1998: Hakkinen becomes first world champions on Bridgestone at Suzuka as Goodyear bow out

Almost ten years have passed since Mika Hakkinen took his final bow in F1.

While former rival Michael Schumacher has returned to racing, Hakkinen has been content to pursue a life away from the track, following a brief stint in the DTM.

How well can you recall the finer details of his racing career? Put your knowledge to the test with the newest F1 Fanatic Quiz.

You know the drill by now – answer 20 questions and be sure to submit your answers before the five minute time limit expires:

• Mika Hakkinen quiz

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Image © Bridgestone Corporation

Mika Hakkinen, 2010

Mika Hakkinen started his final F1 season ten years ago.

The 1998 and 1999 world champion went on to race in the DTM and is now helping Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas on the way to an F1 seat.

Hakkinen talked exclusively to F1 Fanatic about his time in F1, his rivalry with Michael Schumacher – and what it’s like to discover your new car is a potential championship-winner.

F1 Fanatic: It’s ten years since your last F1 season – it seems to have gone very quickly. What have you been doing since then?

Mika Hakkinen: The time is really flying, that’s true. When I think about all these years it feels just like yesterday.

The time when you are in Formula 1, your life is so incredibly attached to the sport. Formula 1 takes from your life 24 hours a day. It’s not going into an office in the morning and leaving in the afternoon. It’s unbelievable, one hundred percent commitment to the job.

So in these ten years a lot of things have been happening. I’ve been experiencing a family life, I have three children in my life, so it’s been an amazing time. There have been bad moments, of course, and incredibly positive moments, but it’s just life.

In the racing world I experienced the DTM for three years with Mercedes. It brought me back years because I was racing with young guys and it was interesting to see their mentality and commitment for the sport –the girls as well, not only the boys.

F1F: You described how intense life is when you’re in Formula 1. When did you decide first to take a sabbatical from it, and then to leave it completely?

MH: It’s never so clear-cut to be honest. My career in Formula 1 was very complicated, let’s say it this way. Of course I had my accident in ’95 and [after that] I had to use much more effort to do my performance in Formula 1 compared to other racing drivers.

I was not able to go so far with my career in Formula 1 as other drivers – in terms of time, I don’t mean the results, I got the result that I was looking for.

I had to stop racing probably four or five years earlier than others because I was just finished. I felt that physically and mentally I was not doing the right stuff for myself and I was not doing the right stuff for the team and it was time to get new, young drivers to take my position and perform.

That was my decision. To be honest, it started after my accident. Not directly, you know, but something happened in my thinking and after ’95 I was still driven by the dream that I was going to be world champion, I was going to do everything for that and I was going to keep fighting.

As soon as I had that goal I thought “that’s it”. I was slowly realising in my mind that life has given to me so much, my sport has given me so much, I don’t want to try to step on ice and see if it’s strong enough any more, because I know what it feels like when you fall through.

F1F: You talked about how much the sport has given you: what was the time you enjoyed most in your career?

MH: That’s a really good question. Every year there was something. Motor racing gave me a great education in what you cannot just learn from reading books and going to university – those things are great but Formula 1 gave me something to educate myself in everyday life and the business world.

If you particularly want a year that was something I think years like ’97, that was an extremely fantastic year.

F1F: A breakthrough year?

MH:A breakthrough, yeah, I would say so. ’97 was a great year. Then going back I would say ’94 was an incredible year.

But I have to be honest every year there was something amazing. Without doing much I could think [of something] in a year I learned that which gave me the step towards the experience of winning the world championship one day.

I always picked up a lot of things every year which I could together and then attack. You cannot just one year, look in the mirror and say “I’m ready to win everything”. No, you have to continue working, year after year, collecting this knowledge in your head.

And then when you can put all these together and have a clear mind, you can do it. Bu, of course, you’ve got to be in the right team, you cannot do it alone, so I was grateful to be in a fantastic team with McLaren and we did it.

Valtteri Bottas, F3 Euroseries, 2010

F1F: Which drivers at the moment are gaining the benefit of your experience?

MH: I’m taking care of [Williams reserve driver] Valtteri Bottas with Didier Coton’s management team. He’s doing GP3 this year.

For me it’s unbelievably positive to talk about my experiences in the past, when I was in Formula 1. But I have learned in my career, I had great management team behind me – Didier Coton and Keke Rosberg and Keke’s sister.

But at the end of the day, yes you can help and advise the driver, you can do a lot of things in the background, but at the end of the day the driver has to learn for himself. He has to study the life study the sport and put everything on the correct way. That’s why it is always good to give.

The basics of the driver have to be right. The parents have to do the right work when the driver is a kid and doing go-karting, the parents have to do the right education so the young man or girl one day can take information in the right way. They can use it to suit their style in their life because everybody is individual and different.

F1F: Is the life you had in Formula 1 something you’d want for your children, if they wanted it?

MH: Oh, definitely. I think that being a Grand Prix driver is the best job in the world. It’s absolutely fantastic.

It’s hard work but, hey, it’s a great job!

F1F: You had a lot of testing opportunities with McLaren and Lotus when you came into F1. But there’s not as many chances for young drivers to do that today. Is this a problem F1 needs to sort out for drivers like Valtteri?

MH: I don’t say it’s a problem because every driver who is coming into Formula 1 is in the same situation.

So I’ll just tell you: I don’t think it is a problem. Because if there’s a problem somewhere there’s always ways to mange that problem and analyse that problem.

F1F: Turning to F1 today, what’s your view on the adjustable rear wings – a positive step for a F1 or a gimmick?

People have been thinking a lot about this wing. There has been a lot of thought, a lot of reasons why it is like that.

Personally I think, from the drivers’ point of view, it makes life more interesting. But we’ll find out how it works when the season starts.

Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2010

F1F: Fernando Alonso recently said “the most dangerous rival for me is always Michael [Schumacher]”. Some people were surprised by that because Michael had a tough season last year. Do you understand what Fernando means when he says that?

MH: I understand that every driver has their opinions, their feelings, before the start of the season. The drivers are always being asked questions before the season starts. So that’s just one thing that’s been picked up from these comments.

In my opinion when you’re starting a season in Grand Prix racing you have to focus on working with your team at the highest level possible. And the first driver you have to beat is your team mate so he’s the biggest threat. That’s the reality. Then comes the rest.

And you can, of course, look at the drivers in the Grand Prix field in 2011 and look at the level of professionalism it is absolutely amazing what the level of performance Grand Prix drivers today are delivering. They’re doing a great job in terms of the physical side, marketing side, professionally with the team, the performance they do at the track, the technical knowledge they have – the list is long.

I would not pinpoint one driver out there and say “this is my threat for 2011”. This is just my way of thinking. Michael is definitely a driver who I have experienced in the past, he’s an amazing individual who can work very hard and not give up even when thing are not going so well. He keeps going until he gets the result. And he has shown that in his career when he was racing in any category.

So when we are heading for the first Grand Prix of the season we will know who will perform and who will not. And it’s not only about the driver himself who will be doing the result, it’s also the team. Both sides have to deliver the maximum attack performance.

F1F: After your rivalry with Michael it’s amusing to see you now appearing in adverts together.

MH: I talked with Michael, we talked about last year and the future. It was good, I could see he has this incredible commitment now he has decided to go back to Formula 1.

It was funny doing the commercial with him together and overtaking him. We enjoyed doing it. There’s humour in it and it gives people the opportunity to laugh about the past.

Yes, when we were racing it was very tough and very serious. But at the end of the day it’s just a sport and when we did the commercials it was nice. I think you always have to put the humour in your life because otherwise you just don’t survive. You have to learn to laugh and have fun.

F1F: It looked a bit easier overtaking him in that advert than it was in Spa in 2000.

MH: Oh yeah! Much easier.

Mika Hakkinen, McLaren, Monza, 1998

F1F: Sebastian Vettel drove this incredible car last year, designed by Adrian Newey, who was also behind your world championship-winning cars. What is it that makes his cars different and special?

MH: How could I say it? What Adrian was able to do, in my opinion, was really think about everything. Every single part of the car has gone through a lot of thinking and he was able to create this car that could perform at the highest level and be better than any other.

I can’t really explain it. I’ve driven many cars in the past and I know there have been possibilities for people to design these cars however they want. But Adrian was able to find ultimate performance in every part of the car. Whatever it is, he was able to do that.

The cars he did for me, in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001, were just amazing. I was many times working with him, looking at the numbers and collaborating, looking at this and that and how much downforce it was developing. He understood the language when you communicated, what problems the driver was experiencing. He was able to understand what you need.

F1F: What’s it like when you drive a car like the [1998] MP4-13 for the first time – and realise that you’ve got a car that could win the world championship?

MH: Oh yeah it’s an unbelievable feeling. When I first drove that car, when I was driving out of the pit lane and I was steering the wheel and changing gear I thought “what is going on here? This is it!”

I didn’t even have to get to the first corner, I felt on the steering this was it. I went on the accelerator and felt the traction and the acceleration of the car and I thought, “hey, we’ve got something here”.

You want to jump up and down in the pit lane and say “I’ve got it, I’ve got the best car here” – but you cannot do that! The team are keeping their feet on the ground and you know that even if you have a good car, the season is long and people will be catching and developing their car. So you just have to keep your emotions down and keep working, making it even better.

Adrian and the McLaren team, the engineers and mechanics, they gave me this great car and we had a meeting and said “that’s where we are, now we just have to get even better.”

It was about creating the overall package and complete performance because it’s not just about the clock that says you are fast, you have to have so many elements right to win the world championship. The driver’s part in that moment is even more important because you really have to start working seriously hard.

When you have the chance to win the world championship that’s the only chance you get. It’s maybe never going to happen again in your life if you miss it once. You have to do everything you can to win it that year when you have the chance.

This interview was conducted thanks to Johnnie Walker, for whom Mika is a Responsible Drinking Ambassador.

Interviews

• Barrichello credits Pirelli for increased overtaking
• Chandhok: Indian track "will be ready, there's no doubt"
• The Making of Senna part 9: The response in Brazil
• The Making of Senna part 8: The Death of Ayrton Senna
• The Making of Senna part 7: Imola 1994
• The Making of Senna part 6: The perfect bad guy?
• The Making of Senna part 5: The lost scenes
• The Making of Senna part 4: 'You've never heard F1 sound like this'
• The Making of Senna part 3: Inside the F1 archive
• The Making of Senna part 2: Meeting the Sennas

Images © Johnnie Walker, F3 Euroseries, Mercedes GP, Daimler

Next up in round two of Champion of Champions are two drivers who had long and successful careers with McLaren.

Alain Prost won three titles with them in a six-year stint with the team. Mika Hakkinen won the championship twice in an even longer time with the team, lasting from 1993 to 2001.

Prost had the benefit of driving a series of highly competitive McLarens. Only the 1987 car was unable to challenge for the championship.

But he faced tough team mates in the shape of Niki Lauda and Ayrton Senna – both of which became three-times champions.

With no disrespect to Hakkinen’s long-term team mate David Coulthard, he wasn’t in the class of Lauda and Senna. But it took until 1998 for Hakkinen to get his hands on a championship-contending car.

He delivered a pair of titles, but Michael Schumacher wrested the crown from him in 2000.

Hakkinen left F1 one year later. What was originally supposed to be a sabbatical from the 2002 season turned out to be permanent retirement.

Prost has also gone on sabbatical ten years earlier – but the difference was, he came back. He arrived at Williams, won the 1993 championship in the devastatingly quick FW15C, then retired.

Prost was a four-time runner-up as well as a four-time champion. He finished second in 1983 (to Nelson Piquet), 1984 (to Lauda), 1988 and 1990 (to Senna).

Which of these drivers should go through to the next round of the Champion of Champions? Vote for which you think was best below and explain who you voted for and why in the comments.

Don’t miss F1 Fanatic’s interview with Mika Hakkinen tomorrow. Leave a comment on the round-up if you’ve got a question for him.

	Alain Prost	Mika Hakkinen
Titles	1985, 1986, 1989, 1993	1998, 1999
Second in title year/s	Michele Alboreto, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna, Ayrton Senna	Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine
Teams	McLaren, Renault, Ferrari, Williams	Lotus, McLaren
Notable team mates	Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell	Johnny Herbert, Martin Brundle, David Coulthard
Starts	199	161
Wins	51 (25.63%)	20 (12.42%)
Poles	33 (16.58%)	26 (16.15%)
Modern points per start1	12.48	8.58
% car failures2	16.58	24.22
Modern points per finish3	14.96	11.33
Notes	Lost ’83 title by two points and ’84 title by half a point	Stunned Ayrton Senna by out-qualifying him in their first race as team mates
	Controversial clash with Senna sealed third title	Recovered from head injuries after crashing at Adelaide in 1995
	Returned from sabbatical to clinch fourth title with Williams	Won back-to-back titles for McLaren in 1998 and 1999
Bio	Alain Prost	Mika Hakkinen

¹ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of races they started
² The percentage of races in which they were not classified due to a mechanical failure
³ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of starts in which they did not suffer a race-ending mechanical failure

Round one

• Alain Prost eliminated Keke Rosberg
• Mika Hakkinen eliminated Jaques Villeneuve

You need an F1 Fanatic account to vote. Register an account here or read more about registering here.

Read the F1 Fanatic Champion of Champions introduction for more information and remember to check back tomorrow for the next round.

Have you voted in the previous rounds of Champion of Champions yet? Find them all here:

Champion of Champions

• Ayrton Senna voted Champion of Champions by F1 Fanatic readers
• Champion of Champions in stats
• Champion of Champions Final: Senna vs Schumacher
• Ayrton Senna vs Juan Manuel Fangio
• Michael Schumacher vs Alain Prost
• Ayrton Senna vs Jack Brabham
• Juan Manuel Fangio vs Jackie Stewart
• Alain Prost vs Niki Lauda
• Jim Clark vs Michael Schumacher
• Jack Brabham vs Lewis Hamilton

Images © Williams/Sutton (Prost), Bridgestone Corporation (Hakkinen)

Mika Hakkinen succeeded Jacques Villeneuve as champion in the 1990s.

But they never went up against each other for the championship – the common thread between this pair was another driver: Michael Schumacher.

Villeneuve made a huge impact on F1 when he first appeared for Williams in 1996. He started his maiden race from pole position and would have won it had his car not suffered an oil leak.

That allowed team mate Damon Hill through to win. Hill beat Villeneuve to the title but not before the Canadian had won four races in his rookie season.

Hill was replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1997 and Villeneuve duly claimed the title after Schumacher’s infamous attempt to take him out at Jerez.

Hakkinen broke his Grand Prix duck in that race – thanks to team mate David Coulthard – and the following year he took Villeneuve’s place as Schumacher’s title rival. He won eight out of 16 races to clinch the championship.

This was the culmination of six years’ work with McLaren. Hakkinen joined the team in 1993 after two seasons with Lotus.

A second title followed in 1999, though Schumacher was taken out of contention halfway through the season when he broke his leg. In 2000 Hakkinen was runner-up in another title duel with Schumacher.

By 2001 his motivation seemed to be sapped and he announced he would be taking a year away from F1. But he never raced in the top flight again.

While Hakkinen endured several trying years at the beginning of his career, Villeneuve went through the same after winning his championship. He left Williams to join the new BAR team in 1999 and the project made excruciatingly slow progress.

After a change of management at the team he left on the eve of the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix. He made a partial return at the end of 2004, partnering Fernando Alonso at Renault, before moving to Sauber.

That team became BMW in 2006, and Villeneuve was dropped to make way for Robert Kubica following that year’s German Grand Prix.

Which of these drivers should go through to the next round of the Champion of Champions? Vote for which you think was best below and explain who you voted for and why in the comments.

	Mika Hakkinen	Jacques Villeneuve
Titles	1998, 1999	1997
Second in title year/s	Michael Schumacher, Eddie Irvine	Michael Schumacher*
Teams	Lotus, McLaren	Williams, BAR, Renault, Sauber, BMW
Notable team mates	Johnny Herbert, Martin Brundle, David Coulthard	Damon Hill, Olivier Panis, Jenson Button
Starts	161	163
Wins	20 (12.42%)	11 (6.75%)
Poles	26 (16.15%)	13 (7.98%)
Modern points per start1	8.58	5.23
% car failures2	24.22	22.70
Modern points per finish3	11.33	6.77
Notes	Stunned Ayrton Senna by out-qualifying him in their first race as team mates	Finished on podium on debut and won his fourth race
	Recovered from head injuries after crashing at Adelaide in 1995	Took title in second season for Williams but never won a race again
	Won back-to-back titles for McLaren in 1998 and 1999	Failed to score a point in 1999 at beginning of troubled BAR project
Bio	Mika Hakkinen	Jacques Villeneuve

*Placed second in points but disqualified from championship after the season ended. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was promoted from third to second.

¹ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of races they started
² The percentage of races in which they were not classified due to a mechanical failure
³ How many points they scored in their career, adjusted to the 2010 points system, divided by the number of starts in which they did not suffer a race-ending mechanical failure

You need an F1 Fanatic account to vote. Register an account here or read more about registering here.

Read the F1 Fanatic Champion of Champions introduction for more information and remember to check back tomorrow for the next round.

Have you voted in the previous rounds of Champion of Champions yet? Find them all here:

Champion of Champions

• Ayrton Senna voted Champion of Champions by F1 Fanatic readers
• Champion of Champions in stats
• Champion of Champions Final: Senna vs Schumacher
• Ayrton Senna vs Juan Manuel Fangio
• Michael Schumacher vs Alain Prost
• Ayrton Senna vs Jack Brabham
• Juan Manuel Fangio vs Jackie Stewart
• Alain Prost vs Niki Lauda
• Jim Clark vs Michael Schumacher
• Jack Brabham vs Lewis Hamilton

Images © Bridgestone Corporation (Hakkinen), Williams/Sutton (Villeneuve)

According to the event organisers Jenson Button will drive a 2010-specification MP4-25.

Lewis Hamilton will go up the hill in last year’s MP4-24 with which he won the Hungarian and Singapore Grands Prix.

Two other McLaren champions will be at this year’s Festival – Mika Hakkinen and Emerson Fittipaldi. A McLaren M23 will be driven up the hill by GP2 racer Sam Bird.

Several other current F1 teams will be represented at the Festival. Marc Gene will attend on behalf of Ferrari and Nico Hülkenberg will drive last year’s Williams FW31.

Nick Heidfeld, who holds the record for the fastest time on the hill, will be present for Mercedes. But don’t expect any record-beating feats as fast runs up the hill by F1 cars are generally discouraged on safety grounds.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner will be present and it’s likely the team’s show car will be at the Festival as well.

Other former F1 drivers already confirmed to appear at this year’s Festival are Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss, Richard Attwood, Derek Bell, Nicola Larini, Patrick Tambay and Jochen Mass.

Highlights outside of F1 include an appearance from multiple motorcycling world champion Giacomo Agostini, world rally star Ken Block and NASCAR’s Michael Waltrip.

See the Goodwood Festival of Speed website to buy tickets for this year’s festival.

Goodwood Festival of Speed

• Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 to celebrate 60 years of F1 (Pictures)
• My top 40 pictures from the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009
• F1 cars, post-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed pictures)
• F1 cars, pre-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 pictures)
• Mercedes and Auto Union Silver Arrows (Goodwood Festival of Speed Pictures)

Most wins by an F1 driver in a season (click to enlarge)

There’s a lot of discussion among F1 fans at the moment about how Brawn – and Jenson Button in particular – are dominating the championship.

So how far ahead are Button and Brawn? Are we set for the kind of one-sided seasons we’ve seen in the past? Let’s see how they measure up against F1′s greats.

Most wins in a season

*Season not complete

Michael Schumacher holds the record for most races won in a single season with 13 victories in 2004. Not only that, he’s also second on 11 (2002) and tied for third with nine (three times – 1995, 2000 and 2001), along with Nigel Mansell (1992).

But a better measure of domination is what percentage of the total number of races a driver won. By this measure Alberto Ascari is on top with six out of eight for a score of 75%. This is even more impressive when you consider he didn’t participate in the Indianapolis 500, one of the eight rounds that counted towards the championship that year.

Button needs to win eight of the 11 remaining races to beat Ascari’s record. That’s a gigantic challenge even in a car as formidable as the Brawn-Mercedes BGP001.

The difficulty of winning that many races doesn’t just come down to how much quicker his car is than the opposition and whether it is reliable. Championship pragmatism plays a role too. Late in the season, faced with the choice of bagging safe points to ease his way towards the championship, or risk everything for another win, wiser drivers will always take the former option – failing to do so cost Lewis Hamilton the title in 2007.

However if Button wins four more races this year – which at this stage looks more than likely – he will become only the third driver to have won nine races in a single season.

Most laps led in a season

Most laps led by an F1 driver in a season (click to enlarge)

This is perhaps a better measure of how much a particular car and driver is dominating a season.

So far Button has led just under two-thirds of the racing laps this season, including every lap at Melbourne and all bar one at Monaco.

The most dominant season by this measure was Jim Clark’s with Lotus in 1963, when he led over 71% of the racing laps. That included every lap of the Belgian, Netherlands, French, Mexican and South African Grands Prix.

I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see Button approach anything like this degree of superiority this year. We’ve already seen how Ferrari have closed the gap to Brawn in recent races, and Red Bull are likely to be strong in the next Grands Prix.

*Season not complete

More F1 in numbers

• The rise and fall of F1 driver numbers, 1980-2009 F1 in numbers)
• 2009 F1 cars quicker than in 2008
• F1′s greatest winners (F1 in numbers)
• More F1 statistics

Brawn's Melbourne rout brought back McLaren memories

A new season, a new generation of Formula 1 cars, and a routing of the opposition. This year’s Australian Grand Prix had much in common with the 1998 race. F1 Fanatic guest writer Andrew Tsvyk tells the story.

During the presentation of McLaren’s newest Formula 1 challenger on January 16th, Ron Dennis announced his retirement from the team. This was not entirely a surprise for the F1 community, as rumours of Dennis quitting had been in the air for a year or so. Lewis Hamilton’s championship success gave Dennis a wonderful opportunity to end his F1 career on a high and he took it.

During his ultra-successful McLaren tenure career, which spanned almost three decades, Dennis tasted great success and bitter acrimony. The 1998 Australian Grand Prix mixed both.

Back on top

1998 was the year McLaren returned to their winning ways. The seeds of the team’s recovery after three winless season were sown when Dennis succeeded in tempting Mercedes-Benz away from Sauber, and Adrian Newey away from Williams.

McLaren-Mercedes got their third season together off to a winning start as David Coulthard produced arguably the biggest sensation of 1997 by winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The West-sponsored McLarens won two more races that season, signalling that the outfit from Woking was heading in the right direction.

Things improved for the silver arrows the following year, as Newey built the blindingly fast MP4/13, adapting it perfectly to the sweeping rule changes (such as the reduction of the car’s width and the introduction of grooved tyres). Newey’s creation dominated pre-season testing. McLaren’s performance of the curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix left few people surprised. Nevertheless, the race itself was far from trouble-free for the team.

Qualifying produced the widely expected all-McLaren front row, with Mika Hakkinen ahead of David Coulthard by 0.043s, while third place went to Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari. After a disgraceful defeat in Jerez, Schumacher was hoping that his team had finally beaten a car to rival Williams. However, with Renault ceasing engine supply at the end of 1997, Williams were no longer the leaders.

Easy one-two

When the red lights went off the McLaren drivers had a strong get away and were able to keep their positions. Schumacher stayed third, made a bid to pass Coulthard when the McLaren clipped the grass exiting turn two but fell back.

Hakkinen completed the opening lap 1.5s ahead of Coulthard, with Schumacher and Villeneuve 2.8 and 4.2 sec adrift respectively. In the laps that followed the running order remained unchanged, while the gap to the McLaren drivers kept growing. It seemed that only Schumacher could threaten them, but on lap five his race came to a premature end as a result of engine failure.

Schumacher’s demise left McLaren in the league of their own as Villeneuve, the best of the chasers, fell back at a rate of up to three seconds per lap. It was clear that, unless mechanical problems intervened, only the McLaren drivers would have a chance to dispute the victory.

The phantom pit stop

Coulthard never really troubled Hakkinen despite the small gap between them. But in a sudden twist on lap 36 the order was swapped, with Coulthard hitting the front. The most peculiar thing was that Coulthard inherited the lead when Hakkinen inexplicably turned into the pits and drove past the McLaren garage where nobody was waiting for him. It transpired the race leader had misunderstood his engineer warning him about upcoming traffic. Hakkinen was known to have had hearing difficulties since his live-threatening crash at Adelaide in 1995.

Hakkinen’s excursion down the pit-lane cost his around thirty seconds. But even after having lost so much time he was able to rejoin the race in second position – such was the advantage that the McLaren drivers were enjoying over the opposition on that day. After a few laps he began to catch Coulthard.

The new leader did little to hold Hakkinen back. He was informed by the team that a mistake had occurred and that it was up to him to correct it. Being a true gentleman as well as a team player he let Hakkinen through with fewer than three laps to go.

So what made Coulthard relinquish the lead of the race? The answer to this question became available only after the end of the Grand Prix. Arriving in Melbourne Dennis was aware that his drivers had the fastest car in the field at their disposal. However, unreliability threatened to be the MP4-13’s Achilles’ heel and Dennis decided to intervene.

He asked his drivers not to push each other to the limit, urging them to decide the outcome of the race off the track. The two agreed, reaching a consensus that the one to arrive at turn one first would clinch the victory. Having started from pole-position, Hakkinen won the sprint to the first bend. Ironically, had it been not for the Finn’s mistake, the public would not have known anything about the drivers’ pre-race agreement.

Hakkinen’s victory proved his first step towards the 1998 world championship crown. Coulthard crossed the finishing line in second, with Wiliams’s Heinz-Harald Frentzen third, ahead of Eddie Irvine (Ferrari), Jacques Villenueve (Williams) and Johnny Herbert (Sauber).

Accusations that McLaren consistently favoured Hakkinen over Coulthard persisted until Hakkinen’s retirement at the end of 2001. Perhaps one day, when he has resigned from McLaren for good, Ron Dennis might find some spare time and dedicate it to writing a book about the times he spent at the helm of one of F1’s most successful outfits.

I, and millions of other passionate F1 fans, would be fascinated to read Dennis’s take on how this controversial race came about.

1998 Australian Grand Prix results

1998 F1 season statistics

Ron Dennis shakes hands with Martin Whitmarsh at the 2009 McLaren launch

Ron Dennis arrived at McLaren in September 1980. The team that scored 11 points that year won a race within 12 months of Dennis taking control.

Since then they’ve added seven constructors’ titles and ten drivers’ championships with a roster of F1′s greats like Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.

Now Dennis has announced he is stepping down as team principal and handing over to Martin Whitmarsh. Here’s how Dennis transformed the team Bruce McLaren founded in 1966 into one of the most successful F1 outfits of all time.

Dominating with TAG

Niki Lauda won McLaren's first championship of the Ron Dennis era

When Ron Dennis arrived as team principal in 1980 the team, which had last won the championship four years earlier, was in a state. The cars were off the pace and unreliable. Main sponsor Marlboro had grown impatient with Teddy Mayer’s management of the squad, and pressed Dennis into the role to sort things out.

He worked quickly – though not quickly enough to keep hot-shot rising talent Alain Prost from walking out at the end of 1980 after one suspension failure too many. No matter. He would be back.

John Barnard was the first of a series of ace designers to work at McLaren, and Dennis’s deal with Hercules made Barnard’s vision of the first carbon fibre monocoque a reality. It revolutionised race car technology, bringing new levels of lightness, stiffness and strength. Andrea de Cesaris infamously tested the cars to destruction in 1981, while John Watson gave Dennis-era McLaren its first victory, appropriately on home ground at Silverstone.

Dennis kept the big deals coming. The Marlboro coffers were raided for a multi-million dollar deal to bring Niki Lauda back from retirement in 1982. With teams converting en masse to turbo power, he persuaded TAG to bankroll Porsche’s development of a 1.5-litre engine which first appeared in the car in 1983.

And in 1984 TAG-Porsche powered McLarens stormed to both championship, with Lauda famously pipping McLaren returnee Prost by half a point. Another pair of titles followed in 1985, with Prost taking the drivers’ title this time. Against fearsome opposition from the Williamses of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Prost did it again in 1986.

Personality clashes

Just as Dennis has been renowned for his vision, so his people management skills have often come under fire. Even some of his longest serving employees have confessed to finding him unfathomable: Jo Ramirez wrote in his autobiography:

During all the time that I worked for Ron, he’d always been very supportive, very complimentary about my work. He’d often valued my opinion and, if I made a decision, he usually backed me up. Whenever I was wrong, he showed me a better way. Luckily I never had any major personal or health problems, but if I had, I’m sure he’d have helped me out, as he has countless McLaren employees who’ve had misfortunes. In 2001 [when Ramirez retired], he convinced me to stay as long as possible. […]

Ron Dennis is one of the greatest creators in the sport. As a leader, he inimitable. He has the strongest vision for the future that I’ve ever seen in anyone, and one is constantly learning from him. As a friend you couldn’t have a better one; as an employer, the McLaren record of staff retention speaks for itself. Is it the job that turned him into someone he’d probably rather not be?
“Jo Ramirez: Memoirs of a Racing Man”

Lauda’s retirement in 1985 was one of those infamous occasions where Dennis’s attitude astounded onlookers, as he failed even to mentioned Lauda at a press conference held to announce the Austrian’s retirement.

Prost vs Senna

Ayrton Senna won his second world championship for McLarne in 1990

Keke Rosberg and Stefan Johansson proved only short-term replacements for Lauda. In 1988 Dennis finally got Ayrton Senna behind the wheel of a McLaren, having first tried to sign him five years earlier.

The ferocity of the battle that ensued between Senna and Prost over two seasons at McLaren has become part of F1 folklore. Dennis has always insisted that accusations of favouritism on either side was no more than simple rivalry, and repeated that position as recently as last week.

With Alain he was always very concerned that Ayrton would be favoured by Honda as regards to the engine. So the race engines would be lined up, engine numbers would be written on pieces of paper, put in a hat and they would draw for their engine choice. It was simplistic but the easiest way to ensure that there was no bias on engines.

Prost stormed out after 1989, taking the drivers’ title with him, but that left Senna clear to claim the next two titles. By the end of 1991, McLaren had won four consecutive constructors’ and drivers’ championships. But in later years accusations that Dennis’s policy of driver equality was not all he claimed would return.

The Hakkinen years

Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen's successor, was runner-up in 2003 and 2005

In the mid-‘90s the team lapsed in form and endured three win-less seasons from 1994-6. Senna’s considerable retainer had sapped development costs, and the abrupt departure of Honda in 1992 left Dennis searching for a new engine supplier. Lamborghini and Puegeot were rejected before he settled on Mercedes, who remain with the team today.

It was also at this time, having followed a prolonged period of crushing dominance with three years in the wilderness, that Dennis signed a 13 year-old kart racer named Lewis Hamilton on a long-term contract.

The team resumed its dominant position in 1998. Dennis had once again brought together a near-ultimate line-up. The MP4-13 was designed by Adrian Newey, the design genius a clear successor to Barnard and Gordon Murray. The Mercedes engine was among the most powerful on the grid, Bridgestone mastered the new grooved tyres, and Mika Hakkinen was at the very least the next best thing to Michael Schumacher.

The fact that Schumacher never drove for McLaren is an indicator of how serious Dennis was about having the two best drivers available to him rather than just one. There’s no questioning the attractiveness of Schumacher to Mercedes – and from the video below it’s clear Dennis respected his talent too – but would Schumacher have accepted having Hakkinen in the other car?

Post-Hakkinen, the team struggled to find its way. Dennis’s efforts were occupied by building the new McLaren Technology Centre. Its original title ‘Paragon’ speaks volumes about how he views the team he made his own.

With Kimi Raikkonen Dennis failed to re-capture the magic there had been with Hakkinen – and Juan Pablo Montoya was a dubious choice for McLaren right from the off. The out-spoken Colombian won races for the team but the personality match seemed as poor as it had been when Nigel Mansell briefly drove for Dennis in 1995.

2007: Annus horribilis

Hamilton and Alonso's rivalry was fierce in 2007, and cost the team

The 2007 season should have been McLaren’s triumphant return to form. Dennis had leapt at the opportunity to grab two-time world champion Fernando Alonso from Renault. Meanwhile the Hamilton plan had borne fruit, and the talent Dennis had spotted in 1998 had won the Formula Three Euroseries and GP2 championship in consecutive seasons. A race seat at McLaren for the new season was his reward.

McLaren went to Valencia for a lavish launch in Alonso’s home country. But he and Dennis failed to gel, and Alonso was talking to former team boss Flavio Briatore about a return to Renault as early as March.

The 2007 season could not have been worse for the team. The drivers fell out, Alonso seized every opportunity to lambast the team in the press, and the team was hauled before the FIA for allegedly using confidential information belonging to Ferrari. A controversial series of FIA enquiries saw McLaren thrown out of the constructors’ championship and fined $100m. Dennis’s annus horribilis was complete when he later revealed he had separated from his wife.

The right time to leave

Ron Dennis and the McLaren team celebrate Lewis Hamilton's title win

Dennis had begun plans for his retirement several years earlier, preparing Martin Whitmarsh to take over at the head of the team.

But leaving at the end of 2007 would have been tantamount to defeat – an acceptance that the charges levelled at him by the FIA and Alonso in 2007 carried weight. Dennis wanted to leave on a high, and in 2008 his protege handed him the means to do just that. Hamilton captured the championship in an unprecedented end to the season, grabbing a vital extra point in the dying seconds of the race.

Perhaps when Hamilton crossed the line in fifth place that was when Dennis knew the time was right for him to step down from them helm.

McLaren will always be the team that Bruce McLaren created. And in almost three decades in control of it Dennis has preserved its original identity, even launching new cars in the outfits’ traditional bright orange from time to time. Dennis is McLaren through and through, and he insists he will remain highly active in the team’s wider business interests.

He is not universally liked, but who is that has achieved such enormous success?

McLaren hasn’t just built racing cars in Dennis’s time, it has created racing heroes. And that is why we are witnessing the end of an era.

Bruce McLaren in a McLaren at Watkins Glen in 1966

Images copyright: www.mclaren.com (1, 4, 5 & 6), Honda (2 & 3), Ford (7)

Lewis Hamilton at the wheel of a London taxi

Lewis Hamilton and Mika Hakkinen drove taxis across Tower Bridge in London to promote a campaign to stop people drinking and driving today.

Here’s some video and pictures from the publicity stunt that took place this morning.

Watch more F1 videos: F1 videos
McLaren F1 video player: McLaren F1 team videos

This videos is also available on the F1 Fanatic Facebook Group as well:

Press release:

2008 Formula 1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton and two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen take to the wheel of London black cabs to reinforce the Johnnie Walker anti-drink drive campaign. The champions are reminding people to designate a driver this Christmas, whether it be a taxi, bus, tube or train driver or even a friend that does not drink.

Lewis and Mika have teamed up with London Mayor Boris Johnson to help people realise the wealth of public transport and alternative options for transport home after Christmas festivities.

In the EU Drink Driving accounts for approximately 25% of all road deaths based on the European Transport Safety Council report. Last year in the UK alone, 460 people were killed and approximately 1750 seriously injured as a result of drinking and driving.

Need an experienced ex-F1 driver to be a steward? I've got just the guy...

Following the recent spate of dubious penalty decisions involving Sebastien Bourdais, Lewis Hamilton (at Fuji and Spa) and Felipe Massa, many F1 drivers have voiced a desire to see a permanent stewards appointed.

Ideally they would like one with relevant, recent Grand Prix experience. So who could fit the bill? Here’s a few potential names.

Jean Alesi

F1 starts: 201
Last Grand Prix: Suzuka, 2001
Pros: Vast experience, drove for several teams.
Cons: Never really shook off his wild side. In his final DTM season in 2006 he was fined for brake-testing team mate Mika Hakkinen.

Read more about Jean Alesi: Jean Alesi biography

Michael Schumacher

F1 starts: 248
Last Grand Prix: Interlagos, 2006
Pros: Can you think of a more experienced driver? Knows every trick in the book…
Cons: …because he got away with most of them. Several drivers voiced complaints about the standards of his driving while he was in F1. There’s a slim chance he might possibly be seen as being a little bit pro-Ferrari.

Read more about Michael Schumacher: Michael Schumacher biography

Mika Hakkinen

F1 starts: 161
Last Grand Prix: Suzuka, 2001
Pros: Went toe-to-toe with F1′s most successful champion – and won.
Cons: There’s a slim chance he might possibly be seen as being a little bit pro-McLaren.

Read more about Mika Hakkinen: Mika Hakkinen biography

Olivier Panis

F1 starts: 157
Last Grand Prix: Magny-Cours, 2005 (practice only)
Pros: Confines his current racing activity for to the F1 off-season, ice racing with Toyota.
Cons: Like Alesi, has just one win to his name – did he see enough of the sharp end of an F1 race to be considered sufficiently experienced?

Mika Salo

F1 starts: 109
Last Grand Prix: Suzuka, 2002
Pros: Experienced and without any obvious grudges against former rivals or teams…
Cons: …except maybe Toyota. No wins.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen

F1 starts: 156
Last Grand Prix: Suzuka, 2003
Pros: Experienced and without any obvious grudges against former rivals or teams…
Cons: …except maybe Williams.

David Coulthard

F1 starts: 245*
Last Grand Prix: Shanghai, 2008*
Pros: Stacks of experience and fresh from the cockpit (if one can be ‘fresh’ after getting out of a cockpit).
Cons: Expected to be working for the BBC next year, possibly too recent a retiree who could be seen as biased.
*Career ongoing but ending at conclusion of 2008 season.

Read more about David Coulthard: David Coulthard biography

Which ex-driver do you think would be a good choice as a permanent steward?