Good To Be Back:
by Adam Cooper.
Autosport, November 5 1998 issue..

It hasn't taken long for the party to get going in the McLaren garage in Suzuka. Even as the jubilant Mika Hakkinen steps
from the podium into the press conference, his colleagues are popping champagne corks. Deservedly so, too. This one has been a long time coming. Seven years to be precise, at least for those who've been at the team since the Senna and Honda days.

One of those who has stuck with the team through the dark days is co-owner Mansour Ojjeh. He may not keep a high profile, but he has experienced the ups and downs as closely as his partner, Ron Dennis. "This title means a lot, because it's been a long time since we've been world champions", says Ojjeh. "It's good for the whole team. It was a tough season, but I think we deserve it". He also has much praise for his champion driver. "I consider Mika a friend, and I think this year he was able to show the qualities he has. He's private, a little shy, but I think that now he's attained a big goal he might change a bit".

Hakkinen may have driven to the title, but many see technical director Adrian Newey as the architect of the success, continuing a winning streak he started at Williams. It might be a little simplistic to say the last five years have been all about Michael Schumacher versus Newey, but it's not too far wrong. This win clearly means a great deal to the Briton. "It's been very stressful", he smiles. "We threw away a lot of points on reliability, so that's an area we'll have to improve on. We're very aware of that. It's not unusual when a team suddenly finds itself not as competitive as it wishes to be a for a few years; everybody tends to concentrate on performance, and reliability slips a bit. When you find performance, it takes longer to recover reliability. If you look through history, that's very often the case. When I first joined Williams in 1991, that car had the performance to beat Ayrton (Senna) and the McLaren, but it didn't have the reliability".

Hakkinen has been with McLaren since 1993, which has given many team members the chance to grow close to him. Newey only got to know him this season. "My working relationship with him has been very good", he says, "and I greatly enjoy engineering him. He gives you very concise feedback and doesn't usually tell you what to do with the car. He just reports the problems and it's up to us to try and fix it, which is fine. He's very calm. The pressure has obviously been very high over the last few races, but he's carried that very well".

If there is one man who could have been forgiven if he had not been calm, it is Dennis. In the final analysis, he is the man who carried the can through the difficult years, and it is he who finally put all the pieces together and turned things around. Ask him about the seven-year drought, and he is pragmatic and philosophical. "There's no sport in which a team can consistently dominate", he says. "It goes up and down; that's the nature of the sport. The important thing is to have the ability to dig deep, and bring yourself back to competitiveness. I think that's what we've demonstrated".

The team may have set the pace, but it still looked as though things were slipping away at times this year. Dennis surely must have felt confident that everything would come right in the end. "Confidence is a weakness", he contradicts. "There are three ways of approaching Grand Prix racing; optimism, pessimism, or realism. We came here with a realistic approach. We knew we could lose, and we worked hard to avoid it. What came out of the weekend was not the result of any one person, but Mika, not myself, not Adrian - it's the result of the team. When you think that through, you realise that failure comes from the same process, meaning that anyone in the chain can, effectively, cause failure. It's how the team performs that matters. They've just been a bunch of cool dudes".

Dennis is also well aware that his outfit has had to be right at the top of its game to beat the team it has battled head-to-head with all year, Ferrari. He gives the Italian squad, its due. "They fought hard through the year, and they fought hard here", he admits. "Our own performance wasn't always as good as it should have been. We made mistakes, and we paid the price. At the same time, I think we kept our cool. While I have sympathy for Ferrari, I'm not uncomfortable, because I think it was a fair fight, and I think it was a fight we deserved to win".

When the conversation turns to Hakkinen, Dennis is effusive in his praise, especially about his man's drive at Suzuka. "This was a race where we had to really use the advantage that was given us, and make sure we didn't make a mistake that would have cost us the world championship. We varied the pace considerably. Niki (Lauda) told me once that it never matters how much you win by. It only matters that you win. We could have won by a huge margin, but maybe to the detriment of the car's reliability. To do that you need a professional and disciplined driver, because driving slower is harder than driving fast".

Dennis is also careful not to forget about the Finn's teammate, David Coulthard. "We're a team. David has done a good job this year. People feel that he (Hakkinen) receives favourable treatment, but that's not the case. We pride ourselves on giving both the drivers the same equipment. Of course, there is an emotional feeling with Mika, because of the injuries he sustained in our car, but that doesn't give him any technical advantage. We believe in equal status in our team, and I think our results vindicate that".

As far as Coulthard's future is concerned, the McLaren boss sees no reason why the Scot shouldn't have his turn next year. "The world championship unfolds as each race passes. Next year, things could be the other way round - to David's advantage. As for now, we'll allow ourselves 24 hours of celebrations, and then it's back to the new car. We've got a lot of faith in it; it should be much better than this year's". That's something Ferrari won't be happy to hear.

--End of Article--

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