1997 McLaren MP4/12

In 1997, at the opening race of the Formula 1 season, David Coulthard produced a victory for McLaren-Mercedes. For the first time since 1955, the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-12 marked the return of a Silver Arrow in the form of a Mercedes-Benz-powered Grand Prix racer. With exclusive use of the Mercedes F0110 V-10 engine, McLaren led Grand Prix racing with Daimler-Benz owning a majority stake in the McLaren International Company during the 1990s.

For the 1997 Formula One season, the drivers for McLaren were Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. The car they drove was the McLaren MP4/12 which wore a design by Neil Oatley. It was a completely new machine with an engine supplied by Mercedes-Benz. During testing, the cars wore the traditional paint color scheme of McLaren orange, before they were given a new silver livery to celebrate the team's new sponsorship deal with West, ending the team's 23-year association with Marlboro.

The car was fast, but it suffered from reliability issues, in particular, that of the engine. The FO110E engine was replaced with the FO110F engine from the French Grand Prix, but engine problems persisted. Hakkinen alone was forced to retire from three races whilst in the lead - all were due to engine failures.