Ferrari rains on
William’s parade as Schumacher makes waves in
World Championship stakes. Bridgestone fail to give
wet weather advantage and Diniz beats Hill to the
line.
"What can I say about
the young boy? He’s fantastic!" Eddie
Jordan team boss.
"I called the
wrong shot and I’ve only got myself to
blame." Arrows driver, Damon Hill
Torrential rain turned
the start at the Spa Francorchamps circuit
into chaos as a fifteen minute shower of monsoon
proportions turned the tables on the leading drivers,
forcing teams to drastically revise pit stop
strategies and set-up configurations.
Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher
proved yet again his mastery in the wet, by
dominating the Belgian Grand Prix from the
first lap, aided by the fortunate turn in the weather
at a crucial time. The Williams’ so dominant in
qualifying, disappeared from view relatively quickly
leaving only the Mercurial Jean Alesi and star
new boy, Giancarlo Fisichella to make any
attempt to catch him. With on track race excitement
limited to a few overtaking manoeuvres and some
mildly entertaining driver errors, choice of tyres
was the key to the podium and it was
Schumacher’s decision to start the race in the
spare car on a wet set-up and intermediate
compounds, that gave him the advantage from the
start. "I knew I could win." He
said. "I had gambled that it was only a
shower and it paid off perfectly." The
Williams team, no doubt harking back to their Monaco
debacle, once again got it wrong proving that they
are less adaptable to changing conditions than most.
It was awe inspiring
to see the greatest technological sport in the world
brought to it’s knees by mother nature and
whereas all the plans were made, all strategies set
and the cars looking pretty for their brief posing
time on the grid, the not totally unexpected
happened. A blue sky and a temperature of over 100
degrees changed within seconds, to a downpour of
severe proportions, turning the track into an inky
black slick and parts into a shallow swimming pool.
The cars sent up bow waves as they gingerly left the
pits on the out lap to their grid positions. Before
the race started under the new safety car rules, the Jordan Peugeot of Ralf Schumacher had
taken a turn for the worse aqua-planing into the
barriers. A long and energetic Jog back to the
pits enabled him to take over in the spare car in
time for the race. "The rain was a lot
stronger than I expected." He said.
"I came round the corner into a lot of water and
I spun. I made it back to the pits to take the T-car,
but unfortunately I did not manage to get out again
before the pit lane closed. Starting from the back of
the grid is always difficult."
As the minutes ticked
away and the bedraggled pit crew and board girls took
to their positions on the grid, the rain eased and
then stopped altogether giving way to a bright sun
that caused the track, having dropped a full 18
degrees in as many minutes, to start steaming like a
hammer horror movie as the water began to evaporate
in it’s warmth.
Great standing pools
of water were still evident especially at the Bus
stop chicane and the safety car led the field
round gingerly for the first three laps to allow for
the majority of the excess water to be thrown clear
by the treaded tyres. Within seconds of the start of
the race proper on lap 4 Jean Alesi was nosing his Benetton up to Jacques Villeneuve but
not enough to make any headway and with the Canadian
holding a tenuous 1.5 second lead over an extremely
closely packed Alesi, Schumacher and Fisichella, it
was clear that the Williams was out of it’s
depth in the prevailing conditions. At the end of the
lap Schumacher was ready to make his move and this he
did on Alesi at La Source forcing an inside
line as the Frenchman was pushed wide into the run
down to Eau Rouge. By Malmemedy, the
Ferrari had closed on the Williams. Villeneuve did not hold him
up not that he was able to and the red car shot by
into the spray never to be seen again.
By lap 6, Giancarlo
Fisichella not far behind and running on V-cut
wet tyres, had also made short work of Alesi who like
Villeneuve, realised that he was on the wrong tyres
and proceeded to make his move on the Canadian.
Villeneuve pitted immediately for an intermediate
set of tyres whilst Alesi went in for slicks.
This was regarded as a very brave move but one that
would put him at an advantage as the track slowly
dried. The cars straggled closely behind down to
tenth position and by laps 9 and 10 the scramble was
on for further tyre modification in the form of
either intermediate wets or slicks. A fastest lap by
Schumacher still on his first set of intermediates of
2m.06s, was the first of a dozen by the German who
proceeded to march away from the field and by the
time Fisichella changed to slicks on the following
lap he had a 35 second lead over the Jordan.
Pedro Diniz, TWR’s number two driver was
having a great weekend. Out-qualifying Damon Hill,
he was now leading him and at one point briefly made
it to third slot in the pit change melee. Hill had
meanwhile called in for a set of intermediates to be
prepared despite the rapidly drying track and the
universal change to slick rubber by the rest of the
teams. Consequently his performance suffered badly
and he was forced to pit yet again 4 laps later for
the right tyres. Had he waited another lap, his
decision would have been vindicated for it started to
rain out on the back part of the circuit at Les
Combes. "I called to come in for intermediates
and it was the wrong choice." Admitted Hill
candidly. "I was being held up in traffic and
I thought the only way to make the time up was to be
on the right tyre. I could see some rain coming and
it did actually start to rain after I had gone to
slicks. Even so I called the wrong shot and I should
have stayed out longer before going in for slicks.
I’ve only got myself to blame."
It was a decision that
cost him dear and despite a spirited performance he
was uncompetitive throughout the race at one point
running some 45 seconds behind Giani Morbidelli’s
Sauber in 13th position and he retired
on the last lap in 14th. "I had something
loose with the wheel and I came in because something
felt like it was going astray." He
commented. "The race was a bad one for
me."
It wasn’t very
good for Villeneuve either who was pitting again,
this time for slicks rejoining the race in 10th
position. The leader board was changing by the minute
and even showed the Stewart of Jan Magnussen in 2nd
for a short moment and the Tyrrell of Mika Salo putting in
an uncharacteristic fastest lap of 2m.04.08s. This
was immediately upstaged by Alesi who had now
inherited second place from Fisichella and looked to
be in a strong position setting two fastest laps in a
row.
Schumacher finally
pitted, having taken advantage of every last
millimetre of his intermediate tyres and with a
massive 60 second lead was in no danger of
relinquishing his advantage. But it was Alesi again
who set the yardstick for speed as he took 20 seconds
out of Schumacher’s lead on the drying track and
yet another fastest lap of 1.57.34s.
The rains came, a bit
late for Damon Hill, but as it seemed to be content
to douse the far side of the circuit there was no mad
dash for yet more tyres. It did however allow the ‘rainmeister’
Schumacher to steam majestically on to open out a 40
second lead over Alesi. Heinz Harald Frentzen
struggling in both wet and dry conditions was finding
it hard to pass 5th placed Johnny Herbert’s
Sauber-Petronas and it was only after five
laps of continual trying that he managed to do so.
Hardly the stuff that Williams’ are made of.
Half distance saw the
removal of both David Coulthard who continues
to disappoint in the McLaren-Mercedes at Blanchimont and Ralf
Schumacher who spun on the downhill approach to Les
Combes and put the rear of the car into the
Armco, giving him a second long walk back to the pits
in a day.
Alesi was to pit again
for fresh rubber and fuel dropping down to fourth
behind Mika Hakinnen who was doing
exceptionally well having started from the back of
the grid, his 5th place in qualifying being
disallowed when his fuel sample did not match the one
submitted to the scrutineers at the start of the
weekend. His third place also is under appeal for the
same reason and to add to his troubles he was brought
before the stewards for overtaking whilst the pace
car was on the circuit. "The final result was
satisfactory," said a guarded Hakinnen. "I
had a technical problem, I was losing time every lap
and I was concerned about fending off Heinz
(Frentzen) to the end. It was a matter of just
finishing the race. It was extremely difficult, but
we managed to get through." He came away
smiling looking forward to a cold shower in Monaco
where he lives, presumably only a mere hop by private
jet.
Lap 28 saw Schumacher
pit for the second and last time and with the final
placings more or less sewn up built up a 43 second
lead over Fisichella by the time he had stopped for
his second set of slicks. Another stop by Villeneuve
put him down to 8th place behind a mechanically
suspect Alesi and a superb out-braking manoeuvre at Les
Combes, saw the Canadian into the points.
By the time the flag
fell Schumacher had slowed to a cruise but still
maintained a 33 second advantage over Fisichella.
Hakinnen took the third slot with Frentzen, Herbert
and Villeneuve a devastating 6th, making up the rest
of the points share out.
True to say, that this
weekend Ferrari were fortunate that the weather
played into their hands, for it is certain that their
form would not have been so strong had the sun
continued to raise the surface temperature of the
track. "I wasn’t too optimistic for the
race." Said Schumacher afterwards.
"Under straight forward circumstances in the dry
I think we would have struggled, but in the wet and
making the right choice of tyre everything went
perfectly."
Not so for poor
Jacques. Scoring a paltry 1 point to his rival’s
10 now gives him a deficit of 12 points and an uphill
struggle to the champion’s crown. It was down to
William's inability to get it right when
it mattered and again a pole position has been
squandered by suspect decision making when it should
really be second nature. "I knew from the
beginning that we had the wrong choice of tyres and I
didn’t want to stay out for nothing like Monaco,
so we came in and put on intermediates but the track
dried much quicker than we believed." Villeneuve
said. "It was just a question of pushing and
trying to catch up the people in front. "
Confirming Schumacher’s observations he
continued, "We had an amazing car in the dry
and Michael was in pretty bad shape with his
blistering tyres, but 15 minutes of rain and the
wrong tyre choice changed the whole result. Twelve
points behind with five races to go is not a problem.
The trouble is, that most of the next few races could
also be in cold and wet weather and that is not going
to be good for us."
Happiest man by far,
was Fisichella. 4th at Imola, 3rd in Canada and now,
after the disappointment of missing out an almost
certain 2nd at Hockenheim due to a puncture,
2nd at Spa. In his endearing broken English he
struggled to express his joy. "I don’t
believe it! I’m very happy! 2nd position!
It’s incredible!" he beamed and,
pulling himself together, managed to get an
explanatory sentence out before the standard effusive
praise for his team. "It is another dream I
have realised and now I am aiming for victory. The
car was not very, very quick, but it was steady and
reliable. Now we can look forward to Monza where I
believe we have the chance to win." One can
see how team boss Eddie Jordan will fight Benetton tooth and nail to keep the boy
in his contract for next season. "What can I
say about the young boy?" said Jordan. "He’s
fantastic! The pit stop was the crucial part. We
pulled away from McLaren and really once we broke
that gap we were away."
A last lap coming
together with Pedro Diniz, forced Eddie
Irvine’s Ferrari off the track and down to 15th
place. "Diniz hit me at the chicane as he
tried to pass me." Said an unusually
understanding Irishman. "Unfortunately this
is the sort of thing that can happen when you are
fighting for a place. I would like to forget the last
three days which have been very difficult.."
While probably not wet
enough for the Bridgestone tyres to make use
of their superior handling properties, the
intermediate Goodyears held together well and
provided the exact balance- at least for Schumacher-
between wet and dry conditions.
In a disjointed and
fairly dull race, where the pit action was far more
entertaining than the foregone conclusion on the
circuit, Spa could mark the turning point for the
World Championship title and Williams who dominated qualifying
should be worried that due to some seriously flawed
judgements, there is every possibility that Ferrari will walk away with both
trophies.
Chris Richardson Aug
23rd 1997
Final results of
the Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps
Aug 23rd 1997
1. Schumacher
(Ferrari) G 1h 33m 46.717s
2. Fisichella
(Jordan-Peugeot) G + 26.753s
3. Hakkinen
(McLaren-Mercedes) G + 30.852s (subject
to appeal)
4. Frentzen (Williams-Renault)
G + 32.147s
5. Herbert
(Sauber-Petronas) G + 39.025s
6 Villeneuve
(Williams-Renault) G + 42.103s
7. Berger
(Benetton-Renault) G + 1m 03.741s
8 Diniz (Arrows-Yamaha)
B + 1m 25.931s
9. Morbidelli
(Sauber-Petronas) G + 1m 42.008s
10. Salo
(Tyrrell-Ford) G + 1m 42.582s
11. Alesi
(Benetton-Renault) G 1Lap
12. Magnussen (Stewart-Ford)
B 1Lap
13. Hill
(Arrows-Yamaha) B 1Lap
14. Katayama
(Minardi-Hart) B 1Lap
15. Irvine
(Ferrari) G 1Lap
16. Trulli
(Prost-Mugen) B 2 laps
Fastest lap:
Jacques Villeneuve: 1m 52.692s
