30 August 1998 The Belgian GP had a dramatic start as the McLaren of Coulthard (possibly due to an interference by irvine) span across the track almost as soon as the lights changed and took out most of the cars that were starting behind. Only seven cars survived the accident, one of the most extensive in the history of F1. Despite the scale of te pile-up there were no serious casualties, and all the drivers who could get their car fixed, or get a spare car, restarted. The race was stopped for 50 minutes while the debris was being cleared off the track, the spare cars prepared and the least damaged cars repeared. The only serious injury was suffered by Barichello on his arm and the Brazilian did not restart. Panis, Rosset and Salo did not have spare cars and could not restart. When the race restarted Hill jumped ahead and took the lead, followed by M. Schumacher, Hakkinen, Irvine and Coulthard. Still in teh first lap Hakkinen span and was hit by Herbert who was coming round the corner. The Finn had to retire having been left on three wheels, an accident which caused the Safety car to come out while the McLaren was being removed from the track. Herbert retired too. Still in the first lap Wurz and Coulthard collided and took a tour on the gravel, but the Scot managed to rejoin the race. By the end of the first lap Hill was leading, followed by the two Ferrari of M. Schumacher and Irvine, Alesi, Villeneuve and Frentzen. On lap 7 M. Shumacher managed to overtake Hill to take the lead. irvine took a spin into the gravel and damaged his nose cone, while Villeneuve hit the barrier and was forced to retire. On lap 24 M. Schumacher, with well over 35 seconds lead on Hill, came round a corner during heavy rain and smashed into the back of Coulthard, badly damaging his car. The Ferrari driver went back to the pits on three wheels followed by the Mclaren. In teh pits a furious M. Schumacher rushed to the McLaren box accusing the Scot to have braked early and to have tried to kill him. It could have ended up in a physical fight if the German had not been restrained by Jean Todt and a good number of McLaren mechanics. Despite M. Schumacher's accusations, the collision appeared to be a racing accident, with the German coming very fast round a corner while tailing Coulthard in conditions of poor visibility. While the drama took place in the pits Irvine, who had rejoined the race with a new nosecone, span out into the gravel and retired. Soon afterwards Fisichella failed to see Nakano and hit his car from behind. The Benetton went out in flames and Nakano returned to the pits, while the safety car same out yet again. Both nakano and Coulthard managed to get back out on the track, relying on the very small number of cars still racing to try and get points. The race was won by Damon Hill, his first victory since 1996. Second was R. Schuamcher, to give Jordan its first ever one-two. Third was F1 veteran Alesi, fourth Frentzen, fifth Diniz and sixth Trulli, who gave the Prost team its first point this season.
21 August 1998 Ralf Schumacher has allegedly signed a four-year deal with Williams, starting from next year.
16 August 1998 The Hungarian GP again saw the importance of doing fast pit stops. The two McLaren started from the first row and took the first two positions (Hakkinen first, Coulthard second), followed by M. Schumacher, then Irvine who had overtaken Hill (4th on the grid) almost immediately. The two McLaren did not perform very well as M. Schumacher's Ferrari kept up with them. After the first set of pit stops the drivers in the first three positions remained unchanged with M. Schumacher tailing Coulthard closely and with a good advantage over Hill in fourth position (Irvine having retired), Villeneuve and Frentzen. On lap 43 M. Schumacher went for the second pit stop, a very fast one, and as he came out he started to put in the fastest laps. Coulthard and then Hakkinen pitted immediately after M. Schumacher, but failed to rejoin the race in front of the German, who became the race leader and started building a good gap in between himself and the other drivers. Soon afterwards Hakkinen started slowing down, was overtaken by team mate Coulthard and Villeneuve (who had overtaken Hill) started attacking him. On lap 62 M. Schumacher went for a third pit stop but the advantage he had built over Coulthard allowed him to keep the lead. By the end of the race Hakkinen had been overtaken by Villenueve, Hill and Frentzen and had been lapped by M. Schumacher.
13 August 1998 I'm off on holiday until the 1st of September. This means there will be no updates to this site until that date.
7 August 1998Charlie Withing has inspected the circuit at Monza and approved the changes made for the September GP. The changes incude lower kerbs, widening of the area after Serraglio which could be used to park broken down F1 cars, widening of the escape area at Parabolica and widening of the pitlane exit by cutting 15 metres off the wall that separates the pitlane from the track. Withing has asked for further work to be done to the exit of the first bend and of Roggia to reduce the risk that soil and grass be dragged on the track causing cars to spin. He then announced that new luminous flags will be used for the fist time at the Italian GP. Five of them will be positioned at the entrance and exit of the first bend, at Roggia and at the second Lesmo bend.
2 August 1998 The German GP saw the return to dominance of McLaren, with Hakkinen and Coulthard putting in another one-two, while M. Schumacher never was in a position to cause them any trouble. Reigning World Champion Villeneuve, who was third and on the podium for the first time this season, put in a brilliant performance. A very good performance also came from the two Jordan drivers, who finished both in the points. Ricardo Rosset suffered a serious accident in practice and hurt his head. Following medical advice he did not take part in the qualifying session and did not race.
Wurz did a terrible start, moving after all the other cars, and found himself in 17th position. M. Schumacher avoided him and took eighth position (starting from ninth). Hakkinen took the lead, followed by team mate Coulthard, R. Schumacher, Villeneuve, Hill, Irvine, Fisichella and M. Schumacher. M. Schumacher soon overtook Fisichella and started chasing Irvine. McLaren did not seem to be as superior as they have been in the past, as R. Schumacher kept up with them apparently effortlessly. Also, for the first time, Hakkinen's car did not appear to be visibly faster than Coulthard's, in fact the Scot spent virtually the whole race following his team mate at a short distance, but without attacking. FIA has officially said that this type of team orders is acceptable because the competition for the Championship is involved. The first casualty of the race was Diniz, who retired on lap four. On the same lap Irvine made a mistake and took a trip on the dirt, giving M. Schumacher room to overtake him and take sixth position. Irvine's error appeared to be genuine and not dictated by team orders. On lap five Panis was given a 10 seconds stop-go penalty for jumping the start, which he took on lap seven while in 14th position and rejoined in last position. R. Schumacher kept on tailing Coulthard, but he was on a two stop strategy and on lap 14 took his first pit stop, rejoining in ninth position. On lap 23 both Hill and Villeneuve stopped and so did M. Schumacher on lap 24 and Irvine on lap 25. Both McLaren stopped within a couple of laps of each other, so that Hakkinen lost the lead to Coulthard only to regain it almost immediately afterwards when the Scot pitted. On lap 25 Verstappen retired with gearbox problems and a few laps later his team mate Barrichello retired with the same problem. After the pit stops, the positions were: Hakkinen, Coulthard, Villeneuve, R. Schumacher, Hill, M. Schumacher, Fisichella, Irvine. The positions did not change until R. Schumacher had to go for his second pit stop, rejoining in sixth position in front of Fisichella and Irvine. His team mate Hill was on a one stop strategy and kept fourth position until the end, despite M. Schumacher's attempts at reaching up with him. The German never was close enough to the Briton to attempt an attack, despite the Ferrari lapping considerably faster than the Jordan in the final stage of the race. Irvine was stuck behind Fisichella who, though being slower, never game the Irishman room to overtake him. Irvine went wide on a couple of attempts of overtaking Fisichella, then settled for eighth position. The race was won by Hakkinen, followed by team mate Coulthard who had tailed the Finn without ever trying to attack him, Villeneuve on a surprisingly good Williams, Hill who gained his first points finish this season, M. Schumacher, R. Schumacher, Fisichella and Irvine.
Today McLaren has probably put a seal on both Championships, with M. Schumacher and Ferrari, which had been considered the only serious contenders until two races ago, a fair distance away. A very good performance came from Villeneuve and from the two Jordan drivers, who benefited today from a new Evolution Mugen-Honda engine. Both Villeneuve and R. Schumacher showed that they could keep up with McLaren and if R. Schumacher had not been on a two stop strategy, he might even have tried to attack Coulthard for second position. Sadly, the newly found prowess of Williams and Jordan comes too late in the Championship and Ferrari's distinct lack of form today might have given McLaren the advantage it needs to face the next five races without too much cold sweat. If Ferrari manages to improve its performance, the Drivers Championship might still be open, but the Constructors Championship can be considered closed, thought not mathematically as yet. Next race will take place at the Hungaroring, a circuit completely different from Hockenheim and possibly better suited to Ferrari. It will be interesting to see how Williams and Jordan will perform there.
1 August 1998 Hekkinen and Coulthard will start from the front row in tomorrow's GP. Good performance of Villeneuve, starting from second row followed by the two Jordan. Both Ferrari failed to gain good position, with Championship challenger M. Schumacher only starting from 9th position, behind team mate Irvine and both Benetton.
Hakkinen McLaren 1'41"838 Coulthard McLaren 1'42"347 Villeneuve Williams 1'42"365 R. Schumacher Jordan 1'43"058 Hill Jordan 1'43"207 Irvine Ferrari 1'43"277 Wurz Benetton 1'43"341 Fisichella Benetton 1'43"369 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1'43"459
Last updated on 1 August 1998 by Federica Massagrande