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Sleeping Through the Canadian GP

by Andrew Frankl,
TACH European Bureau Chief

I have been watching Formula One races off and on (actually more on than off..) but rarely have I seen anything as boring as the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

It started badly, Schumacher's Ferrari refused to start and the whole field went by before the Ferrari mechanics managed to put some life into the V10 engine. The rules stipulate that anyone not leaving the grid at the given moment has to start from the back of the grid. This is what happened to Michael which meant that the only driver/car combination capable of challenging the Williams-Renault cars was effectively out of the race before the start.

This led to what I can only describe as a boring procession. Hill made a great start, got away from team-mate Villeneuve and was not seen again until the chequered flag. Jacques-who got a certain amount of stick for not being sufficiently enthusiastic about Canada in general and the circuit in particular shrugged his shoulders and got on with the race. It was suggested by his uncle - also Jacques - that apart from girlfriend Sandrine and personal manager Craig Pollock his only other interest was money! If true it would be rather a shame as Formula One needs characters-badly. The last thing we need is yet another boring individual who disappears after the race to count the proceeds.

The local hero - because the crowd loved him a great deal more than his uncle - was hoping against hope that the legendary Gilles' son will be able to catch Hill and emerge on the top of the podium. Frankly, it never looked like it. The team was completely in control and this unfortunately meant a boring procession. Rather it would have been a boring procession had it not been for the fact that drivers were dropping out at such a rate that after the half-way stage there were only 8 of them left from the original 22!

This, not to put too fine a point on it is scandalous. Eddie Irvine for instance was out on lap one-yet again, just as he was spinning minutes after the start in Barcelona two weeks earlier for yet another DNF. Not that he was much better in Monaco where not only did he spin but managed to ram Salo and Hakkinen out of the race as well. I know he has many followers-I am not one of them.

Gerhard Berger seems to enjoying similar success these days, he is dropping out race after race, either with mechanical problems or through driver error. Maybe it's time to think about retirement..Martin Brundle, another "Oldie" has had a warning about his lack of form, he must have got the message because he ended up in 6th place.

The two McLaren-Mercedes cars were off the pace yet again but by simply going round and round they both managed to get some vital points in,Couthard in 4th, Hakkinen in fifth place.

Jean Alesi seems to have matured in the last few weeks,yet again he had a lonely race, finishing in third place. When left alone he is fine, when he gets too close to other cars which are competing against him, as opposed to cars he is lapping, that is when the red rag seems to descend in front of his eyes.

Johnny Herbert finished in 7th place whilst the virtually unknown Italian Fisichella crawled in last in 8th place. All the others -14 of them!-were already half-way home.

I can only feel sorry for the thousands of spectators who-apart from Villeneuve's second place-had very little to cheer. All of which left Hill at the top of the table with 53 points, well ahead of his rivals. Villeneuve is second at present with 32 points but let us not forget that Frank Williams decides who wins the title and not his drivers, assuming that Schumacher does not start winning race after race from now on.

On the face of it that does not seem very likely.