Both McLaren's were forced to retire in the first Grand Prix of the season in Australia. Mika and David dominated the race easily in the beginning, but then the problems started. David had to retire due to hydraulics problem, and Mika had to retire later because
of an electric failure, which caused McLaren-car's engine to work only with 1/3 of the maximum power. Mika didn't seem disappointed, because he said that the car was really fast and good to drive. As soon as McLaren gots rid of reliability problems, it will probably dominate the races as it did in the beginning
of the last season. Eddie Irvine took his first Grand Prix win in a race, where only 8 cars made it to the finish. Frentzen was 2nd and Ralf Schumacher 3rd.