diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/LeaderCheckerTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/LeaderCheckerTests.java
index 257203b75364a..f06bf27a9c806 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/LeaderCheckerTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/coordination/LeaderCheckerTests.java
@@ -205,7 +205,9 @@ public String toString() {
         leaderChecker.updateLeader(leader2);
         {
             checkCount.set(0);
-            final long maxCheckCount = randomLongBetween(2, 1000);
+            // run at least leaderCheckRetryCount iterations to ensure at least one success so that we reset the counters and clear out
+            // anything left over from the previous run
+            final long maxCheckCount = randomLongBetween(leaderCheckRetryCount, 1000);
             logger.info("--> checking again that no failure is detected in {} checks", maxCheckCount);
             while (checkCount.get() < maxCheckCount) {
                 deterministicTaskQueue.runAllRunnableTasks();