McLaren MP4/13

McLaren MP4/13

Mika Häkkinen's McLaren MP4/13 on display in Essen in 2018.
Category	Formula One
Constructor	McLaren
Designer(s)	Adrian Newey (Technical Director) Neil Oatley (Chief Designer) Steve Nichols (Engineering Director) Matthew Jeffreys (Head of Vehicle Design) David North (Chief Engineer-Transmission) David Neilson (Principal Engineer-Suspension) Paddy Lowe (Head of R&D) Henri Durand (Head of Aerodynamics) Mario Illien (Chief Engine Designer (Ilmor-Mercedes))
Predecessor	MP4/12
Successor	MP4/14
Technical specifications
Chassis	Moulded carbon-fibre composite structure
Suspension (front)	Double wishbones, pushrod
Suspension (rear)	Double wishbones, pushrod
Engine	Ilmor-built Mercedes-Benz FO-110G V10 (72º)
Transmission	McLaren six-gear longitudinal semi-automatic sequential.
Power	760 hp (567 kW) @ 17,000 rpm
Fuel	Mobil 1
Tyres	Bridgestone
Competition history
Notable entrants	West McLaren Mercedes
Notable drivers	7. David Coulthard 8. Mika Häkkinen
Debut	1998 Australian Grand Prix
First win	1998 Australian Grand Prix
Last win	1998 Japanese Grand Prix
Last event	1998 Japanese Grand Prix
Races Wins Podiums Poles F/Laps 16 9 20 12 9
Constructors' Championships	1 (1998)
Drivers' Championships	1 (1998, Mika Häkkinen)

The McLaren MP4/13 was the car with which the McLaren team competed in the 1998 Formula One World Championship. The chassis was designed by Adrian Newey, Steve Nichols, Neil Oatley and Henri Durand, with Mario Illien designing the bespoke Ilmor engine. 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 May 2024^[update], their last.

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.

Designer 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. His work was rewarded when drivers Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard finished first and second at the season-ending European Grand Prix.

When the 1998 season got underway four months later, it became clear that Newey had adapted to the rule changes for 1998 best. With the cars now narrower and running on grooved tyres, the all-new design of the MP4/13 made it the car to beat.

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. Newey's aerodynamic design was by far the most efficient one and Mercedes produced the most powerful engine of the season. The team was aided by a unique brake-steer system that allowed the driver to use any one of the car's brakes independently to aid cornering, a system first used in 1997. The Ferrari team protested, stating that the brake-steer system was a violation of the technical rules, which banned four-wheel steering. The FIA eventually sided with Ferrari and the system was banned, although the team was allowed to keep their results up to that point.^[1]

In addition, the car had an early hybrid system that used brake energy to generate electrical power that was stored in batteries. This power could then be deployed to run auxiliary pumps on the engine to combat parasitic losses, resulting in an extra 30 to 40 horsepower for a limited period.^[2]

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.^[3] 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. 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. Häkkinen initially found the car to be nervous in testing due to a rearward biased instability, but this was corrected before the season started.^[4]

During 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.

Although 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. Coulthard won one race, in San Marino, en route to third place overall, while McLaren won the Constructors' Championship. 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.^[5]

During 1998 both Nick Heidfeld and Ricardo Zonta acted as test drivers for McLaren and drove the MP4/13 at test sessions.^[6][7] 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.^[8] In 2021 the MP4/13 set the second outright fastest lap time around Laguna Seca in the hands of Mexican IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward, when O'Ward lapped the circuit at 1 minute 10.3 seconds, nearly a second faster than a 2021 McLaren IndyCar around the same circuit.^[9]

In July 2017, video game developer Codemasters announced that the MP4/13 would appear in the video game F1 2017 as a classic car. It also appears in F1 2018^[10] and F1 2019.^[11]

• Chassis: carbon fibre, aluminium
• Gearbox: 6 gears
• Cooling system: two McLaren/Calsonic water radiators, two McLaren/Marston oil radiators.
• Length of the whole car: 4,550 mm (179.1 in)
• Weight with water, oil and driver: 600 kg (1,322.8 lb)

• Cylinders: 10, in a 72° angle
• Valves: 4 per cylinder
• Length: 590 mm (23.2 in)
• Breadth: 546.4 mm (21.5 in)
• Height: 476 mm (18.7 in)
• Weight: 107 kilograms (236 lb)
• Power: 760 bhp (567 kW)^[12]

• Tyres: Bridgestone
• Wheels: Enkei 13-in
• Brakes: AP Racing discs and calipers
• Oil and Petrol: Mobil
• Ignition: TAG 2000
• Spark plugs: NGK

^[13]

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

• AUTOCOURSE 1998-99, Henry, Alan (ed.), Hazleton Publishing Ltd. (1998) ISBN 1-874557-43-8

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