McLaren MP4/12

The car was a totally new machine with engines supplied by Mercedes-Benz for the third year of the Anglo-German alliance. Testing was carried out with the cars painted in the traditional McLaren orange, before a striking new silver livery was launched to celebrate the team's new sponsorship deal with West. This replaced the team's 23-year association with Marlboro.

The car proved extremely promising and could have won at least seven races during the course of the season, but reliability proved troublesome, in particular that of the engine. The FO110E engine was replaced with FO110F engine from the French Grand Prix, but the trouble happened frequently to either engine. This proved frustrating, especially after Coulthard won the first race of the season in Australia, McLaren's first win since losing Ayrton Senna. The situation was exacerbated by Häkkinen retiring from three further races whilst in the lead - all from engine failures - including at the Nürburgring, where the team lost a comfortable one-two finish when both cars retired with identical failures within a lap of each other. Coulthard also lost a certain victory – at Montreal, with a clutch problem after a precautionary pitstop just a few laps before the race prematurely ended. However, Coulthard did manage to win at Monza.

During the season, F1 Racing photographer Darren Heath noticed that the rear brakes of the McLarens were glowing red in an acceleration zone of the track. The magazine discovered through photos of the inside of the cockpit, that McLaren had installed a second brake pedal, selectable by the driver to act on one of the rear wheels. This allowed the driver to eliminate understeer and reduce wheelspin when exiting slow corners, dubbed "brake steer". Ferrari's protestations to the FIA led to the system being banned the following season at the 1998 Brazilian Grand Prix.^[1]

The team finally claimed the reward of a one-two finish at the season finale after the collision between Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve, although it was a contentious finish with many nodding to the fact that Patrick Head of Williams and Ron Dennis of McLaren had negotiations where Villeneuve would give up the lead if the McLarens made sure to steer clear from the troubled Williams. Regardless, this was Häkkinen's first win in F1 and was much celebrated by the F1 world which had been tipping him to win since he first outqualified Senna at Portugal in 1993. The win set him up with a good base to start his 1998 campaign, which he was able to win after a season-long battle with Michael Schumacher.

The team eventually finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship, with 63 points.

McLaren later designed a roadcar that shared a similar designation to the MP4/12: the McLaren MP4-12C, which also featured the "brake steer" system.

The McLaren MP4-12 on display.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WCC
1997	McLaren	Mercedes V10	G		AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	AUT	LUX	JPN	EUR	63	4th
				Mika Häkkinen	3	4	5	6	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	Ret	3	Ret	DSQ	9	Ret	Ret	4	1
				David Coulthard	1	10	Ret	Ret	Ret	6	7	7	4	Ret	Ret	Ret	1	2	Ret	10	2

References

↑ Bishop, Matt. "Pedal to Metal". The Best of F1 Racing 1996–2006 (Haymarket Magazines). p. 66. |access-date= requires |url= (help)

AUTOCOURSE 1997-98, Henry, Alan (ed.), Hazleton Publishing Ltd. (1997) ISBN 978-1-874557-47-0

External links

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McLaren Honda

Founder: Bruce McLaren

McLaren Technology Group: Ron Dennis (25%); TAG Group (25%); Mumtalakat (50%)

Head management: Éric Boullier (Racing Director); Ron Dennis (Group CEO & part owner); Jonathan Neale (Interim CEO)

Current personnel: Tim Goss; Neil Oatley; Peter Prodromou; Andrea Stella

Former personnel: John Barnard; Alastair Caldwell; Gordon Coppuck; Mike Coughlan; Pat Fry; Steve Hallam; Norbert Haug; Robin Herd; Paddy Lowe; Neil Martin; Teddy Mayer; Sam Michael; Gordon Murray; Adrian Newey; Steve Nichols; Jo Ramírez; Nicholas Tombazis; Martin Whitmarsh

2016 race drivers: 14. Fernando Alonso; 22. Jenson Button

2016 test and reserve drivers: Stoffel Vandoorne; Nobuharu Matsushita

McLaren young driver programme: Stoffel Vandoorne; Nyck de Vries; Ben Barnicoat

World Champions: Emerson Fittipaldi; Lewis Hamilton; James Hunt; Mika Häkkinen; Niki Lauda; Alain Prost; Ayrton Senna

Former drivers: See category

Drivers' titles: 1974; 1976; 1984; 1985; 1986; 1988; 1989; 1990; 1991; 1998; 1999; 2008

Constructors' titles: 1974; 1984; 1985; 1988; 1989; 1990; 1991; 1998

Cars:

Formula One M2B M4B M5A M7A M7B M7C M7D M9A M14A M14D M19A M19C M23 M26 M28 M29 M29F M30 MP4 (MP4/1) MP4B (MP4/1B) MP4/1C MP4/1E MP4/2 MP4/2B MP4/2C MP4/3 MP4/4 MP4/5 MP4/5B MP4/6 MP4/6B MP4/7A MP4/8 MP4/9 MP4/10 MP4/10B MP4/10C MP4/11 MP4/11B MP4/12 MP4/13 MP4/14 MP4/15 MP4-16 MP4-17 MP4-17D MP4-18 MP4-19 MP4-19B MP4-20 MP4-21 MP4-22 MP4-23 MP4-24 MP4-25 MP4-26 MP4-27 MP4-28 MP4-29 MP4-30 Formula Two M4A M21 Sports cars Zerex Special M1A M1B M1C M6A M6B M6GT M8A M8B M8C M8D M8E M8F M8FP M12 M20 F1 GTR 12C GT3 650S GT3 P1 GTR USAC/IndyCar M15 M16A M16B M16C M16C/D M16E M24 F5000/Libre M3 M10A M10B M18 M22 M25 Development cars M2A MP4-29H/1X1 Road cars F1 F1 LM SLR (for Mercedes-Benz) MP4-12C P1 X-1 650S 675LT Engines M838T Merged team Project Four Racing Related West Competition

Cars that competed in the 1997 Formula One season

Williams FW19 Ferrari F310B Benetton B197 McLaren MP4/12 Jordan 197 Prost JS45 Sauber C16 Arrows A18 Stewart SF01 Tyrrell 025 Minardi M197 Lola T97/30

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