McLaren had struggled through much of 1995 with the MP4/10, which combined handling difficulties and unreliability during the team's first year partnering Mercedes-Benz. The second season of that arrangement brought meaningful improvements, yet the team still lacked the outright pace to challenge the dominant trio of Williams, Ferrari, and Benetton.
Pre-season testing took place at Estoril in February 1996 and Silverstone in March. With Häkkinen still recovering from his near-fatal qualifying accident at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix, four-time world champion Alain Prost was brought in as a technical advisor to test-drive the MP4/11 in the Finn's absence. Prost's input provided valuable early feedback before the main drivers were ready.
The car's single best result came at Monaco, where Coulthard crossed the line a close second to Olivier Panis in a chaotic and attrition-heavy race. During the San Marino Grand Prix, following improvements to correct an initial handling imbalance, Coulthard led the opening 19 laps — a sign of the car's developing potential.
A small auxiliary wing mounted on the engine cover, which had been used on the MP4/10 but removed in mid-1995, was reintroduced for the MP4/11 at Monaco and carried again at Hungary. A B-specification chassis was prepared for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and Häkkinen subsequently produced four podium finishes across the remainder of the season.
Throughout 1996, Häkkinen outpaced and outscored his team-mate Coulthard. McLaren finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship with 49 points.
The 1996 season was the final year of McLaren's long-standing partnership with Marlboro. The tobacco brand's logos were absent at the French, British, German, and European Grands Prix, replaced by a barcode, a chevron, or simply the "McLaren" wordmark depending on the venue. At season's end McLaren signed rival German tobacco brand West — previously the title sponsor of the small Zakspeed team — to replace Marlboro from 1997 onward.
In 1998, McLaren took one of the surviving MP4/11 chassis and modified it into a two-seat configuration for demonstration purposes. Designated the McLaren MP4-98T, it was used ahead of the 1998 British Grand Prix, continuing McLaren's tradition of creating experience-ride vehicles from retired race chassis.
While the MP4/11 did not win a race, it consolidated the Mercedes partnership and gave McLaren the stability from which the championship-winning MP4/12 and MP4/13 programmes would follow. Häkkinen's four podiums in the latter part of the year hinted at the form that would earn him back-to-back world titles in 1998 and 1999.
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