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NEWS
10-23 ApnB 1998 i
INSIDE
Parity furore
Holden teams are outraged by a Performance Review Committee decision last week to give the Ford Falcons a boost and are fighting back at a special meeting this week. Full details inside.
Ingall hot at Lakeside Russell Ingall scored a sensational win in the heat at the Lakeside SATCC round. See inside for the full report-and Russell’s, own exclusive, and controversial, column.
Sam’s gaffe Television personality Sam Newman had a crash course in race driving at Calder on Monday. “Slamming Sammy’’ did just that... into the wall. Photos P5. 08
BOUND FOR BRITAIN? t The ¥8 Superears could burst onto the ! Silmrstone@ra!ndWmmrcmitmMf,e&r.
Supercars for Siiverstone?
Both Craft and BRDC Director number of details to them,” he said this week. of Racing Peter Gaydon con While August 1999 is quite a AUSTRALIAN V8 Supercars firmed the plan this week, but could race at Britain’s stressed that negotiations are while away, negotiations will need to bear fruit relatively quickly as famous Siiverstone circuit only at first base: V8 group AVESCO plans to “We’re at a very early stage of next year. This intriguing prospect the courtship,” Gaydon told announce its 1999 plans and cal Motorsport News, “but we’d love endar within a few months, emerged this week following pre Australian tourers have made communications to present a race for the V8s at liminary Siiverstone, previous appearances in the UK. between the British Racing “There’s definite interest from In 1986, Peter Brock and Allan Drivers Club, which promotes Grice raced V8 Commodores in both sides. , motorsport at Siiverstone, CAMS “It’s a matter of organising the the European Championship ^ Motorsport Manager Tim race at Bonington. Schenken and TEGA CEO Garry right package.” Then in 1988 Dick Johnson With plans to take the V8s to Craft. and John Bowe dominated the South-East Asia or South Africa If the plan comes off, a field of V8 Ford Falcons and Holden not yet bearing fruit. Craft is British Tourist Trophy at Siiverstone in one of their Shell Commodores will be running at clearly delighted with the interest Ford Sierras, taking pole and Silverstone’s Summer Festival from the UK: “It’s early days, but they are leading easily before a water Meeting, scheduled for August definitely keen and we’ve faxed a pump failed. 21/22 next year. By CHRIS LAMBDEN
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FORIVIULA 1
Problems for Frost PROST Grand Prix has been plagued by gearbox problems to such an extent that the team is believed to have start ed work on the design for a compietely new unit to be introduced later in the season. George Ryton, the head of research and development(and the man responsible for the trou blesome gearbox) has left the team. The existing gearbox has been modified and strengthened but the unit, while being more reliable, is also a lot heavier and has disrupted the car's weight distribution. The team's problems were intensified in Brazil because of Olivier Panis's heavy accident during the warm-up on Sunday morning. The impact destroyed the monocoque of the car and that means that it will be three weeks before the team can have a much-needed fifth chassis for testing. The test car will now be pushed back at least three weeks. 0 The Williams team featured backing during the Brazilian Grand Prix from Universal's car toon character "Woody Woodpecker". The deal is for the two South American races but if it is a success we may see more cartoon characters appearing on the Williams cars later in the year. Bl McLaren is enjoying a major advantage over the opposition in F1 as the company is in the for tunate position of being able to use the composite skills of its sister company McLaren Cars. This means that production of new parts is not being held up because of excessive demand as is the case at a number of other teams. n Gerhard Berger was at the Brazilian GP after visiting the Homestead CART race in the company of Sylvester Stallone. Asked if he was interested in being involved with Stallone's movie, Gerhard said that the only films he had ever want to be in are porn movies. - JOE SAWARD
McLarens bill
Hakkinen scores his first real win Story by JOE SAWARD Photos by LAT DIGITAL
MIKA Hakkinen won the Brazilian Grand Prix, domi nating qualifying and the race in dramatic fashion, underlining the technical advantage that McLaren first displayed in Melbourne. It was the Finn’s third win in suc cession, but was the first time he has won without team orders/being apphed and was long overdue.' Once again, David Coulthard fin ished second behind his teammate. The McLaren remains the domi nant car, despite the fact that several systems had to be taken off the car because of disputes over legahty. The FIA thought this might slow the car but there seemed to be httle effect, particularly as it later emerged that Hakkinen had been very sick on race day and had dominated the race despite stomach problems...
Qualifying A good car at Interlagos is a car that rides the bumps weU, but it is a track which favours those with the sharpest reactions. Natural speed is more important than guile and intelhgence. Given these parameters it was no surprise that Mika Halddnen was on pole position with a lap of lml7.092s - only a second slower than pole posi tion last year, which is further evi dence that the FIA’s plan to slow the cars down by three or four seconds a lap has failed completely, as Melbourne had suggested One cannot be surprised by this because the FIA stewards in Interlagos ruled that the FIA
MIGHTY MIKA ... The McLaren team celebrates Mika Hakkinen crossing the line at Interlagos. Technical Department is a worthless organisation. Politics dominated the practice days and the paddock was full of chatter about illegal systems. The controversies rumbled on throughout Thursday and Friday and it was not until Saturday morning that the stewards decided what should be done. They declared that the various braking systems were not legal. Even without the systems - and without the rumoured regenerative power system to drive the engine auxiliaries (which was banned in the week before the race)- the McLarenMercedes MP4-13 was still the domi nant car, which proved that the sys tems were not worth as much as some had thought, or hoped. The fact is that the McLaren is just a really good package and the other cars are not. In the end Hakkinen was 0.665s ahead of Coulthard, but the gap was rather more than it might normally have been as David did not get the chance to have a final run because his car refused to fire up at the criti cal moment.
WILLIAMS WOES... Heinz-Harald Frentzen lost third place to Michael Schumacher during the pitstops.
Was there a plot to handicap David, asked the conspiracy theo rists? WeU, no. The truth was embai'rassing but quite behevable. When the cars come into the pits they are attached by umbilical cords to a gantry above them and by acci dent the plug supplying David’s car with electrical power was accidental ly knocked out, so the battery ran flat. David reckoned that he would probably have improved by three or four tenths, which still would not have given him pole. A Grand Prix is more than just qualifying,” David said later.‘We will have to see what happens with the race to the first comer.” But did he think he could win the race - given that he has had to give the last two races to Hakkinen because ofteam orders? That is the general idea,” said David. Hakkinen, however, was confident that he could get the better of David in the race. “This track suits my driving style a lot,” said the Firm.“I personally enjoy a lot driving around this track because all the comers are quite chal lenging and that helps me to perform better.”
Williams which was the lead As expected, it with was ingwas McLaren chaser and Jacques Villeneuve having stacked his car into a wall on Satui'day morn ing it was left to Heinz-Harald Frentzen to lead the chase. The German seems to be rather more competitive than last year and if Villeneuve is not careful he is going to find himself being overshadowed this season. “It was a little bit better than I expected,” commented Heinz-Hai-ald. “I started the weekend with a lot of set-up work and I was not very happy with how the car behaved.” Villeneuve’s crash left Jacques in the T-car and he never managed to get it working well. As a result he was down in a very disappointing 10th position on the grid. “I just ran wide out of the comer,” Jacques commented, “and I went straight into the tyres. Today has
been very fi-ustrating . We have to do a strong race tomorrow.” Fourth on the gi’id was Michael Schumacher, which was not really any surprise, but he was 1.2s off Hakkinen’s pole and the Ferrari looked to be a real handful. Michael had been hoping to be ahead of the Williams but playing about with the set-up before his final run he went in the wrong du'ection. “The Bridgestone runners seemed to have an advantage on this track,” he said. “I think the McLai-ens will be unbeatable but we should be the best ofthe rest.” Eddie Irvine was overshadowed as usual, but sixth on the grid within two-tenths of Michael was a good result for the Ulstennan, who com plained of not feeling very well on Saturday and was not helped by a misfire. Alexander Wurz in his Benetton was barely slower than Schumacher, which was a good showing from the Austrian rookie who had never dri ven an FI car at Interlagos. He did not have any problems and looked forward to a chance to score points in what would be only his fifth Grand Prix. On this occasion the Austrian over shadowed Giancarlo Fisicheha, main ly because the Italian lost control over a bump and smacked his car into a wall. He had to nm back to the pits and take the spare, which was set up for Wurz,and finished up 7th. Both the Benetton drivers were confident that they would do weU in the race and would be able to outnm the Goodyear men with their Bridgestones.
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ehind Fisichella, in 8th place on the grid, 1.7s off pole posi tion, was Ralf Schumacher in the faster of the two Jordan Mugen Hondas. He had hoped to be sixth but otherwise seemed happy with the progress being made. This could not be said for Damon Hill, who was having a dreadful weekend. He ran into the pitwaU on Friday and in qualifying could do no better than 11th on the gi'id, twotentlis slower than Schumacher Jr. Given Damon’s struggles with Jordan, it must be galhng for him to
BRAZILIAN Gl>
IS
WApril 1998 1
r i I
again in Brazil
have to remember that in August last year he turned down the chance to be a McLaren driver because the team was not offering him enough money. Such knowledge cannot help the motivation. Ninth on the grid was a good effort from Olivier Panis in the Prost-Peugeot. This is improving after its dreadful start to the year in Australia as the team botches its way towards making the gearbox reliable. There were whispers in the paddock that the team has embarked on a new gearbox design but it will not be ready for some months. The 1997 gearbox does not fit, otherwise it would be there already. Jamo Trulli was a disappointed 12th, having been faster than Panis for most of the practice days, but mechanical problems with his car and an off meant that he had to use the spare in qualifying and the brakes were not as he hked them. Behind Trulli on the grid was Rubens BarricheUo in the StewartFord on Bridgestone tyres, looking rather better than was the case in Melbourne. The team did not seem to have any particular problems to blame for the position, which is a problem in itself... Jan Magnussen suffered a little from traffic problems and was threetenths slower than Barrichello, which meant that he was 16th on the grid. the pair of Saubers, which was The twonot Stewarts were showing split by really a very good given the team’s pace in Australia. Jean Alesi continued to complain about understeer and a lack of response from the car while Johnny Herbert lost most ofFriday with elec tronic problems and then had a big crash on Saturday morning when his throttle stuck open. He would suffer neck problems for the rest of the weekend. The crash meant that he had to take to the spare car in the afternoon. As a result Johnny was happy to be able to outqualify Alesi by a tenth. Tyrrell was another team not hav ing much fun. Ricardo Rosset seemed to hit some thing or spin offevery time he left the pits, which did nothing to endear him
DOMINANT FORCE... !
McLaren was once again far too strong for the opposition, despite having some of its technical features banned. This is second-placed Coulthard. |
iercedes-
MIGHTY MICK... The brilliance of Schumacher gained him third place, but not even he could throw the Ferrari around fast enough to match the McLarens. to the teaih. Rosset was 21st on the grid, four places behind Toranosuke Takagi. '■ The two Minardis were 18th and 19th with Shinji Nakano just quicker than Esteban Tuero, who suffered an engine failure and might have gone quicker. Back in 20th and 22nd were the two Arrows of Mika Salo and Pedro Diniz, the team stiU struggling with gearbox electronics problems, which has affected set-up time. It did not help that several team members had gone dovra vrith bugs, presumably because everyone has been working too hard and their resistance is too low. On Saturday night Tom Walkinshaw, afflicted by the bug, flew home to Europe. There did not seem much point in staying,
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n Saturday night it begm to rain. When it rains in Brazil it deluges and throughout the evening the 16 million occupants of Sao Paulo and the 3000 members of the FI circus were bombarded by sheets of rain.
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In the morning parts of the track were still damp and the trackside grass was completely waterlogged. Putting a wheel off the track proved to be disastrous. The warm-up saw the McLarens dominant, Michael Schumacher spin ning and then suffering a mechanical failure, and several sizeable shunts by Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and.
most dramatically, Olivier Panis. The blue skies and cotton wool clouds were back by lunchtime but there still lurked sections of grey mist, which threatened to renew the deluge on Sunday afternoon. The crowds built up during the morning but this was not a crowd like the old days and as the cars lined up on the grid the main grandstand
opposite the pits was only half fuU. The incidents in the morning meant that several teams were in two minds as to which cars to use. Michael Schumacher switched back and forth between cars while Fisichella took the decision to race the chassis he had shunted in the morning.
Continued next page
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