1996 Mercedes-Benz McLaren MP4/11

The McLaren MP4/11 was the car with which the McLaren team competed in the 1996 Formula One season. It was driven by Mika Häkkinen, who was in his third full season with the team, and David Coulthard, who moved from Williams. McLaren had endured a disappointing season in 1995, with the McLaren MP4/10 beset by handling and reliability problems in the team’s first year in partnership with Mercedes-Benz.

Still the team gave the impression that progress was being made. At Suzuka – a track which suited the car – Mika Hakkinen finished second to Michael Schumacher – although it was a fairly lucky result as both Damon Hill and David Coulthard went off in their Williams-Renaults. At Adelaide, Hakkinen crashed badly in practice and Mark Blundell could do no better than fourth – two laps down to the winner Hill.

The second year of the arrangement was far more productive with both performance and reliability improved, but the team had yet to make the serious breakthrough necessary to challenge the “big three” of Williams, Ferrari and Benetton.

In pre-season testing, which took place at Estoril in February (the day before the team’s official presentation) 1996 and Silverstone in March, four-times world champion Alain Prost was brought in as a technical advisor to test-drive the MP4/11 in Häkkinen’s absence, who was still recovering from his near-fatal crash during qualifying for the 1995 Australian Grand PrixThe 1993 World Champion lapped Estoril in a time of 1m23.40s. This was largely a shakedown run and so the lap times may not be indicative of the performance of the car, but they were a long way from the pace of 1m21.50s set last week by Jacques Villeneuve in an old Williams-Renault FW17.

The fastest lap by a 1996 car was a 1m21.66s set by Mika Salo in the Tyrrell-Yamaha 024, suggesting that lap times have been pegged to 1995 levels. The fastest lap of the winter at Estoril, incidentally, was a 1m19.95s, recorded by Damon Hill in December. This was well below David Coulthard’s pole position for Williams-Renault of 1m20.53s at the Portuguese GP in September. McLaren’s best qualifying time for that race was Mark Blundell’s 1m22.914s.

The team’s strategy in the winter appears to have been one of ironing out the problems of the MP4/10 and optimizing the performance. The team has not taken the risk of radical changes because it cannot afford a failure like last year’s car. The 1995 pointed nose has gone and is replaced by one similar to that used on the Williams FW17. The “mid-ship” wing has gone and the cockpit area has been changed in line with the new driver safety regulations. The Mercedes-Benz V10 engine has been upgraded – and, hopefully, made more reliable – and a lot of work has gone into the development of electronic systems.

Whether or not these changes will be sufficient to close the gap to the F1 front-runners remains to be seen, and the pressure is on because McLaren has not won a race since 1993 and there hasn’t been a Championship victory since 1991.

At the launch of the MP4/11, Mika Hakkinen made his first public appearance since his Adelaide accident, alongside team mate David Coulthard and test driver Jan Magnussen. Hakkinen has been training hard for the last month in an effort to be fit enough to race in Melbourne on March 10.

Mika tested an old McLaren at Paul Ricard, and the indications are that the Finn is still able to be competitive. Testing and racing, however, are very different, and we must wait for the first races to really be able to judge whether Mika has been affected by the accident. If he does not race the job will go to Magnussen.

The car was developed throughout the season, with improvements initiated to eradicate an initial handling imbalance in time for Coulthard to lead the first 19 laps in San Marino. On the MP4/10, a small additional wing was mounted on the engine cover, but this was removed in mid-1995. The wing was brought back for the MP4/11 in Monaco, and was also used at Hungary. A “B” version of the chassis was developed for Silverstone, and Häkkinen responded with four podium finishes from then until the end of the season.

MP4/11 was on the podium for 6 times. Four (Great Britain, Belgium, Italy and Japan) third positions won by Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard won the third place in the European Grand Prix and the second position in the convulsive Monaco Grand Prix won by Frenchman Olivier Panis.

The car’s best result came in Monaco, with Coulthard finishing a close second to Olivier Panis’ Ligier at the end of a chaotic race. However, the Scotsman was outscored and generally outpaced by his Finnish team-mate.

1996 was also notable for McLaren losing its long-term Marlboro sponsorship (23 years) to Ferrari at the end of the season, but the team responded by recruiting rival German tobacco brand West, who had previously (1985–89) been the major sponsor of the small German Zakspeed team. It was also the last year in which the McLaren racecar was painted in Marlboro colors.

The team eventually finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, with 49 points.