A lap of Magny-Cours

The pits are superb, the circuit is smooth and the run off areas are immense. Even the weather is invariably hot, so why don't the drivers like Magny-Cours? It all comes down to the shape of the circuit itself. There are some good medium-to-fast corners, but there are also a couple of tight hairpins that have no place on a modern race track. So what's a fast lap like then? As the cars cross the start/finish line, the drivers check their pit boards before screaming into the flat out left-hander, Grande Courbe. The course then eases right into a long, fast hairpin, usually taken in fourth, known as the Estoril Bend. The drivers then speed down the main straight and pass through the flat out Golf Course kink before slamming on the brakes for the slowest hairpin on the course, Adelaide. The entry to this corner offers one of the few overtaking manoeuvres, but the actual hairpin can only really be taken in single file. It's flat out down the next straight, however, and the drivers chase each other through the fast Nurburgring bend before attempting to outbrake each other into the next slow hairpin. The cars then accelerate off again and head towards the fast Imola Bend - a superbly challenging corner, taken in fifth, that dips down, right, then up and left again. There is no respite for the drivers, though, as they have to slam on the brakes once more to negotiate the long right hander, Chateau d'Eau. The cars pass through another chicane, before negotiating the tight, first gear Lycee hairpin and beginning another lap.

Circuit Length: 2.640 miles / 4.250 km Race length: 72 laps (190.139 miles / 306.000km)

What happened last year?

The Field

Winfield Williams-Mecachrome Goodyear
On the strength of recent test times, little has changed in the Williams camp. It seems that both cars are unable to do anything about the McLaren drivers or the lead Ferrari but level with the Benetton cars and ahead of the rest of the field. Although for a lot of teams being firmly rooted in the top 4 teams would be enough, Williams is used to winning and will be looking to improve soon before the season stops being merely poor and becomes a rout. Currently both drivers seem well matched and will be looking to give their respective 1999 aspirations a boost as it seems only one of the two will be staying for next season with Frank Williams looking to promote current test driver and F3000 hotshoe Juan Pablo Montoya into the race team. I'd expect Jacques Villeneuve to outqualify and outrace Heinz-Harald Frentzen bearing in mind the serious testing accident suffered by the latter. Expect points but a podium still looks unlikely.

Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari Goodyear
Despite scoring 2 race wins so far in 1998, Ferrari is still not convincing me that it can win the title on merit rather than by default. Ignoring the controversial issues surrounding him for now, Michael Schumacher has managed to keep himself in the race until the McLaren cars either fail or the drivers make an error and won the races this way. Although this isn't as attractive to sponsors and team as the way McLaren do it, a win is a win and Schumacher is capable of extracting the best from his car week after week. Eddie Irvine is a solid performer but is unable to match either the pace or the consistency of his team mate. As usual expect Schumacher ahead of Irvine and battling with the Benettons close behind the McLaren pair.

Mild Seven Benetton-Playlife Bridgestone
Benetton have reached the stage that even though neither driver particularly impressed in testing last week, I still expect the team to be near the top of the timesheets over the coming weekend. Both Giancarlo Fisichella and Alex Wurz are fast and fairly consistent but Benetton seems unable to get both drivers working well at the same time so one driver tends to be comfortably faster than the other. Going on the tests I would say that this weekend it is the turn of Wurz to play hare to the tortoise of Fisichella. The B198 is arguably the second best package in the field at the moment so expect a Benetton driver to end up either on the podium or very close to it.

West McLaren-Mercedes Bridgestone
Yet again the target for McLaren is nothing short of total domination. Even though the team has, on the face of things, suffered poor reliability in the recent races, testing has been almost flawless so I believe the team when it says that these were freak ocurrances. Testing times show that while the team is still at the front, other teams are closing in but I feel that McLaren were testing for the race rather than times and that both drivers will be faily untroubled by other cars over the weekend. Following on from the Canadian Grand Prix and testing, it looks like David Coulthard will have the upper hand over Mika Hakkinen over the weekend so I would expect them to line up on the grid in that order and, barring any problems, finish in the same manner.

Benson & Hedges Jordan-Mugen Honda Goodyear
Rumours have been flying thick and fast around the Jordan team. First Mike Gascoigne was supposed to have been replacing Gary Anderson as chief designer, then Eddie Jordan was alleged to have offered the team to Honda for the sum of £50 million and was subsequently turned down. Whatever the truth (or lack thereof) in the rumours, one thing is for sure - that Jordan is still not at the level expected. The drivers seem to be getting the best from the car and the engine is supposedly working properly so that leaves the chassis to be improved. Big changes are expected for the British Grand Prix but will they be too late? Back to the French Grand Prix. Ralf Schumacher has been faster than Damon Hill in testing recently, but his racecraft is still lacking so even though I'd expect the German to qualify ahead, I'd expect the Englishman to come out ahead at the end of the weekend.

Gauloises Blondes Prost-Peugeot Bridgestone
Dear oh dear... Magny-Cours is usually the circuit that allows the Prost (nee Ligier) team to get up towards the front of the grid but this year it doesn't look likely to happen. The new, longer wheelbase (an extra 17cm) AP01 is barely any better than the previous incarnation and even on "home ground" neither driver was able to do much more than keep themselves firmly in the middle of the pack. Even this is better than some races this season and if the drivers can actually keep in that position they have a reasonable chance of scoring points. True to recent races, Jarno Trulli has been beating Olivier Panis in testing and I expect this to carry over to the race weekend.

Red Bull Sauber-Petronas Goodyear
Wow! If the tests last week are anything to go by it looks like Sauber might be in a position to challenge McLaren for the race win and pole position. Realistically though, this is more likely to convert into a podium finish or at least a solid top 6 finish for one or both drivers. Going on past performance it looks likely that Johnny Herbert will qualify ahead of Jean Alesi but the Frenchman will go better than his team mate in the race. Reliability doesn't seem to be an issue so if Goodyear can produce a good tyre for the conditions, Sauber could be looking at its best race for some time.

Danka ArrowsBridgestone
Just as things were looking up for Arrows, things go wrong again. The new engine is due for the next Grand Prix but it is one race too late as far as the team is concerned. Recent tests saw the Arrows planted firmly at the back of the field for the majority of the time and neither Mika Salo nor Pedro Diniz looked able to do much about it. Hopefully the reduced pace is mainly down to the quest for improved reliability which would give the drivers a chance of finishing well but I have doubts. Expect Salo to beat Diniz, but Arrows will more than likely end up living near the back of the field over the whole weekend.

Stewart-Ford Bridgestone
As previously predicted, Stewart have made Jan Magnussen the scapegoat for the poor performance displayed by the team and have brought in Jos Verstappen to replace him. My belief is that Jan was not given equal equipment nor equal effort by the team and his recent comments bear this out (see Atlas F1 News) so what can we expect from the "improved" Stewart team. More of the same seems to be the logical answer as in testing Jos Verstappen was uncharacteristically slow in comparison to Rubens Barrichello and even though the latter was capable of midfield positions, Jos was stuck near the back in all the sessions. Barrichello may well be mixing it with the best this weekend and come home with points, but don't expect any overall improvement from the team.

Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear
Ricardo Rosset is still hanging in at Tyrrell despite allegedly being offered all of his money back by Craig Pollock and I don't blame him. If he goes now he'll never get another chance so he needs to show he can do the job. Sadly I doubt his ability to get on terms with Tora Takagi but apparently Tom Kristensen (the man tipped to replace Rosset) can't get close to the Japanese driver either. Testing pace would indicate that Takagi will qualify around P16 and Rosset somewhere a bit closer to the back and repeat this performance in the race.

Minardi-Ford Bridgestone
Things are looking up for Minardi although not by much admittedly. Recent chassis improvements have enabled both Shinji Nakano and Esteban Tuero to get ahead of some of their nearest competitors and are now at the stage where they should be able to race with other teams week in, week out. Nakano seems to have the upper hand at the moment but it must be remembered that the Japanese driver has driven all of these tracks before whereas Tuero is limited in his experience of them.

Enjoy the race...