A footnote of history  McLaren boss Ron Dennis revived a curious
incident in the course of this week's debates on the question of
team orders, referring in passing to the Australian Grand Prix
of 1998 when David Coulthard was ordered to let Mika Hakkinen
win the race. According to Dennis, McLaren does not and has not
manipulated Grands Prix, unless there were "exceptional
circumstances". Dennis went on to give the example of Melbourne,
saying that "someone had tapped into our radio and instructed
Mika Hakkinen to enter the pits".  Hakkinen did pit and thus
lost his place to Coulthard and the team felt that this
situation should be reversed in the interests of fairness.
Coulthard did not agree at the time but was eventually convinced
of the wisdom of such a move.  Radio interference is not unusual
in Formula 1 with TV companies sometimes blamed but on occasion
other more colourful explanations coming to light: one year in
Canada McLaren found its radios picking up delivery orders for a
Chinese takeaway.  Howe