Despite the strong growth of the Maranello Reds, who with Schumacher and Irvine in 1999 fought for the world championship with the silver arrows McLaren-Mercedes until the last race, in 2000 the British team did not present anything innovative and the new MP4/15 single-seater was just a simple reinterpretation of the previous MP4/14, World Champion for the second consecutive year with the Finn Mika Häkkinen.
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| McLAREN MP4/15, Mika Häkkinen Hockenheim, German GP 2000 |
Unfortunately for them, in Formula 1 it is practically impossible to rest on one's laurels and so the team managed by Ron Dennis finds itself having to deal with the exponential growth in performance of the Ferraris, once again this season the only cars capable of keeping up with the very fast cars from Woking, in the county of Surrey in England. McLaren's stellar engineering team remained in place in full for 2000, with Adrian Newey as Technical Director, Neil Oatley as Chief Designer, Steve Nichols as Engineering Director, Matthew Jeffreys as Head of Vehicle Design, David North as Chief Engineer-Transmission, David Neilson as Principal Engineer-Suspension, Paddy Lowe as Head of Research and Development and Henri Durand as Head of Aerodynamics, while the designer of the Ilmor-Mercedes FO110 V10 engine, Mario Ilien, remained with the team as Chief Engine Designer, as did Norbert Haug as Mercedes Motorsport Vice President.
McLAREN MP4/15, Mika Häkkinen
Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 2000
The new chassis designed by Newey is even more rigid and has a further lowered centre of gravity, although aesthetically these small differences are not immediately apparent. The nose is only slightly higher than the previous model and has a slightly more tapered shape, while maintaining the elegance that distinguished the '99 single-seater. Even the sides, now even softer and more sinuous, maintain the typical lines of Newey's creations with profiles that follow the bulk of the internal organs. On the MP4/15, “chimneys” positioned on the external edge of the sides were used for the first time to vent hot air that accumulates inside the side pods. Under the hood there is still room for the powerful V10 Mercedes-Benz FO110 engine designed and developed by Mario Ilien and which from this season arrives in the "J" version, capable of developing around 815hp at 17,800 rpm while maintaining its proverbial lightness that just exceeds 100kg, making it without a doubt the engine with the most favourable weight/power ratio of the entire lot. The livery of the new McLaren-Mercedes maintains the beautiful silver-black colors that have distinguished the Woking cars since West took over from Marlboro as main sponsor. Particularly noteworthy is the decision to replace the West logo, in countries where tobacco advertising is prohibited, with the words “Mika” and “David” on the cars of confirmed drivers Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. Precisely the confirmation of the two excellent drivers and thanks to the fact of having a single-seater that has now been largely tested and developed, Ron Dennis' team also starts as favorite for the first Championship of the new millennium and the new MP4/15 has proven to be very competitive right from the first pre-season tests.
McLAREN MP4/15, Mika Häkkinen
Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 2000
The start of the season, however, was not as expected and after two races McLaren found itself with 0 points, due to two consecutive retirements of the reigning World Champion Häkkinen and a retirement and a disqualification for Coulthard. The most direct competitor, Michael Schumacher with Ferrari, instead began the championship with 2 consecutive victories forcing Newey to concentrate all his efforts on making further changes and updates to the single-seater. The results were immediately noticeable and from the third round of the Championship in Imola, despite Schumacher's third consecutive victory, the two MP4/15s found competitiveness and continuity of results, obtaining with Coulthard a series of nine podiums in ten races, including 3 victories. Halfway through the Championship a series of 4 retirements by Schumacher allowed Häkkinen, capable of more consistent results than his teammate, to return to the lead of the World Championship and McLaren to overtake Ferrari. The end of the season saw a close battle between the Finn and the German, with the latter able to conclude the season with 4 consecutive victories and snatch both the drivers' and constructors' titles from McLaren-Mercedes, which in truth had already been won by the reds from Maranello in '99 by a handful of points.
McLAREN MP4/15, Mika Häkkinen
Montecarlo, Monaco GP 2000
Despite the 10 points taken away from the Woking team after the Austrian Grand Prix where one of the two MP4/15s was found to have one of the seals required by the FIA tampered with, the MP4/15 remains one of the most successful and competitive single-seaters built in Woking, capable of obtaining 7 victories, 10 second places and 5 low podiums as well as 7 pole positions and 12 fastest laps, earning 152 points in the Constructors' Championship. The MP4/15 is also famous for the spectacular overtaking performed by Häkkinen at Spa-Francorchamps on the Kemmel straight to the detriment of Schumacher and the lapped Zonta, an overtaking that still remains one of the most acclaimed in the history of Formula 1.
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