30 May 1998 Irvine is happy with the new Goodyear tyres and thinks that they will make Ferrari more competitive in the next two GPs.
29 May 1998 FIA has started a legal action against the European Commision at the Luxembourg Court of Justice.
29 May 1998 William Sharp, president of the international section of Goodyear, said in an official statement that what Antonio Corsi, in charge of the Italian branch of Goodyear, has said about the relationship between Ferrari and the tyre company are his own personal opinion and not Goodyear's. Corsi has spoken without being fully aware of Goodyear's deep commitment to Ferrari's development programme. Sharp went on to praise the contribution experienced F1 drivers give to the development of better tyres by providing feedback .
28 May 1998 Antonio Corsi, representative of the Italian branch of Goodyear, said he did not mean to offend anybody when he said that M. Schumacher is very difficult to deal with and that he considers himself a god. Nonetheless, He added that Goodyear denies the accusation that tyres cause 75 percent of Ferrari's current problems. Ferrari said that they have nothing to say about Corsi's statement, while Schumacher said that he does not know Corsi and has nothing to say to him. Corsi had also said that Goodyear's decision to leave F1 at the end of this season has a lot to do with being costantly blamed by the media for Ferrari's failures and that he had already warned Montezemolo to reduce their requests. Goodyear has a contract with Ferrari until the end of next year, but they are going to break it. Corsi added that the only way for Goodyear to stay in F1 would be if Michelin joined, then it would be a three-way competition.
28 May 1998 Juergen Schrempp, president of Daimler-Benz, said that they have no intention to make M. Schumacher an offer to join McLaren-Mercedes, since they already have two excellent drivers. This statement puts an end to the recent wild speculations appeared on the German press that M. Schumacher would break its contract with Ferrari and move to McLaren.
28 May 1998 In yesterday tests the Williams improvements appear to have worked well, while Hakkinen suffered another break down (a gearbox problem this time), the third in four days.
27 May 1998 A Goodyear representative said that the decision to leave F1 is irrevocable. This season Goodyear supports five teams, as opposed to the 12 teams of two years ago, yet it is spending three times as much. The difficulty of dealing with a driver like M. Schumacher, who considers himself a god, was also mentioned.
27 May 1998 Rumour is growing that Toyota will enter F1 in the non too distant future. The president of Toyota Motor Corporation said that no decision on the matter has been made yet.
27 May 1998 Villeneuve is happy with the development of his car and expects Williams to catch up with Ferrari soon, but added that McLaren is out of reach.
26 May 1998 After the Monaco GP M. Schumacher had complained that his car was not resistent enough and said he wanted it strenghtened. Yesterday Todt replied saying that the car is OK the way it is. After other races in which he had been involved in collisions, M. Schumacher had praised his car saying that it was very strong and resistent to impact.
24 May 1998 At Montecarlo Hakkinen shot off from pole position to take the lead followed by team mate Coulthard who had started second on the grid. M. Schumacher, fourth on the grid, failed to take third position away from Fisichella and was stuck behind the Benetton driver for the first half of the race. Wurz did a good start and got fifth position in front of Frentzen. The start also saw the very first casualty of the race, Tuero, who hit the barrier and retired. The race was characterised by cars cutting the first bend of the chicane, the first to do so being Coulthard, causing people in the Benetton pits to complain. They went quiet, though, as soon as Wurz did exactly the same thing a couple of laps later. All drivers in the first six positions were on hard tyres, except from Frentzen who was on soft tyres. On lap 8 Frenzen got involved in a mild collision with Irvine, who was trying to undertake him on a bend. Frentzen hit the wall as a consequence of the collision and retired and Irvine slightly damaged his nose cone but carried on racing. On lap 13 Barrichello pitted and retired. Coulthard was out to prove that he can compete with his team mate and steadily caught up with the Finn, until his engine gave way on lap 18 and the Scot retired. All this time M. Schumacher had been pushing Fisichella trying to force him to make a mistake, but to no avail. On lap 29 R. Schumacher had a go at trying to overtake his team mate, cut the chicane to avoid a collision thus gaining a position, but then immediately let himself be overtaken again to avoid being punished for overtaking by cutting the chicane. On lap 30 M. schuamcher went for his pit stop (7.4 seconds) and rejoined behind Fisichella and Wurz. Fisichella went for a pit stop on the following lap but had problems in the pits and rejoined behind M. Schumacher in third position and Wurz, who hadn't stopped yet, in second position. Magnussen pitted and retired with suspension problems like team mate Barrichello earlier on in the race. Stewart is the only team to use multilink suspensions which do not perform well on a taxing circuit such as Monaco. On lap 37 Hakkinen had a trouble free pit stop and easily rejoined in the lead. At this point Wurz and M. Schumacher were stuck in traffic. M. Schumacher attacked Wurz and tried to overtake him on a bend, but Wurz fought back and the two collided. Wurz maintained his position but M. Schumacher overtook him on the next bend, only to have to go to the pits with a back tyre out of track. The German got out of the car to retire, but was persuaded to get back in while the mechanics changed the tyre and adjusted the tracking. M. Schumacher rejoined the race in last position three laps down from Hakkinen. Free from pressure from the Ferrari driver, Wurz pitted and rejoined behind team mate Fisichella. Soon afterwards Wurz lost control of the car in the tunnel, perhaps as a consequence of the earlier collion with M. Schumacher, hit the barrier and came out in the open without the front left tyre, heading straight for the wall. He was unhurt but his car was wrecked. Irvine found himself in third position, which he managed to maintain after the pit stop. R. schumacher hit the barrier, carried on for a couple of lap, then went into the pits and retired. Irvine almost got involved in an accident with Hill, but the English ex World Champion managed to avoid collision by going across the first bend of the chicane. Fisichella started gaining on race leader Hakkinen, who had relaxed his driving, when he hit the barrier and span, but managed to stay in the race in second position. Alesi was racing in fifth position with a good margin on Villeneuve, who ran a very non-descript race, when his gearbox gave way. With only a few laps left the Frenchman had only fifth and sixth gear left, but three laps to the end he lost all gears and had to stop. He parked his car in a rather dangerous position, got out and the disappointment and frustration were all too evident as he knelt down, took off his helmet and rubbed his face. Villenueve found himself in fifth position and Diniz in sixth. M. Schumacher had managed to overtake Tagaki, but lost his front wing on the last lap and finished last. The race was won by Hakkinen, second was Fisichella, third Irvine, fourth Salo, fifth Villeneuve and sixth Diniz. A bad day for M. Schumacher who finished last on a circuit were he considers himself strong, and for Ferrari falling further away from McLaren in the Constructors Championship despite Irvine's third place. A bad race for Prost and Stewart, with no finishers, and for Tyrrell who had to come to terms with Rossett not qualifying for the second race in a row. A very good day, on the other hand, for Arrows, whose drivers finished both in the points for the first time this season. A good result for Villeneuve too, who finished in the points without even really trying. Hakkinen's and McLaren's dominance of the Drivers and Constructors Championships seems to be total, despite Coulthard's engine problem, and it looks likely the next ten races will not give many surprises.
22 May 1998 Alesi is not happy with the way his car handles on the bends, while Minardi has suffered brakes, engine and gearbox problems. M. Schuamcher had the best time until he smashed his car trying new trajectories.
22 May 1998 Pierre Dupasquier, responsible for the racing section of Michelin, followed yesterday's tests from Prost's pits causing a reaction from Bridgestone. Hiroshi Yasukawa, Bridgestone director, sent a sarcastic message to Prost saying that he's looking forwards to fighting the competition. There had already been trouble recently when Prost hired Dupasquier's daughter as press officier for the team.
22 May 1998 Briatore's new company will be called Supertec Sports. The ex Benetton boss will manage the distribution of Mecachrome engines for two years starting from next season The engines will be produced and assembled by Renault. So far only Williams has officially said they will carry on using the V10 engines, but it is expected that Benetton and BAR will follow. Apparently there also are discussions going on with Minardi and Sauber, which is interested in cheaper engines than the Ferrari ones it is currently using.
22 May 1998 Sylvester Stallone, who is due to start filming a a new movie on F1 said that he would like to have drivers such as M. Schumacher, Villenueve or Fisichella on the set, but warned that acting is a lot more difficult than driving.
21 May 1998 Flavio Briatore will be in charge of the distribution of Mecachrome engines next year. The official announcement will be given at the end of the year. He will be backed by Renault, which will come back on the F1 scene after one year absence. The engines will be badges as "Mecachrome", with "Project Renault" added to the name. Williams will continue to be provided with Mecachrome engines, while Benetton will probably have to renegotiate the deal recently made by Dave Richards and which has not yet been signed. Rumour also is that new team BAR is prepared to pay over the odds to have the V10 engine for one year.
19 May 1998 Hakkinen said that in his opinion Ferrari is not strong enough to allow M. Schumacher fight for the championship. Ferrari, in the meantime, has denied planning to switch to Bridgestone tyres before the end of the season. Villeneuve has said that Ferrari is a team for "old drivers".
18 May 1998 A Bridgestone representative has visited the Ferrari headquarters at Maranello, seeding speculations that Ferrari might cancel their contract with Goodyear and move to Bridgestone before the end of the current season.
15 May 1998 The BMW engine Williams will use in the year 2000 will be ready and available for testing in the spring of 1999.
11 May 1998 Jean Todt said that he thinks Ferrari can still recover lost ground and catch up with McLaren.
10 May 1998 At the start of the Spanish GP Hakkinen took the lead, followed by team mate Coulthard. M. schumacher sarted from the second row but found himself behind Fisichella, who had started from second row too, and team mate Irvine, who shot to third position from the third row. Frentzen suffered damage to his car at the start and had to pit immediately for a new nose cone, effectively losing any chance of finishing in the points. With the two stop strategy being every team's preferred option, Panis was the first to pit on lap 18. On lap 21, when he lapped Frentzen, Hakkinen had a 12 seconds lead on Coulthard on the other McLaren. On lap 22 both Arrows' engines went up in smoke at the same time in the same place. Wurz, in sixth position pitted about this time, shortly followed by Irvine and Fisichella, who were battling for third position and were in the pits at the same time. M. Schumacher found himself in third position, without having yet pitted. The two Maclaren went for their first pit stop (Hakkinen first, then Coulthard) and rejoined the race in unchanged positions. M. Schumacher pitted on the same lap as Coulthard and Ferrari decided to go for a very fast pit stop, which allowed M. Schumacher to retain third position in front of team mate Irvine, but also meant that the German would have to go for the second pit stop earlier than planned. Villeneuve suffered from a repeat of the bad luck he had had in the San Marino GP and had a problem with refueling, which made him lose precious time. Fisichella had tried unsuccessfully to overtake Irvine when the Irishman had had to slow down to avoid colliding with M. Schumacher coming out of the pits. The Benetton driver tried to overtake Irvine again, went on the outside of the Ferrari and closed the door on Irvine causing a sidelong collision. Both cars span out and had to retire. Fisichella then got out of his car and started shouting at Irvine, who remained calm and refused to get involved in an argument. The collision appeared to have been more a fault of Fisichella's than Irvine's, as the Benetton driver had not allowed enough space for Irishman to manoeuvre. M. Schumacher found himself unchallanged in third position with Wurz behind, but was given a 10 seconds stop penalty for speeding in the pit lane. After serving the penalty M. Schumacher was fourth behind Wurz. Damon Hill, running in ninth position, took a detour on the dirt and then retired with engine problems on lap 48. Ferrari served M. Schumacher another very quick pit stop, which allowed him to rejoin the race ahead on Wurz in third position. With the retirement of Irvine and Fisichella, Barrichello found himself in the points for the first time this season, in fifth position, followed by Villenueve who had started rather low on the grid. The seventh position was occupied by Herbert, which had managed to stay on the race despite having suffered from a cracked exhaust very early on. A big disappointment for Prost came on lap 62 when Panis was forced to retire with blue smoke pouring out of his car. The race was won by Hakkinen, followed by Coulthard and M. Schumacher. Wurz finished in fourth position, ahead of Barrichello who brought Stewart its first two points thise season, and Villeneuve. The Spanish GP was completely dominated by McLaren, who displayed the same superiority over the other teams as they had done in the first two races of the season. Ferrari appears to have now overcome the reliability problems that have plagued it for several seasons and Benetton is definitely getting better with every GP, though it still suffers from the inexperience of its drivers. Williams, on the other hand, appears not to have solved its performance and pit stop problems.
6 May 1998 The Italian firm Dallara will take care of the aerodynamics of the new Honda F1 car. Honda will get back into F1 in 1999 with its own car.
5 May 1998 Cuba has presented a request to FIA to hold a F1 GP from the year 2000. The GP would be held at Avana.
1 May 1998 Today is the fourth anniversary of the death of Ayrton Senna. At the Imola circuit several people will remeber the driver in private initiatives. A remembrance mass is scheduled in a local church and a photographic exhibition on Senna is being held at the Tamburello until 7pm.
Last updated on 31 May 1998 by Federica Massagrande