| Australian Grand Prix Review | |
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Melbourne, Australia 5th - 8th March 1998 |
by Chris Balfe, England |
Other than the absence of long blonde hair, it was a scene chillingly reminiscent of the movie Poltergeist. The house was in silence and almost total darkness... the figure sat hunched on the floor in front of the television. The screen flickered to life and the figure leaned forward transfixed by the coloured shapes moving round in circles before him. A ghostly wail leapt from the speakers... the figure turned in the direction of the bedroom... where his partner lay, sleeping. "They're here" he cried.. "they're here".
OK, let's be completely honest. They don't look that different do they? For months now, we've been fed horror stories that the 1998 breed of Formula One car would not be worthy of the name. "They'll be little more than F3 cars" we were told. However, other than those tyres, the current crop of contenders look pretty good.
One clear fact that emerged over the weekend was the FIA have clearly got it wrong. The predictions that lap times would be between 3 or 4 seconds slower than those of '97 proved well wide of the mark. Of course, the cars are a little slower and obviously something had to be done. Otherwise, this year's times could have been 3-4 seconds faster.
Regular readers will know I'm far from happy with the changes. I too want to see competitive racing whilst at the same time hope to see my heroes reach retirement age gracefully. However, I believe that the racing could be vastly improved without compromising safety with just a couple of simple rule changes.
Firstly, ban fuel stops. If that costs Ferrari the World Championship, tough! Fuel stops are destroying the sport. If Schumacher wants to go hell for leather during the first quarter of a race in order to build up enough of a cushion to enable him to change tyres, fine... that's his choice. However, the current fiasco of races becoming little more than three or four sprints is just not good enough. Whilst on the subject of tyres, I would consign the new breed of rubber to the nearest scrap heap... I want to see big fat slicks: one on each corner. Why? I want to see an end to wings -- pure and simple; get rid of them. The "winglets" that Prost have copied from the '97 Tyrrell show quite clearly the direction the aerodynamacists will take if they remain unchecked.
This week we hear that the Technical Working Group has discussed various means by which racing could be made "more exciting". I would have thought that the prospect of 22 men driving machinery pushing out close to 700 bhp was pretty damn exciting in itself. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, the suggestions included:
The pre-season tests had been strange affairs with each of the big teams choosing to test in separate corners. The lack of a serious head to head by any of the big four only added to everyone's anticipation at Melbourne. However, the weather conditions on Friday proved only one thing... Michael Schumacher is still the "rain-master".
Qualifying
Saturday (thankfully) saw the weather return to normal and at last we got an opportunity to see if the pundits had got it wrong. That said, qualifying went pretty much the way we'd all predicted. The McLarens were in a class of their own and it showed. Neither Hakkinen or Coulthard seemed to be anywhere near the limit, unlike Villeneuve and Schumacher. The bright spots were the performances of Herbert, Takagi and Tuero. Some of the cars (most notably the Jordan) looked decidedly twitchy. Saturday morning was the first opportunity for the drivers to push their cars to the limit. The result was drivers locking up, sliding or taking excursions across the grass.
Fourteen minutes into the afternoon's qualifying session saw Coulthard make the first serious attempt at pole with 1:30.718. That was 1.349s slower than the '97 pole. Minutes later, Hakkinen had posted a 1:30.596 (1.227s shy of the '97 time). At this point, the two Mclarens held 1-2 on the provisional grid, their closest opposition came in the form of Frentzen who was a full 1.134s behind. Coulthard's 2nd run came bang on halfway through the session and saw the Scot post a time of 1:30.053. It was beginning to look as though the '97 pole time was to be beaten much to the chagrin of the FIA. A few minutes later, Schumacher, clearly on a charge, put in a time of 1:30.767 which gave him 3rd spot on the provisional grid. Five minutes later, Hakkinen seemingly cruised round in 1:30.010, putting the pole spot clearly out of the reach of the opposition... save for the man in the other McLaren-Mercedes.
Following Panis' error which saw the session stopped whilst his car was cleared from the track, all the big guns returned for one last banzai attempt at spoiling the McLaren party. A superb run by Herbert saw the diminutive Englishman jump to 4th spot... further adding to his teammate's misery. However, minutes later, he was demoted to 5th following a brave charge by Villeneuve.
So, a McLaren front row (their first since Adelaide '91 - Senna/Berger) and Bridgestone's first ever pole. Behind the silver cars would sit the two main protagonists for the '97 crown, Schumacher and Villeneuve. Herbert claimed a magnificent 5th spot whilst an unhappy Frentzen had to settle for 6th. A superb performance by Takagi saw the Japanese driver line up on the 7th row of the grid alongside Barrichello. Back in Britain, Ken Tyrrell must have had a wry smile on his face as Rosset started the race from 20th position.
The Race
The morning warm up on Sunday didn't tell us anything we didn't know already. Hakkinen and Coulthard were followed by Michael Schumacher who was followed by Ralf and Hill. However, Damon later revealed that the Jordan's had been running with extremely light fuel loads.
Because of a technical infringement during qualifying, Panis was demoted to 21st on the grid. Things grew more bleak when he and Alesi both had problems during the parade lap. Diniz was, probabably, horrified to see flames coming out of the back of the car, forcing him to return to the pits and start in the spare.
Thankfully, there was no repeat of the carnage we have seen in previous events in Melbourne. Coulthard, seemingly caught on the hop, had to use all his guile to keep Schumacher behind him as they entered the 2nd turn. Indeed, it was this poor start by the Scot that eventually "cost" him the race.
A nightmare weekend for the Stewart team came to an abrupt end when Barrichello pulled into the pits at the end of the first lap. Meanwhile, teammate Magnussen had made an extremely ambitious attempt to pass Ralf Schumacher which resulted in the instant retirement of both drivers. Unfortunately, Takagi on coming across the Magnussen/Barrichello incident was given no leeway by his grooved tyres and followed them into the kitty litter.
After just two laps, the field was stringing out with Hakkinen leading Coulthard followed by Schumacher and Villeneuve. A lap later on, Hakkinen had almost two seconds over his teammate, who in turn was 4.4 seconds ahead of Schumacher -- whilst Villeneuve was a further 3.7s behind him.
On the fifth lap, a wisp of smoke could be seen coming from the back of Schumacher's Ferrari. As the car came down the pit straight, it's engine finally gave up and blew. A disgusted Schumacher coasted to a halt, flinging the steering wheel to the ground.
Back on the track, the order was now Hakkinen, Coulthard, Villeneuve, Fisichella, Frentzen and Herbert. The gap between the two McLaren drivers had closed to 1.5 seconds. With the two McLarens running like clockwork, attention was focused on 3rd placed Villeneuve.
Jacques was clearly working hard trying to keep Fisichella and the ever present Herbert at bay. And, therein lay the dilemma. Should the World Champion have allowed the Benetton and Sauber past and thus gain the breathing space that would enable him to conserve his tyres or hold position. It was a situation that his teammate was also about to encounter back in 6th position. The German was being shadowed by Irvine, Hill, Wurz, Trulli and Salo.
On lap 16, Fisichella thought about having a go at Villeneuve on the approach to turn 3. The Canadian was forced to lock up but still held position. In the Benetton pit, the frustration was obvious. They considered Fisichella to be around a second or more faster than Villeneuve and shared the Italian driver's frustration.
On lap 18, Tuero received his second penalty of the day. Following an extremely over-zealous start, he had incurred a mandatory 10 second penalty. Now having been found guilty of exceeding the speed limit in the pit-lane, he returned to the "sin bin" for the second time that afternoon.
On lap 18, Hakkinen posted a fastest lap of 1:32.593, a full half second better than his previous best and two seconds slower than the lap record.
It was at this point that the pit stops began. In a curious move, Hill entered the pits in 7th position followed by Salo who had been 11th. Thanks to a more efficient stop, the young Finn was able to exit the pits still in 11th whilst Hill dropped to 12th!
By this stage, Hakkinen had opened his lead over Coulthard to 3.3 seconds and had lapped everyone up to 9th position. On lap 22, Fisichella finally realised that his pursuit of Villeneuve was pointless and that he would be best served by making his first pit stop exiting in 9th. On the following lap, the leading McLaren followed Fisichella's example. Coulthard's stop on lap 24 was not as smooth as his teammate's. On exiting the pit lane, the Scot found himself almost two seconds down.
Back in Britain, I'm sure Ken Tyrrell smiled as Rosset received a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. On finding his pit, the Brazilian decided to stay there.
Villeneuve made his one pit stop on lap 28, exiting in 7th position just in front of Herbert who had pitted on the previous lap. Half distance saw Hakkinen 4.6 seconds in front of Coulthard with 3rd placed Frentzen nearly a minute behind. Irvine clung on to the tail of the Williams whilst enjoying a 20s lead over 5th placed Fisichella.
By now, the leaders were encountering serious traffic. Hakkinen having to resort to "fist shaking" at Wurz, whilst Coulthard took the opportunity to close the gap on his teammate to half a second.
Frentzen finally pitted on lap 33 together with Eddie Irvine. The German was able to hold on to his 3rd position whilst Eddie slipped to 5th behind Fisichella.
On lap 36, Hakkinen entered the pits for his second stop. However, in a move similar to Ayrton Senna at Donington in 1993, he drove straight past his unprepared mechanics and back into the fray. This mystifying excursion left the Finn in second position eight seconds behind Coulthard.
By lap 38, Coulthard had lapped everyone up to Frentzen in 4th, and now the German was in David's sights. Mika, clearly frustrated at his "phantom" pit stop, put in a lap of 1:31.709 -- almost 7/10ths of a second better than his previous best. On his next lap, he eclipsed this with a 1:31.640.
Coulthard, meanwhile, had made a great move whilst lapping Frentzen, catching the German so off guard that Fisichella was able to sneak through and grab 3rd.
On lap 41, Hakkinen made his second "for real" pit stop, and more misery. Whilst the mechanic was still working on his left rear wheel, Hakkinen dropped the clutch. On exiting the pits Hakkinen was still in 2nd, albeit 31.4s behind his teammate.
One lap later and it was the young Scot who pulled up at the McLaren pit for his final "splash 'n' dash". He was followed into the pits by 3rd placed Fisichella who subsequently dropped to seventh.
On lap 42, Alesi's engine finally gave up the ghost and the hapless French/Sicilian's weekend came to a close. As if to compound his misery, Alesi could only watch as his teammate battled with the '97 World Champion for 6th position.
With 15 laps remaining, Coulthard enjoyed a healthy 13 seconds lead over Hakkinen. Frentzen had his hands full as he tried to fend off the charging Eddie Irvine who was putting in a strong performance in the remaining Ferrari. Villeneuve, meanwhile, was enjoying a similar situation as he tried to resist the attention of Herbert. A respectable distance behind ran the Benettons of Fisichella and Wurz.
Hakkinen was putting a brave face on things trying desperately to reel in his teammate, but with little apparent success as the gap hovered around the 11s mark. Fisichella needed a change of underwear when his rear wing collapsed on lap 45, causing the Italian to go rally cross. He managed to nurse his car back to the pits where he promptly retired.
With just over ten laps remaining, only 9 of the original 22 starters were still running. Coulthard, Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine, Villeneuve, Herbert, Wurz, Hill and Panis.
Hakkinen began to reel Coulthard in at a rate of one second per lap, whilst the two Williams drivers enjoyed their respective dog-fights with Irvine and Herbert.
On lap 53, Hakkinen seemingly took three seconds out of Coulthard's lead, then a further two seconds on his next lap. Lap after lap, the Finn closed on his Scots teammate. We had been assured that there were no team orders, Ron wouldn't allow his two stars to "mix it" and thereby jeopardise his teams chances. Yet, Hakkinen was closing on Coulthard relentlessly. Then having closed the gap to within 1.5 seconds, Hakkinen appeared to back off. Obviously Ron had "made the phone call" as Irvine had put it following the Suzuka race in '97.
So there we were. A superb display by the West McLaren-Mercedes team. A fine win by David Coulthard and strong 2nd place for his teammate. It was a great result for the team and proved that, for once, the winter testing campaign had been a clear indicator of the form we could expect during the opening races of the season.
Then suddenly it all went wrong. In a virtual carbon copy of the closing lap at Jerez, Coulthard slowed right down on the start-finish line to allow his teammate through. Was there a problem with Coulthard's car? What cruel luck! But no, Coulthard took up position behind his teammate and rode shot gun for the last two laps.
So there we weren't! Hakkinen had won his 2nd Grand Prix again in controversial circumstances, and the first ever for Bridgestone. Teammate Coulthard followed on just .7 seconds behind whilst the closest opposition, Frentzen, cruised round a full lap behind.
Hakkinen, Coulthard, Frentzen, Irvine, Villeneuve, Herbert, Wurz, Hill and Panis
Epilogue
First of all, let's look at what happened with McLaren's win. There can be no doubt that McLaren roundly trounced the opposition, and then some. For the third time in his F1 career, Jacques Villeneuve suffered the indignity of being lapped (Monza '96 and Monaco '97 being the other occasions). Yet, already there is discontent amongst the opposition about the legality of McLaren's braking system. Tom Walkinshaw referred to it as "four wheel steering." Ron Dennis has added to the controversy by accusing another team of blatant industrial espionage.
As to the Hakkinen/Coulthard "deal", regular readers will know how I feel about this sort of thing from the Jerez race. Ron Dennis has said that a similar agreement may be used in Brazil. OK, so if Hakkinen is leading at the first corner in Rio, that means we can all conclude he's won the race? I seem to remember a similar deal being struck by two drivers (also with McLaren) back in '89. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't one of the drivers renege on the deal in San Marino? And, didn't this lead to a feud between the two drivers in question? Am I right in thinking that it culminated with them taking each other out later on that year? And, the following year?
Furthermore, I was under the impression that Martin Brundle was now working with David Coulthard (coach/manager or something) so wasn't he privy to this "deal"? If so, why didn't he have the decency to inform viewers about what was going on. For the second GP in succession, I have been left with a bad taste in my mouth. In no way do I wish to cast doubt about the honesty or decency of either Mika Hakkinen or David Coulthard, however if the title goes down to the wire between these two, would they still stick to this "agreement"? And, if Coulthard loses the championship by 4 points, won't he rue his decision in Melbourne?
As I stated earlier, the FIA have clearly got it wrong. Apart from the Tour de Farce by the McLarens, it was a pretty boring race. What happened to all the overtaking we were promised? Where was the out-breaking? Let's face it, if Schumacher's engine hadn't exploded, he wouldn't have been able to mount a serious challenge. So, where do we go from here? Clearly the other teams have got to get their acts together and pdq. This has not been an auspicious start to the season, other than the anti-climatic win there is the very real possibility of the championship being fought out in the law courts.
Apart from the excellent performances of the McLaren drivers, who else really stood out? Frentzen and Villeneuve put in solid performances that were more exercises in damage limitation, whilst Irvine and Herbert drove the sort of steady reliable race that has been known to win championships. It would appear that, at some point, Villeneuve must have had an off, as on lap 37 the gap between Irvine (5th) and Villeneuve (6th) was down to 2.9s. On the next lap, it was 16.3. I was impressed with Takagi (while he lasted), Trulli, Tuero and Salo.
The final quote on the race must go to Eddie Jordan: "People have paid good money to see a real race... they want a ding-dong." I couldn't have put it better myself, Eddie. In fact, that was the sentiment expressed by a friend of mine who had made the trip out to Australia.
Finally, due to a mix up, my preview of the '98 season together with my predictions never appeared this week. Therefore, I thought I'd take this opportunity to give you my opinion on the outcome of the '98 Championship. A less honest man would have based his predictions on the outcome of today's event. However, being a totally honest chap, I am going to give you the predictions I made in my original article. I am sure that some of you will be only too willing to remind me of them come November.
1998 World Champion: Mika Hakkinen (4 GP Wins)
Runner Up: Michael Schumacher (4 GP Wins)
Champion Constructors: McLaren (6 GP Wins)
Runners Up: Ferrari (4 GP Wins)
Surprise driver of the season: Takagi
Surprise team of the season: Prost
Most disappointing driver of the year: Hill
Most disappointing team of the year: Jordan