Doug Nye: 60 years of McLaren, including Berger’s tricks and Mika’s life-saver

A hugely impressive McLaren Old Boys’ and Girls’ 60th Anniversary bash highlighted early November, organised by former team staffers Matthew Jeffreys and Richard West, attended by nearly 350 McLaren veterans – and with company principal for 36 years Ron Dennis its surprise guest of honour.

I can’t possibly detail every heart-warmingly memorable moment witnessed between long-time team members, colleagues, friends, and today apparently reconciled one-time love/hate rivals. The anecdotes and insights which surfaced really could fill a book. Here’s just a taster: compère Richard West having just invited McLaren’s 1998-99 World Champion Mika Häkkinen on stage, opening question: “Mika, what really made McLaren so special in those years?”. The Flying Finn’s perfectly timed response, “Me!”.

From 30 years earlier, signwriter and later sought-after crash helmet artist Doug Eyre recalled the pace at which the embryo team operated: “My phone rang. An American voice said ‘I’m Teddy Mayer of the McLaren motor racing team – would you be interested in doing a job for us?’. I thought that could be good, so asked where they were based. He said ‘Colnbrook’, just up the road from me. I told him so and he just said ‘Great. We’ll see you in 20 minutes then…’”.

Can-Am mechanic Alec Greaves: “In practice at Mosport Bruce was suddenly beside me saying ‘Have we got any black tape?’. I told him ‘Sure – how much do you need?’. ‘Only about an inch square’. ‘Why?’. And he just said ‘There’s a light keeps coming on…’ – as in oil pressure warning – ‘…and I just want to cover it up!’”.

“Mika hugged him, then added, ‘Thank you. You did really well’”

The otherwise wildly enthusiastic, always engaging Bruno Giacomelli – whose works M23 and M26 cars in period were often lettered ‘Jack O’Malley’ (plus a Guinness label), was asked “Do you watch Formula 1 these days?”. He nodded vigorously, then added “I take long naps”.

American privateer Brett Lunger emphasised how James Hunt “…was not just a party animal; once in the car he was very professional and did just a great job. He was incredibly quick”. ‘How would he do today?’. “For sure he would be right up there, but probably 10 to 12 track limitation violations every race…”.

Richard West, incidentally, explained how Brett’s post-F1 aviation career had included 156 medical mercy flights in his own twin-jet – bringing succour to many in dire need. And medical help – that sense of family – would prove a recurrent theme.

Landmark Grand Prix-winning carbon-composite chassis designer John Barnard on teaming-up with Ron Dennis 1980-1981: “It was like a marriage – a lot of hate!”.

Toyoharu Tanabe and Michio Kawamoto of Honda speaking alongside MP4/4 designer Steve Nichols on the tailor-made V6 turbo engine supplied to both McLaren and Lotus for 1988: “We did the engine specially for just that one year. Lotus was two seconds per lap slower than Steve’s 4/4…so thank you very much for your design”.

That was the memorable Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost mount which won 15 of that season’s 16 World Championship-qualifying GPs, Steve – the self-effacing American – recalling “Honda put everything into that engine, and we put everything into that car”.  He then added this perspective upon working with Honda as engine supplier: “We worked better with Honda 6000 miles away than I found later when I went to Ferrari, where the only physical distance between car department and engine department was the width of a corridor…”.

David Coulthard on video: “I had nine seasons with you all and want to apologise for all the crashes, and all the rebuilds!”.

Race engineer Steve Hallam, via video link from California: “I saw the other side of Senna when Gerhard Berger in his road Ferrari drove Ayrton into the Monza paddock. Senna just couldn’t stop giggling. They’d been caught in slow traffic in the middle of one of those huge Milan street junctions. Ayrton had pinched Gerhard’s keys from the ignition lock, and tossed them out the window into the middle of the square. Gerhard dived out to scrabble around on all fours to find them – with huge traffic chaos all around. Of course, you played practical tricks on Gerhard at your own peril. For sure he’d get his own back. And he did…”.

John Watson’s famous MP4/1 crash at Lesmo in the 1981 Italian GP – which proved that carbon chassis could be truly safe: “I got hooked up on the outside kerb which spun me backwards into the Armco. The impact didn’t feel that bad but when I looked round there was a smoking engine still sliding across the road, with gearbox and the entire shift linkage still attached. I thought other cars must have gone off, until I climbed out and realised it was mine”.

One moment topped the evening. Thoughtfully, Richard and Matthew eased a puzzled Mika Häkkinen towards meeting someone he had unknowingly encountered just once in his life, Dr Jerome Cockings – first responder on the scene of Mika’s life-threatening 1995 Adelaide GP practice crash, whose intervention saved him life-changing brain damage. Stunned, Mika hugged him, then added “Thank you. You did really well”.

Didn’t he just.

Doug Nye is the UK’s leading motor racing historian and has been writing authoritatively about the sport since the 1960s