Mercedes Malarkey - 1995 McLaren MP4/10 Mercedes

1994 was a season McLaren would really love to forget and throw away to the dustbin. The MP4/9 was a serious disappointment from a French Disconnection with the Peugeot engines proved to be fast and reasonably competitive. When they worked, that is. Problem was, the French engines were never really reliable, making the 1994 season a very broken down season for the British constructor.

1994 also saw a changing season for Swiss constructor Sauber, as their alliance with Mercedes-Benz and Ilmor was coming to an end.

In the middle of all this, Ron Dennis have had enough with the hilariously bad Peugeot engines and stepped in to make a deal with Ilmor (Ilmor was still allied with Mercedes-Benz at that time) and get strapped up for the next season with their new challenger, the McLaren Marlboro Project 4/10.

With the deal with Ilmor, 1995 was a season of great expectation for McLaren. The disappointing 1994 alliance with Peugeot had been annulled, and Mercedes-Benz switched to the team from Sauber. It was the first McLaren with a Mercedes-Benz (Ilmor) engine and the Mercedes-Benz engine was hoped to bring success again after the poor results with the Peugeot and Ford engine.

The MP4/10 was a radical car, incorporating a “needle-nose” and a wing mounted atop the airbox, among other innovations.

It was announced early in 1995 that Mika Hakkinen (car #8) will be competing in his second full season with the British constructor partnering Nigel Mansell (car #7), with Danish rookie Jan Magnussen taking the third driver role for the season. However, problems started to hit the team even before the season had started.

It was soon discovered that Nigel Mansell couldn’t fit into the very sleek cockpit of the MP4/10. Tenses were on the engineers as time had already ran out before the pre-season testings and leaving the team with no options other than to hire another driver while a new redesigned chassis is finished. The team’s pick would be Mark Blundell who started 1995 without a drive in Formula One, making McLaren’s call to him an opportunity too good to be true.

At the opening round at Interlagos, Brazil, 1995 looked to be a promising year for Ron Dennis’ empire as both McMercs would go on to score points with Hakkinen and super sub Blundell finishing in 4th and 6th positions respectively.

The season opening Brazilian Grand Prix was also a relief for the McLaren team because McLaren were concerned about the standard refuelling equipment provided for 1995 by suppliers Intertechnique, having suffered a major leak in a test of the new rig outside of its factory. Intertechnique had redesigned the fuel equipment, which was used by all of the teams, in the wake of a pit lane fire suffered by driver Jos Verstappen during the previous year’s German Grand Prix.

However, things would not go as well for the following Grand Prix race in Argentina.

The Argentine Grand Prix started with a true malarkey, ended with a red flag: Jean Alesi spun on the inside of the first corner, causing Mika Salo to brake sharply and be hit from behind by Luca Badoer. The resulting jam of cars caused Olivier Panis to hit the back of Pierluigi Martini, and slide into the gravel on the outside of the corner.

Salo’s ailing Tyrrell then tangled with Johnny Herbert on the exit of the corner. At Turn 3 Rubens Barrichello was knocked from behind by Herbert and slid to a halt, only to be rammed by the damaged Minardi of Badoer. Ukyo Katayama’s Tyrrell was also damaged in the accident.

Alesi, Panis and Barrichello returned to the pits on foot for their spare cars while Badoer was left without a car as teammate Martini was given the Minardi spare. Herbert and Katayama had managed to drive back to the pits for their spare cars while Salo’s car was repaired on the grid. On the second formation lap Karl Wendlinger stalled and started at the back alongside Barrichello who was late coming out of the pits.

At the second start Mika Häkkinen and Eddie Irvine touched on the run down to the first corner, with Häkkinen’s left rear tyre punctured which caused him to spin off.

Blundell survived the start chaos and ran in the midfields, just outside of scoring positions through the early stages of the race. However, the team suffered from its first engine-related failure of the season, an oil leak would see Blundell’s race done for on just lap 9, bringing a full end to McLaren’s Argentine Grand Prix.

After this race, the MP4/10 was ditched, and replaced with the MP4/10B with widened cockpit, thus bringing back Mansell in the process.

The San Marino Grand Prix was the third race of the 1995 season and Mr. Mustache Mansell’s first race of the season after a freak design issue prevented him from fitting in the cockpit of the car. An updated MP4/10 dubbed the MP4/10B was used for this race with both cars running this new specification car.

However, qualifying day turned to be very fruitless for Mansell, whose qualifying position was 9th, 3 positions down on teammate Hakkinen.

Same could be said for the race day, with the race going very mediocrely for both cars but even fruitless for Mansell as he finished the race in 10th place, not scoring, while his teammate Hakkinen scored 2 points by finishing 5th, 1 lap down on victor Damon Hill, who won with an 18 second gap to Jean Alesi.

The Spanish Grand Prix would turn out to be the second no-finish race of the season with both Mansell and Hakkinen retiring from the race and with the former retiring for good. Mansell retired early due to suspension issues on lap 18 while Hakkinen retired with fuel system issue on lap 53. Mansell would later be very frustrated and announced his leaving, making Blundell once again driving the #7 car for the rest of the season.

The next two races, Monaco and Canada, however, would be a disaster for Mika Hakkinen as he retired on both Grands Prix.

Monaco Grand Prix might not be a happy ending for Hakkinen, as he retired with, once again, a fuel system failure. It is a happy ending however, for Mark Blundell as he scored 2 points by finishing 5th, 1 lap down from victor Schumacher, and one lap ahead of Frentzen, the last point scorer of that race.

The Canadian Grand Prix is once again a disaster for both of them as they both, you guessed it, retired. Hakkinen crashed with Johnny Herbert in the Benetton on the first lap, while Mark Blundell had his engine expired at lap 47.

The French Grand Prix was a fairly mediocre race, with both cars finishing out of the points (#7 finished 11th while #8 finished 7th)

The British Grand Prix weekend was a relief for McLaren, as Hakkinen set the fastest time during practice set during cloudy conditions. Qualifying was a totally different story but not as disastrous with Hakkinen 8th and Blundell, whose Q2 time was a blistering lightning fast 56:10.060, starting 10th.

Race day was appalling for the Finn, with Hakkinen’s only lasted 20 laps thanks to an electrical failure. Less appalling was Mark Blundell who, once again, scored 2 points in 5th place.

The following two races, Germany and Hungary, were also catastrophic for both of them. In Hockenheim, the pair qualified a respectable 7th (HAK) and 8th (BLU). But their races were cut short with Hakkinen and Blundell suffering from engine failures on laps 33 and 17 respectively.

Hungary was once again a bright light for Hakkinen as he qualified an impressive 5th place while Blundell was stuck in P13. But all that hard work at qualifying would evaporate to a cloud of engine smoke on race day on lap 3 as Hakkinen blows out. Blundell lasted longer, with a fuel leak taking him out 51 laps later.

Belgium would be another 2 points for Blundell and another retirement for Hakkinen, this time due to an accident on the first lap.

And all that hard work for McLaren finally showed up at the following Italian Grand Prix as Mika Hakkinen would score an all-season best finish of 2nd. While Mark Blundell finished 4th, the Italian Grand Prix could be regarded as the MP4/10B’s greatest race.

Although Monza was an impressive show for McLaren, things did not go the same way for them at the next round, Portugal.

The Portuguese Grand Prix also saw the debut of the MP4/10C, a further revision of the MP4/10B. The MP4/10C couldn’t make miracles as Hakkinen retires after an engine failure on lap 44, and Blundell finishing 9th without points. European Grand Prix also saw a single car retirement but it was Blundell who suffered the worse with an accident early on in the race. Hakkinen meanwhile, finished 8th, 2 laps down on victor Schumacher in his B195. This was also the lat race for the MP4/10C as the team decided to run the MP4/10B for the remainder of the season.

Hakkinen would miss the Pacific Grand Prix, not because of a race related problem, but due to Appendicitis and that was where Jan Mag showed up and finished 10th behind Blundell.

Hakkinen however, would return to the Japanese Grand Prix and memorably score another 2nd place finish.

Come the last race in Australia, during qualifying Hakkinen in his McLaren car suffered a puncture heading towards Brewery Bend, causing him to become airborne over the outside chicane and crash heavily into a tyre barrier at 120mph. An emergency tracheotomy was performed on Hakkinen at trackside, before he was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (which was conveniently located less than 1 km from where Hakkinen crashed) for treatment of his head injuries.

McLaren would field one car, Blundell, for the race and he finished an amazing 4th place.

The McLaren MP4/10 Mercedes turned out to be less fruitful compared to what McLaren had hoped but it was a beginning of a relationship that would successfully last until 2014, carrying 3 Driver’s title in the process (1998, 1999 Hakkinen; 2008 Hamilton).