Tech secrets of Newey's greatest McLaren

For all its successes in the Formula 1 drivers' championship, it's astounding that McLaren's last constructors' title came 20 years ago. Incoming driver Lando Norris wasn't even born the last time the great McLaren name was etched into the teams' trophy.

McLaren's last constructors' triumph in 1998 was pulled off with some aplomb, thanks to the efforts of the design team and the fruit of its labours, the brilliant MP4-13.

In the hands of Mika Hakkinen, who chalked up his first Formula 1 title with David Coulthard alongside in support, McLaren swept away all who opposed them throughout the season, logging nine wins, 12 poles and 20 podium finishes across the 16-race calendar.

Ultimately, McLaren got its sums right at the best possible time.

The grid enjoyed a marginal shake-up in the order as F1 ushered in a new set of technical regulations. Concerned at the increasingly mighty speeds being achieved, the FIA cut the width of the cars by 200mm and mandated that the slick tyres should be grooved, limiting the contact patch and slashing the grip available. With less downforce also on offer, the new rule-set promised great rewards if the lost performance could be recouped.

Aiming to interpret the rulebook best, McLaren had a new trump card up its sleeve - famed designer Adrian Newey, who had been plucked from then-dominant Williams to join the team in the middle of 1997.

Arriving in Woking too late to have much effect on McLaren's fortunes that year, Newey sharpened his crayons and spent his time etching plans of grandeur onto his office drawing board, orchestrating a well-crafted design for 1998.

Preparing for the latest regulations took time, especially as the new dimensions and tyres prompted a complete rethink of the suspension components. Back at base, McLaren's vehicle dynamicists clocked up thousands of hours mulling over how best to tackle the new load paths predicted.

Ditching the cumbersome springs and dampers nestled horizontally in the bulkhead, McLaren fitted torsion-bar suspension to ensure its car was as tightly packaged as possible - something of a Newey trademark.

Newey also wanted to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible, as the narrower cars were expected to be a lot more skittish than the previous generation. To improve stability, McLaren opened up the wheelbase and ensured that all of the internal components were best placed to take advantage.

"We concentrated on getting the centre of gravity as low as we could, so parts of the car had a very low chassis line" Adrian Newey

"We lengthened the wheelbase partly for aero and also for diagonal stability," Newey told Autosport in 2010.

"When you're loaded on the outside front wheel on corner entry and outside rear on exit, if you go down on track width then one way to compensate for that is to go up on wheelbase.

"We were keen to stabilise the car as much as possible, so we concentrated on getting the centre of gravity as low as we could, so parts of the car had a very low chassis line. We tried to package everything as low as we could, including driver height."

In the pursuit of further gains, the aerodynamic package was cleaned up to scavenge as much efficiency as possible.

The rear end was tightened up, while plenty of work was done to the front; the chunky nose from the 1997 car shed its puppy fat and was replaced with a sharper concept, augmented with an in-wash front wing concept to direct air around the further-inboard front wheels to recoup downforce.

Bigger bargeboards were also included and extended as far as the suspension wishbones. Paired with longer sidepods, McLaren's intention of managing the further-inboard tyre wake more effectively was verified by a winter of windtunnel testing, suggesting that a good chunk of performance lost to the new rule-set had been recovered.

McLaren also relied on its suppliers to come up with the goods. Mercedes-Benz and Ilmor plugged away at creating their lightest and most powerful engine yet; now brimming with two years of experience as a full works project, the German manufacturer opted to switch from a 75 to a 72-degree V-formation to improve stability. The team entered 1998 also sporting new boots, as Bridgestone replaced Goodyear as tyre suppliers.

The car also retained the controversial third pedal introduced in its predecessor, the MP4/12, used to activate the ingenious brake-steer solution.

Allowing the drivers to mitigate understeer by dropping the anchors on the inside rear wheel, the more advanced 1998 system included a switch which allowed improved functionality; the drivers were now able to pick the correct wheel for each corner, activating its associated braking master cylinder.

This allowed the engineers greater latitude in selecting set-ups, and could afford to dial in a little extra understeer to make use of the system.

Having gone into the winter months in the best manner possible after Hakkinen's maiden triumph in the Jerez season finale, the British squad emerged from its hibernation to pick up from where it had left off, looking ominously quick in pre-season testing before the season opener at Australia.

The focus on refining the aerodynamics under Newey's leadership looked to pay dividends almost immediately, and the duo of Hakkinen and Coulthard tore onto the front row in the first qualifying session of the year - with a sizeable 0.7-second gap over third-placed Michael Schumacher.

Lapping the entire field, the pair dominated, save for a communications mix-up that prompted Hakkinen to drive through the pitlane, handing the lead to Coulthard.

"We came under some scrutiny early on - perhaps we were too quick too early" Martin Whitmarsh

Begrudgingly, Coulthard let Hakkinen through mere laps from the end, obeying a pre-race agreement that the order following the first corner would dictate their final finishing positions.

Regardless, McLaren highlighted its advantage from the very beginning, leading Ferrari to officially protest the brake-steer system.

Arguing that it amounted to four-wheel steering - an outlawed system - Ferrari prompted the FIA to mount an investigation ahead of the next round in Brazil. Backtracking on its earlier review ahead of the season in which it greenlit the system, the FIA agreed.

McLaren complied with the governing body's decision and removed the system, although it didn't change much. Hakkinen and Coulthard once again swept to a one-two finish by over a minute from Schumacher, ensuring that McLaren left Sao Paulo with 32 points in its pocket.

"You could sense from before the season that we could win that year," said former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, then managing director.

"But we came under some scrutiny early on - perhaps we were too quick too early. Losing the [brake-steer] system was a blow, and I still disagree with what happened now."

Much of the early-season success was also down to the work of Bridgestone. The switch to the Japanese supplier came at the right time; Goodyear was due to bow out of the championship at the end of the season, feeling that the grooved tyres served no technological benefit, and had thrown its weight behind Ferrari for a last hurrah.

McLaren held a valid contract for 1999 with Goodyear, but the American manufacturer's withdrawal rendered it null and void.

In its stead, Bridgestone had taken on the challenge of supplying a top team after providing a handful of squads lower down the order with its tyres in 1997, and had got on top of the new '98 regulations admirably.

Knowing that the new tyres would also be prone to wear around the grooves - the edges in the tread producing greater stress concentrations compared to a fully-slick tyre - Newey and his team worked hard to ensure that the MP4-13 would be kind to its Bridgestone rubber.

In comparison, Ferrari struggled in the opening races with handling issues, and Goodyear arrived in Argentina with a new set of front tyre constructions. They yielded an immediate impact, Schumacher grabbing victory by some margin over Hakkinen to give his championship aspirations some much-needed traction.

Schumacher emerged as a frequent thorn in the side of McLaren, and could be relied on to pick up the pieces should any misfortune befall the two silver-and-black machines.

However, there was realistically nobody left to challenge the front-running trio; Ferrari's second driver Eddie Irvine was a long way off Schumacher's pace, while reigning champion Williams was hamstrung by a sub-par package and Renault's post-1997 exit.

McLaren soon reclaimed its advantage at Imola, although the weekend belonged to Coulthard rather than Hakkinen. Dashing to pole, the Scot charged off into the distance, as the spectre of suspect reliability reared its head in Hakkinen's car; after a quarter distance, the Finn was stuck in fourth gear and subsequently called it a day for McLaren's first retirement of the year.

Mercedes had made great steps over the winter with reliability, ending 1998 with half of the retirements collected in the previous year, but there were still a number of issues which brought Schumacher and Ferrari back into the hunt. A double-retirement at Montreal was the nadir, but McLaren was quickly able to recover from its mid-season wobble and press on with cementing its advantage in the points tables.

There was nothing wholly groundbreaking - quite simply, McLaren had adapted to the new rules better than anyone else

Although reliability was still a marginal nagging doubt, Mercedes didn't compromise on performance and was believed to be the biggest purveyor of power on the 1998 grid. This was abundantly clear at Hockenheim - then an out-and-out power circuit compared to today's more technical configuration.

The two McLarens pushed past the 220mph mark in qualifying - Hakkinen pipping Gerhard Berger's pole time from the previous year by 0.035s - before securing another one-two finish.

Although a charge from reigning champion Jacques Villeneuve put Hakkinen and Coulthard under pressure, both had switched to a less-strenuous engine mode to put the race beyond all doubt.

A suspension issue for Hakkinen in Hungary shuffled him out of the lead and into sixth, while Schumacher streaked to a sublime victory after gambling on an experimental three-stop strategy to claw back ground in the title stakes, while Hakkinen's brake problems in Italy ensured that Schumacher had drawn level - the leading duo went into the final two races with 80 points apiece, while McLaren had just 10 points over Ferrari.

The all-round strengths of the McLaren package came to the fore, Hakkinen dispatching the pole-sitting Schumacher at the Nurburgring to chalk up a brace of home victories for Mercedes before a somewhat leisurely stroll to victory at the highly technical Suzuka, helping to clinch the drivers' and teams' titles as Schumacher toiled in Japan.

Stalling from pole, his battle through the field was promptly ended by one of his Goodyear tyres letting go - just 20 laps before it was to be put out to pasture.

It can certainly be argued that there was nothing wholly groundbreaking about the MP4-13, rather it was a neat, tidy and well-conceived package that all worked in perfect harmony. Quite simply, McLaren had adapted to the new rules better than anyone else.

Under the supervision of Newey, McLaren enjoyed a renaissance season to roll back the years and rekindled the successes of the past.

Although the team doubled up on drivers' successes with Hakkinen in 1999 - that year's MP4/14 following the same design philosophy - the team peaked at the wrong time; Ferrari was due to paint the town red as the clock ticked down to a new millennium...