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This is the car Mika Hakkinen used to win his second drivers world championship in 1999. In doing so he joined Ascari, Fangio, Brabham, Prost, Senna and Schumacher as the only drivers to win back to back championships. In 1998 he narrowly beat Michael Schumacher in a Ferrari, while in 1999, with Scumacher sidelined from a broken leg, Hakkinen's closest rival was Eddie Irvine in the second Ferrari. Once again, Ferrari gave McLaren a close run, but in the end Hakkinen won out, and in doing so established himself as a first rate driver and Michael Schumacher's main rival.
The car itself used a Mercedes-Ilmor V10 engine, which proved powerful but on occasion, unreliable. Hakkinen would have probably won the Championship earlier in the season if he hadn't suffered a number of mishaps during the year, including several retirements due to unreliability and a number of big crashes (thankfully with no injuries).
This model is made by Minichamps, and will probably be the last McLaren F1 car made by them for some time, as along with most F1 Teams, McLaren have made a deal with Mattel, giving them exclusive rights to manufacture models of their cars. This is a pity, as this model is very well made and is very realistic. It also came in a special "McLaren collection" box. From the Mattel F1 cars that I've seen to date, I don't think they are as good as the Minichamps versions, but they may improve. There are no opening parts on this model and consequently there is no engine detail.
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