Hakkinen hack causes McLaren team order controversy

When it comes to team order rows in F1, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, or Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber immediately spring to mind as examples, but on this day in 1998, a rather less well-known drama occurred. 

That year, sweeping new technical regulations came into force. The cars were significantly narrower, and there were grooved tyres to slow down the cars. McLaren, fresh with its new technical leader Adrian Newey, had aced the new rules with the MP4-13. 

Drivers Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard used the fast, if fragile, machine to storm to a one-two on the Melbourne grid, with boss Ron Dennis handing a very firm instruction, in light of concerns over the reliability of the Mercedes V10 bolted in the back: 'You can race until the first corner, then who is in the lead, wins'. 

In qualifying, Hakkinen took pole just 0.043s ahead of Coulthard, with the McLaren's 0.7s faster than third-placed Schumacher, who was not a factor in the race when the Ferrari engine went bang after just five laps.

The Finn beat the Scot to Turn 1, and that was effectively that, or so it seemed. 

On lap 36 of 58, Hakkinen unexpectedly called into the pits, but had not been ordered in by McLaren, and so effectively served a drive-through before his actual stop four laps later.

This left Coulthard with a sizeable lead, with the two over a lap ahead of any other car such was their dominance. Hakkinen carved up to two seconds per lap out of Coulthard in his pursuit. 

Ultimately, on the final lap, coming out of the final corner, Coulthard slowed to let Hakkinen through for the win, with 0.702s between the team-mates at the line. Coulthard decided to play the team game and honour the agreement made with Hakkinen and Dennis.

Cue the uproar.

Australian GP boss Ron Walker complained to the FIA over the perceived manipulation of the result, with the World Motor Sport Council getting involved.

McLaren was ultimately cleared, with the FIA producing a word salad of a statement, but one that allowed team orders to stand. It would not be until the 2002 Austrian GP, when Barrichello moved aside for Schumacher out of the final corner, that team orders were banned. 

This did not stop team orders, of course, with codewords being used instead until Felipe Massa was infamously told Fernando Alonso was faster than him at the 2010 German GP. 

But why did Hakkinen pit, seemingly of his own accord to create the situation?

Dennis would later claim that the McLaren radio had been hacked, telling Hakkinen to pit, an order to which he dutifully obliged.

The mystery remains. 

David Coulthard is appearing as a special guest on the RacingNews365 podcast, to be released on Monday 10th March, looking ahead to the new F1 season. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so as not to miss out!