but Ferrari surprised everyone," Hakkinen said in his weekly column.
"Ferrari dominated in Singapore. There was already no doubt that their engine was by far the most powerful, the result in Singapore shows that the car as a whole also works well. New upgrades seem to work and suddenly it is Lewis Hamilton who believes that Ferrari will be hard to beat in all remaining locations."
“The fact that Mercedes did not even occupy a podium place on Sunday came as a shock. Not only Ferrari but Max Verstappen also drove a sensational race for Red Bull and Honda to cross the finish line in third place."
A Mercedes car has won just one race out of the last events with Verstappen claiming three podiums in the same time frame. Hakkinen ensures that Red Bull still need to work on their package to be level competitors.
"It may be clear that Ferrari has taken considerable steps and it is also true that Red Bull and Honda work well together. Max Verstappen has grown up as a driver that year, but their overall package is weak in some places this year," Hakkinen added.