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Model: MP4/15 Engine: 3.0 Mercedes V10
Drivers: Mika Hakkinen
David Coulthard
They certainly didn't rest on their laurels in 2000, but a combination of
problems, a disqualification, mechanical
failures and an occasional mistake saw the team relegated to second places
in both championships.
Once again, team, engine builder and drivers retained stability, the
driver pairing becoming the longest ever in Grand
Prix racing during the year. There was no doubt that speed was there, with
the drivers and test driver Olivier Panis
frequently showing fastest in testing.
With Mika Hakkinen on pole for the first three races, and teammate
Coulthard alongside him in the first two, that
was certainly never in doubt, but both drivers failed to finish in
Australia due to pneumatic valve failure. Hakkinen
suffered engine failure in the second race, and Coulthard was
disqualified, so with Michael Schumacher leading the
two McLarens home in the third race, the Ferrari driver had a huge
advantage.
But then the advantage turned: Coulthard won in England, Hakkinen in
Spain, Coulthard in Monaco and then again in
France. In Austria, Hakkinen began the fight back, leading home his
teammate, while Hakkinen won in Hungary and
superbly in Belgium where he took the championship lead.
Unfortunately, a mechanical failure at Indianapolis virtually ended his
chances. A superb race to second in the damp
of Japan wasn't enough, but Coulthard's late race challenge in Malaysia
could not make up for two penalties in the
last three races. Second was the best in both Championships.
Drivers' Championship: 2nd, Hakkinen, 89 pts; 3rd, Coulthard, 73pts
Constructors'Championship: 2nd, 152 pts
2001
Model: MP4-16 Engine: 3.0 Mercedes-Benz V10
Drivers: Mika Hakkinen
David Coulthard
Alex Wurz
In 2001, the Team McLaren Mercedes pairing of Mika Hakkinen and David
Coulthard were joined by Alexander Wurz,
who was announced as the team’s third grand prix driver.
Michael Schumacher won the first two races of the season, however
Coulthard fought back in Brazil and a few days
after his 30th birthday scored his first season win, however Hakkinen had
a problem on the start grid and did not
compete in the race.
In San Marino, Coulthard and Hakkinen lined up on the front row of the
grid, marking the team’s 50th one-two
qualifying result, while Coulthard finished on the second step of the
podium with Hakkinen fourth. At the Spanish
Grand Prix, Hakkinen retired on the final lap of the race with mechanical
failure.
Coulthard scored his second win of the season in Austria, while Hakkinen
had to wait until the British GP, one of the
Team McLaren Mercedes teams’ home races, to taste the victor’s champagne.
At the Italian Grand Prix in September, Hakkinen announced that he would
be taking a year’s sabbatical from Formula
1 in a career which included a pair of drivers’ championship in 1998 and
1999, 20 grand prix victories, 26 pole
positions, 25 fastest laps and 420 points. The Finn won the following race
at Indianapolis, which would ultimately be
the final win of his Formula 1 career.
Coulthard finished his season with two podium positions – third in the US
and Japan and secured second position in
the drivers championships. Hakkinen finished the season fifth.
Drivers’ Championship: 2nd, Coulthard 65 pts; 5th, Hakkinen, 37pts
Constructors’ Championship: 2nd, 102 pts
2002
Model: MP4-17 Engine: 3.0 Mercedes-Benz V10
Drivers: David Coulthard
Kimi Raikkonen
Alex Wurz
David Coulthard and Alex Wurz were joined at Team McLaren Mercedes in 2002
by young Finnish star and new
signing, Kimi Raikkonen, who made an immediate impression by scoring his
first podium position at the season’s first
race, third at the Australian Grand Prix.
David finished third in Brazil, the Scot moving up to fourth place overall
in the Drivers’ World Championship after
scoring another six points for third place at the Spanish Grand Prix.
However, Spain proved to be a disappointing
weekend for Kimi who retired.
David finished sixth in Austria, then came the highlight of the year, the
Monaco Grand Prix which secured David his
12th Formula 1 career victory, and the celebratory champagne for Team
McLaren Mercedes. Fastest during free
practice in Canada, David finished second, with Kimi finishing fourth,
after the Finn made an excellent overtaking
manoeuvre on Ralf Schumacher at turn one.
Kimi returned to the podium at the next race, the European Grand Prix at
the Nurburgring securing third place, the
only Team McLaren Mercedes finisher after David retired on lap 37
following an incident with Juan Pablo Montoya at
the first corner.
Kimi scored the highest finish of his career at the Mobil 1 French Grand
Prix, driving a superb race to finish second
overall, with David standing alongside him on the podium having finished
third.
David finished fifth at the Mobil 1 German Grand Prix and the next race in
Hungary, with Kimi fourth at the
Hungaroring.
The Team McLaren Mercedes pairing ended the year upbeat with a pair of
third places, David at the SAP US GP and
Kimi at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Drivers’ Championship: 5th, Coulthard 41 points, 6th, Raikkonen 24 pts
Constructors’ Championship: 3rd, 65 pts
2003
Model: MP4-17D Engine: 3.0 Mercedes-Benz V10
Drivers: David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen, Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa
The 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship began with the introduction of
new rules, a new qualifying
procedure, and ended in a nail biting climax at Suzuka.
Team McLaren Mercedes started the season with the appointment of new test
driver Pedro de la Rosa, to
supplement the work done by David, Kimi and Alex, and the team made a
strong start in Australia, David scoring his
12th win for the team, followed by Kimi scoring his first Formula One
victory in Malaysia, and taking the lead of the
Drivers’ World Championship table.
The incident packed Brazilian Grand Prix saw Kimi eventually taking second
place, with Giancarlo Fisichella awarded
the victory. As the European season began, Kimi secured another podium in
San Marino, with David finishing in fifth
place. Spain however was disappointing for both drivers, ending in a
double retirement.
In Austria, Kimi was second, with David finishing fifth, having moved up
the field from 14th on the grid. There was
another second place for Kimi in Monaco, while David finished sixth. The
Scot retired in Canada with transmission
failure, while Kimi finished sixth, having started from the pitlane after
a mistake in Saturday qualifying.
The back-to-back European and Mobil 1 French Grands Prix, saw Kimi secure
his first Formula 1 pole position
(European GP), although the race ended in retirement for both drivers.
David had a particularly difficult race in
France, fuel rig failure on his second pitstop costing him time and
dropping him down the race order. He finished
fifth.
Kimi and David finished third and fifth respectively at the British Grand
Prix, while David finished in a well-deserved
second place at the Mobil 1 German Grand Prix.
Hungary, Italy, and the US Grands Prix gave Kimi another valuable 20
Drivers’ World Championship points, with fifth
place the best result for David at the Hungaroring. Kimi was lying second
in the Championship, nine points behind
Michael Schumacher going into the final race of the season.
Kimi knew to become the Drivers’ World Champion he had to win in Japan,
with Michael Schumacher finishing out of
the points. Both Team McLaren Mercedes drivers drove fantastic races, and
while they could not catch eventual
race winner, Rubens Barrichello, two podium positions rounded off the end
of what had been a fantastically close
season.
Drivers’ Championship: 2nd, Raikkonen 91 pts, 7th, Coulthard 51 points
Constructors’ Championship: 3rd, 142 pts
2004
Model: MP4-19 & MP4-19B
Engine: 3.0 Mercedes-Benz V10
Drivers: David Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen, Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa
The 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship began with the introduction of
new regulations, which included the
bottom five teams from the previous years championship being able to run a
third car during Friday practice
sessions. In addition there was a change to the qualifying format, which
meant that the two qualifying sessions
would be held back to back on a Saturday for the duration of the season.
In addition the 2004 calendar saw the
inclusion of two new races in Bahrain and China, 18 races in total. Three
sets of back to back grands prix, Monaco
and Europe, Canada and the USA and France and Britain were scheduled over
an eight week period.
The start of the season was a disappointing one for Team McLaren Mercedes.
David finished eighth for the team in
Australia and then sixth in Malaysia. An unsatisfactory inaugural Bahrain
Grand Prix followed for the team with David
and Kimi both retiring from the 57 lap race.
The first four European races saw Team McLaren Mercedes score only one
point with Kimi finishing sixth at the San
Marino Grand Prix.
Canada saw a turnaround in fortunes for the MP4-19 where Team McLaren
Mercedes came away with a fifth place
for Kimi and sixth place for David. The team moved on to the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway one week later for the
second back-to-back race of the season where Kimi and David finished the
73-lap incident filled United States Grand
Prix in sixth and seventh positions respectively, scoring five points in
the Constructors’ Championship.
The second half of the season saw an improvement in the competitiveness of
Team McLaren Mercedes with the
introduction of the revised 2004 car, the MP4-19B in France, where David
achieved the third fastest time in
qualifying and David and Kimi finished the 70-lap Mobil 1 French Grand
Prix in sixth and seventh place respectively.
At the following race, the British Grand Prix, Kimi scored the third pole
position of his career, finishing the race in
second place. In addition David scored a further two points for the team
with seventh place. The team scored five
points at Hockenheim two weeks later with a fourth place for David and
while Kimi set a new lap record and the
fastest lap of the race; he was forced to retire with a rear wing failure.
Belgium returned to the calendar after a year’s absence, with the usual
difficult weather conditions affecting running
over the weekend. Qualifying took place in wet conditions that were
constantly changing over the two hour period.
As a result Team McLaren Mercedes drivers David and Kimi qualified in
fourth and tenth positions respectively.
However the race saw Kimi score his second Formula One career win after a
superb performance and secured the
team’s first victory of the season.
The following four races saw Team McLaren Mercedes accumulate a further 20
points with Kimi returning to the
podium on two more occasions; at the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix he
finished third and in Brazil where he came a
very close second to 2005 team mate Juan Pablo Montoya with a gap of under
one second. Brazil also marked the
last race for David as a Team McLaren Mercedes driver, having competed in
150 races, with 12 wins and seven pole
positions for the Woking based squad.
Drivers’ Championship: 7th, Raikkonen 45 pts, 9th, Coulthard 24 pts
Constructors’ Championship: 5th, 69 pts
David Coulthard was a Team McLaren Mercedes driver until the end of the
2004 season
McLaren Mercedes F1 Official
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