Jacques Villeneuve was the defending Formula 1 World Champion heading into the 1998 season, but the French-Canadian was destined to have a frustrating year. His Williams team no longer received works backing from Renault. Instead, they were forced to use the company’s customer units, re-badged as Mechachromes.
Williams kept the same driver line-up for 1998, but elsewhere there were changes. Gerhard Berger had retired from Formula 1 and Jean Alesi moved to Sauber. Their places at Benetton were taken by Giancarlo Fisichella and Alex Wurz, who had an unusual habit of wearing mismatched race boots.
1996 World Champion Damon Hill switched from Arrows to Jordan, where he teamed up with Ralf Schumacher in the bright yellow cars. Olivier Panis, who was sidelined by injury for much of 1997, kept his Prost drive. Jarno Trulli was his team-mate, the Italian having impressed when deputising for Panis the previous year.
The cars were also different, due to major regulation changes. They were noticeably narrower and had to run on grooved tyres. McLaren showed great promise in 1997, but few expected them to make quite so good a start to the new season.
McLaren Drivers Cruise to 1-2 in Australian Grand Prix
McLaren stunned the opposition in Melbourne, with Mika Hakkinen qualifying on pole and his team-mate David Coulthard starting from second. Michael Schumacher was disappointed in third, while reigning World Champion Villeneuve started from fourth. Johnny Herbert was impressive in the Sauber and started fifth.
Michael Schumacher’s race was brief, the Ferrari number one retiring with engine failure. Up front, the McLaren pair simple drove into the distance. Hakkinen misheard a radio call while leading and pitted by mistake, handing the lead to Coulthard. As they approached the finish line Coulthard moved over and let Hakkinen through to win, honouring a pre-race agreement between the two. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was third, but a lap behind in his Williams. Eddie Irvine finished fourth in his Ferrari, followed by Villeneuve and Herbert. Fisichella had a very strong race, until his rear wing failed and put him out.
McLaren Win Again at Interlagos
It became clear over the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend that McLaren’s stunning pace in Melbourne had been no fluke. Once again the silver cars were first and second on the grid, with Hakkinen ahead of Coulthard. Once again, they rapidly disappeared after the start and finished in the same order. Wurz ran as high as third, but eventually had to settle for fourth behind Michael Schumacher. Frentzen crossed the line in fifth place and Fisichella took the final point in sixth.
1998 F1 season review continues.
 |
