David Coulthard explains how Mika Hakkinen stopped him being an F1 champion with McLaren, ‘I didn’t have…’

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McLaren are enjoying another fantastic spell being the strongest team in the Formula 1 paddock.

Ever since McLaren made their debut in 1966, the Woking-based Formula 1 team have been striving to win races.

Founder Bruce McLaren won his first race in a car that bore his name in his third season with the team in 1968, leading Pedro Rodriguez and Ferrari’s Jacky Ickx home at Spa.

Emerson Fittipaldi and James Hunt won the drivers’ championship with McLaren during their first decade in F1, before Niki Lauda and Alain Prost continued their success.

Now, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are fighting to win their first titles with the team, but they’re not the first set of McLaren teammates to fiercely battle it out for a championship.

At the end of the 20th century, McLaren rose to the top of the constructors’ championship thanks to David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen.

Hakkinen won the championship in 1998 and 1999, defeating Coulthard and Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher.

Coulthard has now explained why the Finnish driver got the better of him during the campaigns where it really mattered, despite beating him both before and after those title-winning years.

READ MORE: David Coulthard pinpoints why he thinks Daniel Ricciardo never fulfilled his full Formula 1 potential

David Coulthard explains why Mika Hakkinen won two F1 championships ahead of him for McLaren

Coulthard was speaking on the High Performance Podcast about his partnership with Hakkinen and said: “In the end, when the opportunities came, which were 1998, 1999, Mika was better placed in those years. In the seven years Mika and I were teammates, I can’t remember exactly, but there were certainly, let’s say, three of the seasons, maybe more, that I finished in front of him in the world championship; they weren’t world championship years.

“So, he got it right at the time when the opportunity was there.

“So, I was at Williams in 1994, 1995, did eight races in 1994, shared the car with Nigel Mansell. In 1995. I was really just making it up as I went along, inasmuch as I knew the team well.

“And then I went to McLaren for 1996, and then in 1996, Damon won the world championship. In 1997, Jacques won the world championship. And then 1998, Mika, who was my teammate at McLaren, won the world title.

“So, that Williams two years, that I could have stayed there, but I went to McLaren. I wasn’t in the car. And then by the time we had the car at McLaren, Mika was just better at qualifying, he was more accepting of that’s the car, let’s just go on with it.

“I was always looking for perfection. And when I got perfection, I could beat Michael, Mika and all those guys.

“And for those out there who don’t rate me as a driver or don’t rate me as a person based on what I do in television today, if you put all that to one side, the results don’t lie.

“And there are a few examples in my career where I was world-class. I never raced the same car as Michael, but Mika clearly is a revered two-time world champion, but I didn’t have the consistency.”

READ MORE: Mika Hakkinen reveals the ‘beautiful’ discovery he made following Michael Schumacher around in F1 practice sessions

David Coulthard admits getting manipulated by Mika Hakkinen during his time at McLaren

At the end of the 2001 season, Hakkinen walked away from Formula 1 on a sabbatical that technically still hasn’t finished.

The Scottish driver remained with Ron Dennis’ team for a further three seasons before he was lured to Red Bull to see out the rest of his F1 career.

Coulthard has admitted his biggest regret being Hakkinen’s teammate was letting the team ‘manipulate’ him and allow his teammate to overtake him to suit the team’s ambitions.

It’s something Norris and Piastri have had to deal with over the past two seasons.

Piastri dove down the inside of Norris at last year’s Italian Grand Prix, with McLaren mentioning ‘papaya rules’ publicly for the first time as a result.

That was after Norris was asked to move aside to allow Piastri to win last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, something you simply can’t imagine happening with just nine points separating them in the drivers’ championship going into the summer break.