(Motorsport-Total.com) – The two-time Formula 1 world champion Mika Häkkinen spoke about the collaboration with David Coulthard at McLaren. The shared belief in the future success of the Woking-based racing team prevented collisions on the track from straining their working relationship.
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Coulthard and Häkkinen looked back on their long time together as McLaren teammates in the podcast Up To Speed, which culminated in two driver titles for the Finn and a constructors’ world championship for the team.
While Coulthard cited the infamous collision at the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix as an example of occasional friction, Häkkinen dismissed it as a normal part of life as teammates.
The crash between the teammates
Häkkinen had started from pole position, Coulthard followed in second place and Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine in third. But Coulthard caught Häkkinen in the first corner and sent his teammate into a spin. The Scot later apologized and confirmed that he had misjudged the corner.
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Coulthard led most of the race, but in the end Irvine took the victory. Coulthard finished second and Häkkinen impressively fought his way back to third place after the spin, which had dropped him to the back of the field.
“That is part of racing. It is part of being teammates. That is absolutely normal. But for some reason, we both knew there was a future – a future in which we could be successful together,” Häkkinen explains.
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A comparison with Norris and Piastri
“We can achieve good things for the team, so there is no point in carrying that anger around in our heads for two or three months. Let’s clear it up, let’s tick it off and let’s race again.”
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“Yes, we got some help from the team management. But it was okay and, as you already mentioned: When you touched me [at the Austrian GP], it was just a little bit. You didn’t break my car and you didn’t break your car. So we were both able to continue.”
Coulthard drew parallels between their dynamic at McLaren back then and the current driver pairing of the team with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
“If you look at the modern drivers, what we saw with Lando and Oscar probably comes closest to our relationship as teammates,” said the former driver. “There were a few moments last year when they almost touched. There were a few situations where the team had to try to manage the drivers’ expectations.”
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