Easy action for
Villeneuve as Alesi moves in on Schumacher’s
territory.
Hill out-qualified
by Diniz in qualifying for the 44th Belgium Grand
Prix
The action on the track at Spa-Francorchamps
took a poor second place in the eyes of the press to
the news of Ron Dennis’ decision to
retain his two McLaren drivers for next year.
In a statement issued at Spa yesterday (22nd), Dennis
said "Both drivers have contributed to the
building and re-shaping of our team and I believe
that they should and will benefit from the fruits of
these efforts next year." Dennis’ offer
of a salary of £1.3 million for current World
Champion Damon Hill to drive for him plus a
bonus of £650,000 a win, did not settle easily on
Hill’s shoulders. Hill probably quite rightly,
thinks that he is worth more than that. In a
statement issued after Dennis’ announcement Hill
said that the offer, "did not accord with
what I had been led to believe from our prior
negotiations and I did not consider that it
demonstrated a serious commitment to me as a
driver." Be that as it may, the choices for
Hill are now, as last year, rapidly running out. With
his rejection of a $20 million deal with Sauber,
over two years, signifying his desire for action with
a more competitive team, it is therefore strange that
he should turn down, admittedly a paltry offer with McLaren,
but more importantly, the chance of winning races in
a team that looks highly likely to be amongst the top
three next season. "The reason those deals
have been put to me is because of my ability and
achievements in the sport and what I can do for a
racing team." He said. "Nobody would
be offering me money if I was no good. It’s not
about risks we take, it’s because of our huge
commercial value. Sponsors want to be associated with
Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill. It’s not
right for me to roll over with my legs in the air and
forego the things I have worked for all my
career."
This leaves Hill with
few options and whilst he does not believe that it is
a buyer’s market, his only hope now of a
competitive drive is with Jordan Peugeot. But
then both Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger
are on the market with few places in the top half of
the grid remaining. Hill told the London Evening
Standard on Friday, that he already knows where
he is headed for 1998 and that he couldn’t say
anything for a few weeks. If so, why was he so
forthcoming regarding his rejection by McLaren?
The even money is now, that he will stay put and try
to develop the TWR Arrows team. True,
the car has improved in leaps and bounds over the
past few months and with ex-Ferrari John Barnard
on board and with the new ‘narrow’ specs
coming in for next year, the goalposts have been
widened for all the teams but unless there’s a Mecachrome
Renault lurking under the covers, no matter how
good the car is, the Yamaha will not cut it
this side of the millennium. But in all probability,
unless he goes with Jordan or the extraordinary
happens and Williams take him back, his career
will not take an upturn at the end of 1997 or 1998
for that matter. His fees will be a great deal less
than this year and the sport will see the talents of
one of the more experienced and reliable drivers on
the grand Prix circuit, squandered.
Qualifying by
comparison was a mere aside. Jacques Villeneuve
popped out of the pits after about 15 minutes to take
provisional pole by half a second from Michael
Schumacher eschewing his lightweight chassis for
the heavier spare car. The first few minutes of the
session saw six changes of pole position, starting
with an early benchmark set by Johnny Herbert’s
Sauber followed by Jean Alesi who was
extremely quick in the wet the previous day, Heinz
Harald Frentzen, Giancarlo Fisichella and
Schumacher.
Despite an extremely
serious accident in the morning warm-up, when Mika
Hakinnen’s McLaren broke a carbon
fibre toe-link control, he was back in qualifying
ending up an excellent 5th. David Coulthard on
the other hand, struggled all session suffering from
severe understeer, doing well to get 10th slot.
Damon Hill, again
driving with all of his trademark smoothness, was at
one time 4th but subsequent fast laps by Ralf
Schumacher, Fisichella, Alesi and his own team
mate Pedro Diniz, pushed him down to 9th
position, a reflection on the speed of the track
rather than his driving. It must however, have been
irksome to him to be out-qualified by his number two
driver Diniz and it is clear that the
drivers’-seat war has put his mind, if only
temporarily, elsewhere.
The Jordan Peugeot’s
flew and again Fisichella showed what a superb young
driver he is. On pole, however briefly, he drove
brilliantly and with maturity, ending his day 4th, to
share the grid with the man he so nearly overtook in
Hungary, Michael Schumacher.
A late charge from
Alesi in the final 90 seconds, failed to reclaim his
pole position and he had to settle for second best in
what could turn out to be a fruitful weekend for him.
Team mate Gerhard Berger had an
‘off’ at the Bus stop chicane
earlier in the session and driving the spare, set up
for Alesi, couldn’t get passed 15th place.
Irishman Eddie
Irvine was unable to go higher than 17th
position, his Ferrari suffering from balance and
understeering problems.
If it rains tomorrow,
the Bridgestone runners will be following the
leaders a great deal more closely, but it looks as
though Williams have finally got their act
together and produced a car that today was by far the
nimblest and seemingly Villeneuve had more in
reserve, as he looked like a man that was barely
trying. "This was a good one." He
smiled. "It’s always good to be quick at
this track. We hardly changed the set-up all
day." Ho hum. With confidence like that it
is hard to believe that the promoters haven’t
already threaded the maple leaf flag above the
podium. Whilst the Ferrari’s may not have the
legs for the course, especially in the heavier
configuration, it could be the fabulous Jordan’s
that will do the running and Fisichella in particular
who could be the snake in the grass.
Chris Richardson
Qualifying results Spa-Francorchamps
Aug 23rd 1997
1 J.Villeneuve Williams
1m 49.45s
2 J.Alesi Benetton
1m 49.75s
3 M.Schumacher Ferrari
1m 50.29s
4 G.Fisichella Jordan
1m 50.47s
5 M.Hakkinen McLaren
1m 50.50s
6 R.Schumacher Jordan
1m 50.52s
7 H.Frentzen Williams
1m 50.65s
8 P.Diniz
Arrows 1m 50.85s
9 D.Hill Arrows
1m 50.97s
10 D.Coulthard McLaren
1m 51.41s
11 J.Herbert Sauber
1m 51.72s
12 R.Barrichello
Stewart 1m 51.91s
13 G.Morbidelli Sauber
1m 52.09s
14 J.Trulli Prost
1m 52.27s
15 G.Berger Benetton
1m 52.39s
16 S.Nakano Prost
1m 52.74s
17 E.Irvine Ferrari
1m 52.79s
18 J.Magnussen Stewart
1m 52.88s
19 M.Salo Tyrrell
1m 52.89s
20 U.Katayama Minardi
1m 53.54s
21 J.Verstappen Tyrrell
1m 53.72s
22 T.Marques Minardi
1m 54.50s
