The McLaren MP4-16 was the car with which the

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

team competed in the

2001 Formula One World Championship The 2001 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 55th season of FIA Formula One racing. It commenced on 4 March 2001 and ended on 14 October after seventeen races. Michael Schumacher won the Drivers' title with a record margin of 58 points, af ...

. The chassis was designed by

Adrian Newey Adrian Martin Newey, (born 26 December 1958) is a British Formula One engineer. He is currently the chief technical officer of the Red Bull Racing F1 team. Newey has worked in both Formula One and American Championship car racing, IndyCar raci ...

Steve Nichols Stephen Anderson Nichols (born 20 February 1947 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American engineer who is best known as a car designer for many Formula One teams from the mid-1980s until . Profile Nichols graduated from the University of Utah in ...

Neil Oatley Neil Oatley (born 12 June 1954) is a design and development director in Formula One teams. Born in Britain, Oatley graduated from Loughborough University in 1976 with an automotive engineering degree. He worked briefly outside motor racing before ...

and

Peter Prodromou Peter Prodromou (born 14 January 1969) is a British/Greek-Cypriot aerodynamicist and engineer. Currently, he is working as Chief Engineer (Aerodynamics) for the McLaren Formula One team. Biography Prodromou originally joined McLaren's design of ...

, with

Mario Illien Mario Illien (born 2 August 1949) is a Swiss engineer specialising in motorsport engine design and comes from Chur in the Graubünden, Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. Despite living in a country in which motor racing was banned in 1955 (when ...

designing the bespoke

Ilmor Ilmor is a British independent high-performance motor racing engineering company. It was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in November 1983. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, Mic ...

engine. It was driven by double world champion

Mika Häkkinen Mika Pauli Häkkinen (; born 28 September 1968), nicknamed "The Flying Finn", is a Finnish former racing driver. He won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1998 and 1999, both times driving for McLaren. Häkkinen is one of three For ...

and

David Coulthard David Marshall Coulthard (; born 27 March 1971) is a British former racing driver from Scotland, later turned presenter, commentator and journalist. Nicknamed 'DC', he competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between and , taking 13 Grand Prix vi ...

in what would be their sixth and final season together as McLaren teammates.

Competition history

After being narrowly pipped to both titles by

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

in , the goal of 2001 was to get McLaren back on top. However, the season proved to be frustrating in more ways than one. The chassis was good, but it was not developed enough to keep pace with Ferrari or new rivals Williams and also suffered from niggling aerodynamic problems; the

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

engines were less powerful than Williams's BMW units and less reliable than Ferrari's in-house efforts; and the team did not do a good enough job regarding the return of electronic driver aids. Moreover, Häkkinen had his least successful season since , suffering both from appalling luck and a loss of form at many races. The most notable incident was in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

when he suffered a last-lap clutch/engine failure while leading. Despite winning two Grands Prix, he elected to retire (originally announced as a sabbatical) at the end of the season, and would be replaced by compatriot

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...

. Coulthard, by contrast, produced the best season of his career to date, winning two races early on and mounting a championship challenge to

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...

. However, McLaren lost this early parity with Ferrari and he was fortunate to keep second place in the Drivers' Championship ahead of Ferrari's number two,

Rubens Barrichello Rubens "Rubinho" Gonçalves Barrichello (, ; born 23 May 1972) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competed in Formula One between and . He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 111 Toy ...

. Similarly, the team regarded themselves as fortunate to come second in the Constructors' Championship, with 102 points, ahead of the resurgent Williams team.

Livery

McLaren Mercedes went into the 2001 season with renewed major sponsorships such as

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

Mobil 1 Mobil 1 is a brand of synthetic motor oil and other automotive lubrication products. Originally developed by the Mobil oil company, it is now globally marketed and sold by ExxonMobil. Mobil 1 engine oil was introduced in 1974. The brand range no ...

Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG, often styled as BOSS, is a luxury fashion house headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and fragrances. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing companies, ...

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

Computer Associates CA Technologies, formerly known as CA, Inc. and Computer Associates International, Inc., is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. It is primarily known for its business-to-business (B2B) software with a product po ...

Warsteiner Warsteiner () beer is brewed in the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park outside of Warstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Warsteiner has been owned by the Cramer family since 1753. Warsteiner is Germany's largest privately owned brewery; its b ...

, Schüco and

Loctite Loctite is an American brand of adhesives, sealants, surface treatments, and other industrial chemicals that include acrylic, anaerobic, cyanoacrylate, epoxy, hot melt, silicone, urethane, and UV/light curing technologies. Loctite products ar ...

. McLaren-Mercedes received new sponsorship such as

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

Siemens Mobile Siemens Mobile was a German mobile phone manufacturer and a division of Siemens AG. Siemens sold Siemens Mobile to the Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005, subsequently becoming BenQ-Siemens and succeeded by Gigaset. The last Siemens-branded mobile phones, ...

and discontinued sponsorships are

Fujitsu Siemens Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH was a Japanese and Germany, German vendor of information technology. The company was founded in 1999 as a 50/50 joint venture between Fujitsu, Fujitsu Limited of Japan and Siemens of Germany. On April 1, 2009, the c ...

. The livery was similar to the 2000 design with subtle changes. McLaren used 'West' logos, except at the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Grands Prix.

Complete Formula One results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

{{F1 cars 2001 McLaren MP4 16 2001 Formula One season cars