Villeneuve Wins, Ferrari Sinks

by Andrew Frankl
TACH Euro B.C.

90 thousand fanatical British supporters were let down by a broken wheel bearing on Damon Hill's Williams-Renault. The championship leader was cruising in a comfortable fourth place safe in the knowledge that his opponents were all on a two-stop strategy when it all went wrong for him at Copse corner. He spun off, got out of the car and smiled. It was clear from his body language that it was not his fault, it was not a collision, it was just one of those things. At least he started from pole position and his lead in the championship is only threatened by his team-mate who is 15 points behind him. This puts Frank Williams into a wonderful position, one of his drivers will definitely win the championship. Not bad going with 6 races still to go!

The disaster of the race-for the third time running!-was the performance of Ferrari. They have had three consecutive races in which both cars dropped out, in one instance, two weeks ago, on the warm-up lap. This time Michael started from the second row of the grid and started quite well but within a few laps there were ominous puffs of smoke from the No 1 car. His retirement was close behind and to everyone astonishment it was followed by that of Eddie Irvine. At one point the only two retirements were the two Ferraris-the richest, biggest, most famous team in the world! Even Gianni Agnelli, the ultimate boss of Fiat was at Silverstone to give encouragement to his wilting troops. As was the President of Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo. To no avail. Yet again, total disaster. The Italian papers are already demanding Jean Todt's head whilst Schumacher insists that without Todt the whole team would collapse. Could it collapse any more? Can you do worse than three races, two cars and six retirements?

Can't see how.

All of which was little interest to Jacques Villeneuve, the brilliant young Canadian. He made a brilliant start, pulled away, never put a foot wrong and won with ease. Behind him Jean Alesi was second for a long time only to retire with brake problems. This gave a chance, for the first time this year to really have a go in a competitive car. Gerhard Berger, a man many experts regard as someone very much over the hill drove an excellent race to come second. Mika Hakkinen, who so nearly lost his life last year in Adelaide came third after an excellent drive in the ever-improving McLaren-Mercedes. Top marks to the Brazilian Rubens Barrichello who came fourth in a Jordan-Peugeot. Mika's team mate David Coulthard was a solid fifth whilst Martin Brundle in the other Jordan also managed to get a point by coming sixth.

It was not the greatest car race of all times, the early retirement of Schumacher and Hill took a great deal of the spice out of it. What it did achieve was a Canadian victory which does make things more exciting because Jacques is very much his own man who would dearly like to win the championship in his first year. On today's showing we can look forward to an interesting series of races. Hill has the advantage, not just because he has a 15 point lead, but also because he knows all the tracks. Jacques has never been to Hockenheim, scene of the German Grand Prix, nor the Hungaroring which is a difficult track to learn.

After the race Jacques was very bullish about his chances for the championship. "We have eaten into Damon's lead hopefully we can continue to keep pushing."

As I am typing this report news comes from the scrutineering bay that there is a protest about the winning car! Benetton, who came second protested the front wings on the winning Williams-Renault. Consequently this report might read very differently within the next few minutes. The most amusing part of the protest saga was in the Press Room where German and Italians journalists were frantically searched for the correct word to describe "front wing end plate". These are two thin pieces of metal sheets which are screwed onto the front wing itself presumably for aerodynamic reasons. The race was over just after 3.30 in the afternoon-British time-and the Press were still waiting for the REAL result of the race some two and a half hours later. These things play havoc with newspaper deadlines, radio and TV stories and cause confusion, just like Ben Johnson's disqualification did in Soeul in l988.

Four hours after the end of the race the protest was dismissed. The Benetton people have not yet decided whether they will appeal against the decision but I would be very surprised if the stewards changed their minds.

So ended a very long and hot day at Silverstone won by the best driver in the best car.

However, as both Nicholas and I are off to Atlanta for the Olympics in the morning let me finish with a quote from Gone with the Wind: "tomorrow is another day". (AS well as another race.)