![]() ![]() The record time for the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb was set in 1999 when Heidfeld drove an MP4/13 up the hill in 41.6 seconds. ĭuring 1998 both Nick Heidfeld and Ricardo Zonta acted as test drivers for McLaren and drove the MP4/13 at test sessions. ![]() This was McLaren's first championship victory since 1991 with Ayrton Senna and, in terms of race wins, the team's most successful year since 1989. Coulthard won one race, in San Marino, en route to third place overall, while McLaren won the Constructors' Championship. ![]() ĭuring 1998, Coulthard's MP4/13 speed-trapped the highest of all F1 cars that year when he was clocked at 353 km/h (219 mph) at the old Hockenheim circuit.Īlthough Ferrari's Michael Schumacher took the Drivers' Championship battle to the final race in Japan, Häkkinen took the title with his eighth race win of the season. Häkkinen initially found the car to be nervous in testing due to a rearward biased instability, but this was corrected before the season started. Speaking of the MP4/13 some years later, Coulthard said that the car was fast but understeered through slow corners this was due to Newey's design that maximized the car's aerodynamic grip over its mechanical grip. The MP4/13 retained its superiority on high-speed tracks like Hockenheim and Silverstone, while Ferrari's F300 was closer to the McLaren on more technical circuits. McLaren's dominance continued in the second race of the season in Brazil, before Ferrari started to close the gap from the Argentine Grand Prix onwards. The FIA eventually sided with Ferrari and the system was banned, although the team was allowed to keep their results up to that point. The Ferrari team protested, stating that the brake-steer system was a violation of the technical rules, which banned four-wheel steering. The team was aided by a unique brake-steer system which allowed the driver to use any one of the car's brakes independently to aid cornering, a system first used in 1997. Newey's aerodynamic design was by far the most efficient one and Mercedes produced the most powerful engine of the season. The dominance of the MP4/13 was displayed in the opening race of 1998 in Australia, as Häkkinen and Coulthard finished a lap ahead of the rest of the field. With the cars now narrower and running on grooved tyres, the all-new design of the MP4/13 made it the car to beat. When the 1998 season got underway four months later, it became clear that Newey had adapted to the rule changes for 1998 best. His work was rewarded when drivers Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard finished first and second at the season-ending European Grand Prix. Mika Häkkinen's MP4/13 in test livery in the McLaren Hall at the Donington Grand Prix Exhibition.ĭesigner Adrian Newey had joined McLaren from Williams in 1997, but was unable to influence the design of the McLaren MP4/12 other than adjustment during the season. The team's main sponsor was West, whose logos were not featured on the cars at the French, British and German Grands Prix due to the tobacco sponsorship bans in these countries. Driven by Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard, the MP4/13 proved to be the dominant car of the season, with Häkkinen winning eight races en route to his first Drivers' Championship, while McLaren won their first Constructors' Championship since 1991 and, as of January 2023, their last. The chassis was designed by Adrian Newey, Steve Nichols, Neil Oatley and Henri Durand, with Mario Illien designing the bespoke Ilmor engine. The McLaren MP4/13 was the car with which the McLaren team competed in the 1998 Formula One World Championship. McLaren six-speed longitudinal semi-automatic sequential. Ilmor-built Mercedes-Benz FO-110G V10 (72º) Mario Illien (Chief Engine Designer (Ilmor-Mercedes)) Matthew Jeffreys (Head of Vehicle Design)ĭavid North (Chief Engineer-Transmission)ĭavid Neilson (Principal Engineer-Suspension) Mika Häkkinen's McLaren MP4/13 on display in Essen in 2018.
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