November 1998

30 November 1998 German motosport company Zakspeed is rumoured to be in talks with Arrows for the acquisition of the British racing team.

28 November 1998 Rumours about the final form of the 1999 F1 calendar are running wild. Some sources claim that China and Malaysia are out and Portugal and Argentina are back in. Mosley himself has said that he thinks China and Malaysia will be in. Still open is the question about the San Marino GP, which is on hold until the Italian criminal law is changed to satisfy Ecclestone (following Senna's death trial). The new calendar for 1999 should be released after the next World Council in December.

27 November 1998 A new bid has been made to buy Silverstone from the British Drivers' Club. SMC Investments, a company run by property developer Colin Sullivan, wants to link the track with Brands Hatch Leisure, which owns a number of other circuits.

25 November 1998 Medical examination has shown that Tuero has damaged his third, fourth and fifth vertebrae. The driver has been put on 60 days rest and the Minardi tests in Barcelona will be carried out by Laurent Redon.

19 November 1998 Ford have denied that the Jaguar name (which they own) will enter F1 in 2001.

16 November 1998 The British Racing Drivers' Club, owner of the Silverstone circuit, has decided to sell it. Apparently they have already received an offer of 41 million ukp from ex official John Lewis. President Lord Ken Tyrrell is against the sale, saying that the circuit should be left as a legacy to the next generations of race drivers. It appears that 75 percent of the members have already agreed to the sale.

12 November 1998 Hakkinen said that he would like to extend his contract with McLaren, which is due to expire at the end of next year. The World Champion said that he considers McLaren the best best team by far and has lots of friends in it, so he can not see why he should want to leave.

8 November 1998 Mercedes has denied that they have plans to stay in F1 long term. Jurgen Hubbard of Mercedes told the German press that they intend to compete only until the year 2002. Hubbard said that Mercedes had approached M. Schumacher, but that he had asked for far too much money and had put conditions which Mercedes had found unacceptable, such as him being the only one allowed to have his say and to have his own separate commercial rights.

5 November 1998 Alesi has complained publicly that Bridgestone were supposed to present the new 99 tyres at the Suzuka testing, instead they have already started the development for McLaren and Benetton. He also warned that the Championship 99 will be decided by Bridgestone.

4 November 1998 M. Schuamcher had a good laugh at the news that and Algerian newspaper has reported that he and his brother Ralf are Algerian. He joked that now he'll be able to ask the Algerian government for a sport license, then went to lunch with Alesi who insisted on calling him Muhammad.

4 november 1998 McLaren and Benetton had both been given three types of tyre by Bridgestone to choose from for testing: one with hard compound, one with soft compound and a mixed type with hard compound (99 style) but with only three grooves (98 style). All other teams had been given only one type of tyre to test.

4 November 1998 Coulthard was still the fastest in the second day of tyre testing. The number in brackets is the number of laps:

David Coulthard (GB/McLaren-Mercedes) 1'39"61 (69) 
Michael Schumacher (Ger/Ferrari) 1'40"83 (52) 
Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita/Benetton-Mecachrome) 1'40"93 (37) 
Alexander Wurz (Aut/Benetton-Mecachrome) 1'41"15 (47) 
Ralf Schumacher (Ger/Williams-Mecachrome) 1'42"82 (27) 
Heinz Harald Frentzen (Ger/Jordan-Mugen Honda) 1'43"00 (31) 
Jarno Trulli (Ita/Prost-Peugeot) 1'43"69 (30) 
Jean Alesi(Fra/Sauber-Petronas) 1'44"23 (19) 
Rubens Barrichello (Bra/Stewart-Ford) 1'44"55 (26) 
Shinji Nakano (Jap/Minardi-Ford) 1'44"78 (14) 

3 November 1998 The first tests of the new specification four-groove tyres were carried out today at Suzuka. All teams except from Arrows took part. Coulthard got the best time of 1'41"30, over half a second better than M. Schumacher.

3 November 1998 Algerian governative daily paper El Moudjahid ran an article yesterday claiming that Michael and Ralf Schumacher's real names are Farouk and Hassan, that their real father was Algerian and that the two drivers were born in Algeria. When they were still very young their mother Elisabeth moved to Germany with young Farouk. After his Algerian father died, Farouk changed his name to Michael.

2 November 1998 Since the rules for tyres have been changed for next year (a fourth groove in the front tyres), Bridgestone has managed to convince FIA to lift the ban to test tyres in the month immediately following the last GP of the F1 season. All teams will be testing the new tyres except from Arrows.

2 November 1998 With yesterday's win McLaren has overtaken Ferrari in the number of Driver Championships won, ten versus nine. Both teams now hold eight Constructor Champiosnhips.

2 November 1998 World Champion Mika Hakkinen said that he intends to retain the title next season.

2 November 1998 Umberto Agnelli said that he does not think that M. Schumacher made a mistake when he stalled his engine, but said that he should consider going to Lourdes to be blessed next year.

1 November 1998 The decisive GP of the season had a dramatic start. Trulli stalled his engine at the start and forced a restart, with the Italian repositioned at the back of the grid as for regulation. After the second formation lap it was M. Schumacher's turn to raise his hand indicating that his engine had stalled after an electrical problem. The German had to start from the back of the grid, behind Trulli, and it seemed at that point that the title had already been decided by luck (or lack of it) before the race had even started. When the lights went off Hakkinen took the lead, but Irvine managed to put himself in front of Coulthard and started chasing the Finn. Frentzen too had managed to get in front of Coulthard, who was in fourth position. Fifth and sixth position were occupied by Villeneuve and Hill. At the back of the grid M. Schumacher shot across the field as the race started, passing in between Trulli and Tuero and by the end of the first lap he had moved up to 12th position. The Ferrari driver kept on his pace overtaking all the cars in front until he got stuck in seventh position behind Hill, who was battling with Villeneuve for fifth position. An unconfirmed rumour has it that Hill was told by Jordan several times to let M. Schumacher pass, but ignored the order. In the meantime Hakkinen was building up a good advantage over Irvine, while Coulthard had become stuck behind Frentzen, unable to overtake despite his car being clearly faster than the Williams. On lap 14 Hill went for his first pit stop, giving way to M. Schumacher who immediately overtook Villeneuve and started chasing Coulthard. At the same time as Hill went to the pits, his team mate R. Schumacher suffered a blown engine, parked his car on the side and rapidly got out of the cockpit as flames started engulfing the engine. Most cars went to the first pit stop at this stage, including Irvine and the two Benetton. M. Schumacher pitted on lap 16 (6.8 seconds) and rejoined in seventh position. Hakkinen pitted on lap 18 (7.3 seconds) and easily rejoined in the lead, Irvine being very far behind. M. Schumacher started pushing his car very hard and making small mistakes, such as cutting a chicane, after Coulthard pitted on lap 23 (7.8 seconds) leaving him in third position. On lap 31 Tuero tried to overtake Tagaki, miscalculated and hit the Japanese's car, taking both out. Takagi displeasure at being forced out of his home GP was clear as he went to have a word with Tuero. On lap 32 M. Schumacher hit the debris left on the track by the collision and one of his back tyres burst, forcing him out of the race and of the Championship. The race for the position points was still open and Villeneuve and Hill pitted at the same time, with the Jordan driver managing to come out first and starting to chase Frentzen. On lap 42 Nakano retired, so that both Japanese drivers did not finish their home GP. After Hakkinen crossed the line to win the race and the Championship, Hill managed to overtake Frentzen taking fourth position a few metres before the finishing line and putting Jordan in front of Benetton in the Constructors Championship. Irvine finished second and Coulthard third.

The 1998 Driver Championship was decided more by luck than by anything else, as Hakkinen's lead in the final race was never challenged and his title rival had started too far down the grid to cause him any trouble. On the other hand Hakkinen had fully deserved to win the Championship by driving well and regularly throughout the whole season. Both Hakkinen and M. Schumacher could count on the full help of their team mates Coulthard and Irvine and the 1998 F1 season can be said to have characterised by well orchestrated team play on both McLaren and Ferrari's side. M. Schumacher's failure to win was summarise by Ferrari's president Luca Montezemolo who told a reporter "The dream is finished" shortly after the German had retired. M. Schumacher did not appear bitter as he went back to the pit to thank his team for the great job they had done and to tell them that it is time to start looking at the future. Sadly, this is exactly what he had already said last year.

The Constructors Championship had really been won by McLaren before the race, as they started the Japanese GP missing just one point to have the mathematical certainty of being Constructor champions. Williams finished third in the Constructor Championship despite a lacklustre performance from both its drivers, who acted more as blocks from faster drivers than anything else. Despite R. Schumacher's engine failure, Jordan finished the season on a high by overtaking Benetton in the Championship table in the last few seconds of competition. Suzuka also was the last race ever for Tyrrell, which sadly finished the season without having scored any points and without even the satisfaction of seeing its only qualified driver (Rosset did not qualify after suffering from neck and spine complaints) finish the race.

1 November 1998 The Japanese GP finishing times:

        1. Mika Hakkinen (Fin) McLaren 1h 27' 22"535 (average speed 205.229 km/h) 
        2. Eddie Irvine (Irl) Ferrari 6"491 
        3. David Coulthard (Gb) McLaren 27".662 
        4. Damon Hill (Gb) Jordan 1'13"491 
        5. Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Ger) Williams 1'13"857 
        6. Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Williams 1'15"867 
        7. Jean Alesi (Fra) Sauber 1'36"053 
        8. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Benetton 1'41"301 
        9. Alexander Wurz (Aut) Benetton  1 lap 
        10. Johnny Herbert (Gb) Sauber 1 lap 
        11. Olivier Panis (Fra) Prost 1 lap 
        12. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Prost 3 laps 

        Did not finish:
        13. Shinji Nakano (Jap) Minardi 40° lap 
        14. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 31° lap 
        15. Toranosuke Takagi (Jap) Tyrrell 28° lap 
        16. Esteban Tuero (Arg) Minardi 28° lap 
        17. Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Stewart 25° lap 
        18. Jos Verstappen (Hol) Stewart 21° lap 
        19. Mika Salo (Fin) Arrows 14° lap 
        20. Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Jordan 13° lap 
        21. Pedro Diniz (Bra) Arrows 2° lap 

        Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher 1'40"190 (average speed 210.703 km/h)

Last updated on 30 November 1998 by Federica Massagrande