Ferrari strategy
leaves Williams dazed and confused
Irvine helps
Schumacher to crucial victory
"Today we saw a great
team, a great Eddie and a great Michael."
......
Jean Todt Ferrari
team boss.
In a thrilling race of both
mental and physical agility, Michael Schumacher
has managed to keep his 3rd World Championship
aspirations alive not only by scoring a definitive
victory over second placed man Heinz Harald
Frentzen, but also inflicting a crushing
psychological blow to his adversary Jacques
Villeneuve. The Suzuka circuit in Japan
notoriously unsuited to the chassis designs of Ferrari in recent years, saw the
expected dominance of the faster Williams cars demolished by a brilliant
race strategy from the Maranello team and inch
perfect driving by team-mate Eddie Irvine
acting as the perfect foil to the Williams challenge
for the driver’s crown.
A strong getaway by
Schumacher was parried by the Williams driver who
lunged forward and across the track to dive into the
first corner ahead. The McLaren Mercedes of Mika Hakinnen fell
in behind with a close following Irvine ready to
pounce. "Jacque’s plan was to hold
everyone up and to make life difficult, especially
for me." Said a happy but slightly
disgruntled Schumacher later. "He probably
knows that he doesn’t score any points from this
race, so he wanted me to lose as many points as
possible which meant slowing me down and getting some
cars in front of me. It didn’t work, as Eddie
told me he (Irvine) might try and pass me at that
point and it was quite funny when it happened. It was
a very good manoeuvre."
That manoeuvre was a
key point to Schumacher’s victory. A stunning
pass by the Ulsterman at turn 2 on the 2nd lap
enabled him to pass both Hakkinen and his team mate.
His express train then went on to pass the leading
car of Villeneuve a lap later and streak away to set
a string of fastest laps over 2 seconds quicker than
Villeneuve, who was doing his level best to slow
things down to allow the field to bunch behind
Schumacher. "We had an idea that Jacques was
going to hold everybody up and we had a few ideas
about how to get past him and it went pretty much to
plan." Irvine said. "The opportunity
to pass presented itself and although Jacques tried
to block me, I went round the outside of him. I
started pulling away and I was just waiting for the
phone call!" By the end of lap 6 Irvine was
12 seconds clear and Ferrari’s strategy seemed
to be working like a dream.
Irvine was the first
of the front runners to stop on lap17, handing the
lead to Villeneuve and rejoining to take up a
rearguard position behind Frentzen in 4th. With
Schumacher pitting a lap later and the Williams duo two laps later, Irvine
found himself back at the front with a positive lead
over his team mate. Villeneuve chased hard and almost
came to blows with the Ferrari at the pit lane exit
when he roared into Schumacher’s path in a
desperate attempt to regain the initiative. "Jacques
came out of the pits and tried to close the door and
I’m not too sure that it was the correct thing
to do, to move over the circuit and try to push
someone." Said Schumacher. "I
corrected my situation and took him on the inside,
but it could have been dangerous." With new
tyres he was able to stay close to the rear of
Schumacher’s Ferrari but was unable to catch and
pass it. To Villeneuve, it meant little. "My
only objective was to try and slow him and I was
surprised that nobody tried to overtake him."
He said. "Then we lost the battle in the pit
stops. We came out a little ahead of him but he was
on the track and his momentum carried him past
me."
The Ferrari master-plan was being unrolled
and the baton was ready to be passed to the man
behind. On lap 23, Irvine got his phone call via the
pits to car radio and slowed sufficiently to allow
Schumacher by in a precision move that placed him as
the filling to a rather dangerous sandwich, keeping
the frustrated Canadian at bay. "When Michael
got past Villeneuve at the pit exit it was obvious
that I was going to have to slow down and try to give
Michael a bit of a gap." Irvine said.
"then I was told to let Michael through and try
and slow Villeneuve. We had a plan as to where we
would do it and where it would give us the least
risk." The plan worked, as Schumacher
started to pull clear, with Irvine keeping a watching
brief in his rear mirrors to ensure that the Williams
stayed put. It must have angered Villeneuve that
Irvine was doing everything that his own team mate
Frentzen was failing to do.
Frentzen was having
his own problems finding it hard to stay in touch
with the leaders and remained behind Hakinnen who,
despite having a three stop strategy was running yet
another competitive race. "I ran very little
downforce trying to be quick on the straights and I
had a bit of understeer right from the start."
Frentzen said later. "I had a lot of fuel on
board and it was quite difficult to keep up with the
other guys. my target was just to keep going."
However, by staying in contention at the end of the
leading gaggle of cars, he was able to take over at
the front, if only temporarily, when teams started
pulling their drivers in again, for fuel and tyres.
The 2nd Ferrari stops
on laps 33 and 34, saw Schumacher and Irvine rejoin
behind the new leader Frentzen who had yet to stop
for a second time. A sticking fuel nozzle turned what
should have been a routine stop of around 7 seconds
into a 13.4 second time-warp for a demoralised
Villeneuve who could do nothing but shake his head
sadly as he saw a lousy situation turn even worse. He
was now out of contention for the top honours, Irvine
having done an excellent job of disrupting the Williams driver’s rhythm.
The only Hiccup to
Ferrari’s plans occurred when Frentzen rejoined
the circuit in front of Irvine who had fallen right
off the pace and was now fighting to hold on to third
from the McLaren of Mika Hakinnen. "He
moved over onto the racing line, which you should not
do when you came out of the pits." Explained
Irvine. "The car understeered badly on the
last set of tyres and I was locking the front brakes
as well. I was losing front end grip and I was going
further and further back on the brake balance.
Hakinnen was always going to be quicker so I just had
to drive whereby I was quicker in the important
parts."
With Villeneuve even
further down the field in 7th it was Frentzen’s
turn to step in for the Williams team and ensure that
they secured their eighth Constructors
Championship. The fastest lap of the race was his
and at 1.38.942 was only 3 hundredths of a second
slower than Villeneuve’s pole position for the
’96 Grand Prix. Proof indeed that, as the rules
make the cars slower, the designers make them go
faster.
Schumacher passed the
chequered flag a mere second or so in front of
Frentzen, a lead decimated by outgoing World Champion
Damon Hill’s uncharacteristic reluctance
to let himself be passed by the faster car on the
penultimate lap. "Hill made life very
difficult for me." Said Schumacher.
"There were a lot of blue flags and he should
have let me through."
Villeneuve finished a
miserable 5th with his two points expected to be
taken away from him when the FIA court of appeal
meets in Paris next week to examine his appeal
against disqualification from the race (see
earlier qualifying report).
Jean Alesi did
well to be the last points finisher in the Benetton being forced to stop three
times. "It's hard to say if we really got an
advantage from it." He said later. "The
car was going reasonably, except for a slight
understeer. I got stuck behind Villeneuve and,
although I was quicker, I could not overtake
him." Team mate Gerhard Berger came
in 9th having had to make a further unscheduled stop.
"This was a frustrating race. I made the
wrong choice of tyres and had to go for a three-stop
strategy." He said. "But even that
did not help as I did not manage to get a good
performance out of the tyres and I was left behind.
It was a gamble which unfortunately did not
work!"
The Jordan-Peugeots were unspectacular all
weekend and scored no points. Peugeot technical director Pierre
Fauconnier, summed up the teams feeling when he
said, "The fact that the drivers started from
9th and 12th on the grid, together with the
reliability of the cars in front, means the final
result was no surprise. It was, however a
disappointment, since it is so removed from the
excellent performances demonstrated in the second
half of the season." Again Giancarlo
Fisichella finished higher than co- driver Ralf
Schumacher in 8th. Young Ralf said, "I
was lucky not to spin at the end of the race as there
was some oil on the circuit." Strange that
no one else seemed to spot it.
An audible ‘Whoop!’
came from a jubilant and much relieved Schumacher as,
cheered by an equally ecstatic Ferrari pit crew, he
hugged team mate Irvine before the ritual Champagne
shower. Paying a well deserved tribute to his partner
and also scotching any silly rumours that Berger
would replace him next season, he said, "It
is thanks to him that I have this victory. I have
always said he is a great driver and a great
team-mate."
Schumacher’s win
takes the race to the line in Jerez in a
fortnight. Villeneuve’s lead is now down to a
single point and should these be taken away from him
as it is commonly expected, the German will have a
one point lead in Spain and the psychological
advantage. With the Constructors championship nicely
wrapped up by Williams, the driver’s crown has
still to find a fitting head. Spain will be the
decider, the fickle finger of Formula 1 fate having
seen fit to deal the cards to make it so. Fortunes
have swung dramatically both ways in the past three
races and as the barometer starts it’s downward
path for Villeneuve, he will be thinking that nothing
really has changed. He is still leading the
championship and even if they level the score in
Jerez he will have won by dint of the number of
outright wins on his scorecard. The FIA
however could play the most important role in this
end of season drama.
Unsympathetic as they
always seem to be with appeals, regarding them as
mere delaying tactics, the FIA are wont to
increase the penalty if the appeal is not upheld. The
impetuous Villeneuve has had his run-ins with the
governing body in the past, having criticised to the
point of lude swearing, both the merits of next years
cars and Mosley himself. He has been let off twice
before for racing under a yellow flag and this
disqualification is a result of infringing the rules
whilst under a suspended ban for the same offence at Monza.
There is therefore the possibility of the FIA
banning Villeneuve from the final race also and
handing the Championship on a silver platter, to
Schumacher. No one, least of all the twice world
champion, would want this and the FIA should realise
that to do this would deprive the sport of one of the
most exciting title defences for a long time. They
should also be aware of the revenue they will lose as
TV viewers world-wide switch off and crowds fail to
show in Spain.
Again it all came down
Villeneuve, ‘enfant terrible’ and
recalcitrant young pup, but he has brought the
sparkle back to a slightly tarnished sport and the
powers that be, owe it to him to defend his hard
fought championship till the last chequered flag
drops.
Chris Richardson
Results of the
Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka Oct 12th 1997
M Schumacher
(Ferrari) 1h 29m 48.446s
H Frentzen
(Williams-Renault) + 0m 01.378s
E Irvine
(Ferrari) + 0m 26.389s
M Hakkinen (McLaren-Mercedes)
+ 0m 27.129s
J Villeneuve (Williams-Renault)
+ 0m 39.776s
J Alesi
(Benetton-Renault) + 0m 40.403s
J Herbert
(Sauber-Petronas) + 0m 41.630s
G Fisichella
(Jordan-Peugeot) + 0m 56.825s
G Berger
(Benetton-Renault) + 1m 00.429s
R Schumacher
(Jordan-Peugeot) + 1m 22.036s
D Coulthard
(McLaren-Mercedes) +1 lap
D Hill (Arrows-Yamaha)
+1 lap
P Diniz
(Arrows-Yamaha) +1 lap
J Verstappen
(Tyrrell-Ford) +1 lap
Unclassified
T Marques
(Minardi-Hart) 7 laps: gearbox
M Salo
(Tyrrell-Ford) 7 laps: engine
O Panis
(Prost-Mugen) 17 laps: engine
S Nakano
(Prost-Mugen) 31 laps: wheel bearing
U Katayama (Minardi-Hart)
45 laps: engine
R Barrichello
(Stewart-Ford) 47 laps: spin
J Magnussen
(Stewart-Ford) 50 laps: spin
G Morbidelli
(Sauber-Petronas) DNS: injury
Fastest Lap: H H
Frentzen 1:38.942s Lap 48
Drivers
Championship standings
(subject to
ratification and pending FIA appeal)
Villeneuve
(Williams) 79
Schumacher M (Ferrari)
78
Frentzen(Williams)
41
Alesi (Benetton)
35
Coulthard
(McLaren) 30
Berger
(Benetton) 24
Irvine (Ferrari)
22
Fisichella
(Jordan) 20
Hakkinen
(McLaren) 17
Panis (Prost)
16
Herbert (Sauber)
14
Schumacher R
(Jordan) 13
Hill (Arrows) 7
Barrichello
(Stewart) 6
Wurz (Benetton)
4
Trulli (Prost)
3
Salo (Tyrrell)
2
Nakano (Prost)
2
Diniz (Arrows)
2
Larini (Sauber)
1
Constructors
Championship standings
Williams-Renault 120
Ferrari 100
Benetton-Renault 63
McLaren-Mercedes 47
Jordan-Peugeot 33
Prost-Mugen 21
Sauber-Petronas 15
Arrows-Yamaha 9
Stewart-Ford 6
Tyrrell-Ford 2
