Hakkinen jokes: McLaren “never had any team orders when I was there”
Mika Hakkinen light-heartedly joked that McLaren never used team orders when he raced alongside David Coulthard at the team between 1996 and 2001.
“Was Ron supporting me more than David? I'm not so sure about that.”- Mika Hakkinen
Racing alongside each other at McLaren a total of 99 times, Hakkinen and Coulthard are one of Formula One's most iconic teammate lineups.
They helped contributed McLaren to a constructors title in 1998, with Hakkinen beating Schumacher to back-to-back drivers championships in 1998 and 1999.
In a sport where teammates are often worst enemies, perhaps the most impressive detail about Hakkinen and Coulthard is that their relationship survived competitive rivalry, on-track collisions and team orders decisions.
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Hakkinen jokes
Speaking on the F1 Beyond the Grid podcast, Hakkinen said: “Was Ron supporting me more than David? I'm not so sure about that.
“But one thing I'm sure of, because maybe David Coulthard is going to hear this discussion one day - I have to say we never had any team orders", Hakkinen chucked.
Many speculated about the use of team orders while they were teammates. The biggest example might be the 1998 Australian GP when Coulthard slowed to let Hakkinen past and win the race after he fell behind following an accidental call into the pits.
Team orders were banned at this time in the sport and Coulthard revealed that he was not ordered to let his teammate past, but was rather honouring a pre-race agreement that whoever led into turn 1 would win the race. Since Hakkinen led into turn 1, Coulthard let him win the race.
But outsiders also speculated that Hakkinen always had a particularly special relationship with McLaren boss Ron Dennis.
Hakkinen said: "I was very close to Ron of course. Ron knew me since I was a absolutely still an amateur in Formula 1.
“Ron saw my development, becoming a man, getting more confident, more experienced and of course when an accident like that happens, it just kills everything you know. So I'm starting from zero again.
“So naturally Ron had a huge trust on me that I was a very hardworking guy and at the same time I was giving the full commitment for the McLaren team. So naturally Ron was supporting me."
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