This is awesome reading.
I didn't really understand how you do this. You actually do the races on F1 challenge for this?
Rider of the Carpathians – Heroes of the Hungaroring
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – Monaco
Yup, I'm driving as Kovacshazi, I take notes during the events, then watch the race replay. I take notes to add some flavor stories and I also make a cross-reference the events with historical news so I can follow what moved things around in the paddock back then. I try to keep the events to close to realistic without making the career predetermined.
Which reminds me, I forgot to show you the Larrousse LH-95, here it is:
They returned to the more historical blue-yellow-red livery.
As the team was running low on cash, they basically updated the LH94 (which was an upgraded LH93) to the '95 rules. There are some changes though. The front wing and the nosecone is new, and it is a pretty effective design, and the back of the car was also heavily reworked. Still, it's basically a two-years-old design which means it's overweight and aerodynamically ineffective. Gerard Larrousse managed to muster enough support to buy 24 '94 spec Peugeot engines, and they were homemade reworked to meet the 1995 regulations, which made the engine strong, but unreliable, especially that it is connected to a gearbox originally designed for a Ford powerplant. The upsides of the car are that it is otherwise very reliable, and the front end is very innovative and produces more downforce than its immediate rivals, Forti, Simtek and Minardi.
All in all, the car car is very difficult to drive, it seems unreliable and the team's sole goal with it could be to somehow survive until the next season.
Which reminds me, I forgot to show you the Larrousse LH-95, here it is:
They returned to the more historical blue-yellow-red livery.
As the team was running low on cash, they basically updated the LH94 (which was an upgraded LH93) to the '95 rules. There are some changes though. The front wing and the nosecone is new, and it is a pretty effective design, and the back of the car was also heavily reworked. Still, it's basically a two-years-old design which means it's overweight and aerodynamically ineffective. Gerard Larrousse managed to muster enough support to buy 24 '94 spec Peugeot engines, and they were homemade reworked to meet the 1995 regulations, which made the engine strong, but unreliable, especially that it is connected to a gearbox originally designed for a Ford powerplant. The upsides of the car are that it is otherwise very reliable, and the front end is very innovative and produces more downforce than its immediate rivals, Forti, Simtek and Minardi.
All in all, the car car is very difficult to drive, it seems unreliable and the team's sole goal with it could be to somehow survive until the next season.
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – Monaco
Ok thanks. I recall a safety car in at least one of your races. I didn't think this was possible in f1c. Also how come you can run in the back or as a midfielder if you chose to run a slower/weaker car? I remember years ago when I was playing f1c you could win the championship even with a minardi or some other backmarker team. Is there something you need to tweak or it's the difficulty settings?
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – Monaco
The SC thing is one of what I call the liberty of the writer. In that particular case the road was blocked by the wrecked car and the cars stopped behind it (miraculously nobody broke a wing there) so I called it a Safety Car period 
Running as a backmaker is kind of tricky. There are mod which are way too easy to win, others are harder. Currently I'm playing David Marques' mods, they are neatly balanced to each other. I run with 120% AI strength and 100% aggressiveness. I also edited a bit the drivers performance so I can find a good challenge. But I already tried out CK's 1996 mod, 120% AI is about 4 seconds faster than me in that, so I'll have to find a new balance for the next season.
Running as a backmaker is kind of tricky. There are mod which are way too easy to win, others are harder. Currently I'm playing David Marques' mods, they are neatly balanced to each other. I run with 120% AI strength and 100% aggressiveness. I also edited a bit the drivers performance so I can find a good challenge. But I already tried out CK's 1996 mod, 120% AI is about 4 seconds faster than me in that, so I'll have to find a new balance for the next season.
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – Monaco
OK I see. Waiting for your next posts.
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – Canadian GP: Crises in Canada
Round 6 - Canadian Grand Prix:
Crises in Canada
As the other F1 teams were packing up to leave Monaco, SImtek boss Nick Wirth was having crisis meetings to decide the future of the team. If he cannot get the backing of a couple of potential sponsors Wirth was threatening to shut the team down, rather than continuing to mount up debts.
"At the moment I am not able to confirm whether or not we will be travelling to Montreal," said Wirth in Monaco. In the end, they didn’t, but they continued to negotiate with sponsors and possible new investors to increase their involvement with the team, but MTV, Russell Athletic and Korean Air would not commit themselves unless the team has a solid base on which to build.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone helped the team by not fining the team for missing the Canadian race. He has agreed that the team entered the championship to compete in 16 races and is being asked to do 17 instead.
Simtek wasn’t the only one not going to Montreal however. Karl Wendlinger, after many unsuccessful attempts to pick up the pace with Frentzen, was ditched by Sauber for William’s test driver Jean-Christophe Boullion.
Canada was the scene of the opening of 1996’s silly season. As none of the top drivers had confirmed deals for 1996, teams begun to maneuver to get the top men. Schumacher was rumored to take almost half the budget of the Benetton team and although Flavio Briatore was trying to do anything possible to keep him, it might be that Michael's financial demands would be beyond Flavio's means. There also have been rumors that Ferrari was chasing after the German and are offering vast sums of money. The only complication could be that Schumacher and Berger would unlikely want to work together, so Ferrari boss Jean Todt would have to decide if he wants a Schumacher-Alesi partnership. McLaren wanted Schumacher too and as Marlboro is paying the driver bills for both McLaren and Ferrari, Michael's bargaining position could be considerably weakened unless there is someone else willing to pay the kind of money he is asking. Williams would like to have Schumacher of course, but Frank is not likely to pay Michael's asking price when he has Damon Hill, David Coulthard and a very competitive car.
Berger said on Friday that he had three offers for 1996 including Ferrari and McLaren but he would probably want to capitalize on the hard work he has been doing at Maranello in the last three years.
McLaren already tried to sing Coulthard in last year and they said to have a pre-contract, but the current package on offer at Woking is none too spectacular. Other men on Ron Dennis's shopping list are Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Merse Kovacshazi who are also being watched closely by Williams.
With all the news and rumors in the paddock, it almost went unnoticed as Hill took pole in the last minute with just 0.006 seconds from Schumacher. The surprise of the event was Kovacshazi, who was 6th and 4th on Friday, had to sit out Saturday morning with an engine problem, but qualified 6th, ahead of Berger.
Canadian GP – Starting grid:
1. Hill - Williams
2. Schumacher - Benetton
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Herbert - Benetton
5. Alesi - Ferrari
6. Kovacshazi - Pacific
7. Berger - Ferrari
8. Irvine - Jordan
9. Gachot - Jordan
10. Hakkinen - McLaren
11. Blundell - McLaren
12. Frentzen - Sauber
13. Panis - Ligier
14. Brundle - Ligier
15. Gounon - Pacific
16. Boullion - Sauber
17. Salo - Tyrrell
18. Morbidelli - Footwork
19. Badoer - Minardi
20. Katayama - Tyrrell
21. Martini - Minardi
22. Inoue - Footwork
23. Montermini - Forti
24. Bernard - Larrousse
25. Bouchut - Larrousse
26. Moreno - Forti
Schumacher took the lead form Hill in the first corner and steadily extended the gap. Kovacshazi had a good start and managed to pass Alesi, but the Frenchman soon took back his place, and started to chase off Herbert.
After the 10 laps Schumacher already had a comfortable lead ahead of Hill who seemed to struggle with his Williams and eventually allowed Coulthard to go after the Benetton. Herbert had a hard time keeping Alesi behind, while his Ferrari team-mate tired to pass Kovacshazi.
The battle for 5th place wore down the Pacific’s tires but that was a calculate risk. Kovacshazi arrived to his first pitstop in lap 21, and as the rest of the field was running on a one stop strategy, he could be almost a second faster per lap than Berger in the next few laps.
In lap 26 Hill’s Renault engine blew up and he registered his fourth retirement in six races. Last season it took him till Hungary to register that many DNFs. To make things worse, he was soon joined by his team-mate, who stopped among alarmingly similar conditions. Hakkinen retired too from 7th place in lap 34 with a suspension failure.
After the first stops Schumacher has a more than 20 seconds lead ahead of Alesi, who leapfrogged Herbert in the pits. Kovacshazi was 4th, way behind the #2 Benetton, but more than 10 seconds ahead of Berger which meant a chance to chase down the Ferrari after his second planned stop. Gachot was 6th, but he was hunted from close by Gounon and Blundell.
In lap 37 Kovacshazi’s Ilmor engine blew in the straight before the hairpin, which meant that everyone stepped one place forward. In Gounon’s case, that meant two because he used the smoke covering the straight to overtake Gachot before the temporary chicane.
The order didn’t change from there until lap 64, when Schumacher having a 44 seconds gap ahead of Alesi and almost a minute ahead of Herbert suddenly slowed down drastically and limped back into the pits, where the mechanics spent good 50 seconds meddling in his cockpit before he was sent back to the track.
Jean Alesi found himself in the lead, uncontested, and out of nowhere, he scored his first victory on his 92th grand prix and his 31st birthday. He excitedly yelled into the team radio for several seconds. Schumacher finished second after overtaking his team-mate in the last lap. Berger finished 4th, and the Jordan duo of Gachot and Irvine profited from Gounon’s blowing engine in lap 64. The bitter Frenchman had been classified 10th. Newcomer Jean-Christophe Boullion silently finished 7th, only a couple of seconds behind Irvine.
Canadian Grand Prix – Final Results:
1. Jean Alesi – Ferrari 1:42:19.372
2. Michael Schumacher – Benetton-Reanult +0:11.299
3. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Reanult +0:13.534
4. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari +0:59.328
5. Bertrand Gachot – Jordan-Peugeot +1 lap
6. Eddie Irvine – Jordan-Peugeot +1 lap
7. Jean-Christophe Boullion – Sauber-Ford +1 lap
8. Gianni Morbidelli – Footwork-Hart +2 laps
9. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +2 laps
10. Jean-Marc Gounon – Pacific-Ilmor +3 laps
11. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +4 laps
12. Andrea Montermini – Footwork-Ford +4 laps
13. Eric Bernard – Larrousse-Peugeot +6 laps
DNF: Panis (L57), Badoer (L43), Blundell (L38), Kovacshazi (L37), Hakkinen (L34), Coulthard (L31), Frentzen (L29), Hill (L26), Inue (L23), Brundle (L21), Moreno (L5), Bounchut (L3), Katayama (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 6
1. Schumacher 44 (-)
2. Alesi 22 (+2)
3. Herbert 20 (-1)
4. Berger 16 (-1)
5. Hill 11 (-)
6. Coulthard 9 (-)
7. Gachot 8 (+1)
8. Hakkinen 7 (-1)
9. Frentzen 5 (-)
10. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
11. Suzuki 3 (-)
12. Irvine 3 (+1)
13. Salo 2 (-1)
14. Wendlinger 1 (-)
15. Blundell 1 (-)
Constructors Championship – after Round 6
1. Benetton 64 (-)
2. Ferrari 38 (-)
3. Williams 20 (-)
4. Jordan 11 (-)
5. McLaren 8 (-)
6. Sauber 6 (-)
7. Pacific 4 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
Hill was very upset of course and Williams team held an emergency meeting after the race to solve their reliability issues.
NOTE: For those who are interested: Gounon's engine blew in the chicane and blocked the way. As AI cars are very bad at avoiding obstacles on the track Schumacher rammed the Pacific and lost his front wing and was stuck behind it until Gounon was warped back to the pits. That's how Schumy lost almost a minute and I'm pretty happy that it happened in Canada and with Alesi in 2nd place
Crises in Canada
Hill wrote:“We need changes fast!”
As the other F1 teams were packing up to leave Monaco, SImtek boss Nick Wirth was having crisis meetings to decide the future of the team. If he cannot get the backing of a couple of potential sponsors Wirth was threatening to shut the team down, rather than continuing to mount up debts.
"At the moment I am not able to confirm whether or not we will be travelling to Montreal," said Wirth in Monaco. In the end, they didn’t, but they continued to negotiate with sponsors and possible new investors to increase their involvement with the team, but MTV, Russell Athletic and Korean Air would not commit themselves unless the team has a solid base on which to build.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone helped the team by not fining the team for missing the Canadian race. He has agreed that the team entered the championship to compete in 16 races and is being asked to do 17 instead.
Simtek wasn’t the only one not going to Montreal however. Karl Wendlinger, after many unsuccessful attempts to pick up the pace with Frentzen, was ditched by Sauber for William’s test driver Jean-Christophe Boullion.
Canada was the scene of the opening of 1996’s silly season. As none of the top drivers had confirmed deals for 1996, teams begun to maneuver to get the top men. Schumacher was rumored to take almost half the budget of the Benetton team and although Flavio Briatore was trying to do anything possible to keep him, it might be that Michael's financial demands would be beyond Flavio's means. There also have been rumors that Ferrari was chasing after the German and are offering vast sums of money. The only complication could be that Schumacher and Berger would unlikely want to work together, so Ferrari boss Jean Todt would have to decide if he wants a Schumacher-Alesi partnership. McLaren wanted Schumacher too and as Marlboro is paying the driver bills for both McLaren and Ferrari, Michael's bargaining position could be considerably weakened unless there is someone else willing to pay the kind of money he is asking. Williams would like to have Schumacher of course, but Frank is not likely to pay Michael's asking price when he has Damon Hill, David Coulthard and a very competitive car.
Berger said on Friday that he had three offers for 1996 including Ferrari and McLaren but he would probably want to capitalize on the hard work he has been doing at Maranello in the last three years.
McLaren already tried to sing Coulthard in last year and they said to have a pre-contract, but the current package on offer at Woking is none too spectacular. Other men on Ron Dennis's shopping list are Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Merse Kovacshazi who are also being watched closely by Williams.
With all the news and rumors in the paddock, it almost went unnoticed as Hill took pole in the last minute with just 0.006 seconds from Schumacher. The surprise of the event was Kovacshazi, who was 6th and 4th on Friday, had to sit out Saturday morning with an engine problem, but qualified 6th, ahead of Berger.
Canadian GP – Starting grid:
1. Hill - Williams
2. Schumacher - Benetton
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Herbert - Benetton
5. Alesi - Ferrari
6. Kovacshazi - Pacific
7. Berger - Ferrari
8. Irvine - Jordan
9. Gachot - Jordan
10. Hakkinen - McLaren
11. Blundell - McLaren
12. Frentzen - Sauber
13. Panis - Ligier
14. Brundle - Ligier
15. Gounon - Pacific
16. Boullion - Sauber
17. Salo - Tyrrell
18. Morbidelli - Footwork
19. Badoer - Minardi
20. Katayama - Tyrrell
21. Martini - Minardi
22. Inoue - Footwork
23. Montermini - Forti
24. Bernard - Larrousse
25. Bouchut - Larrousse
26. Moreno - Forti
Schumacher took the lead form Hill in the first corner and steadily extended the gap. Kovacshazi had a good start and managed to pass Alesi, but the Frenchman soon took back his place, and started to chase off Herbert.
After the 10 laps Schumacher already had a comfortable lead ahead of Hill who seemed to struggle with his Williams and eventually allowed Coulthard to go after the Benetton. Herbert had a hard time keeping Alesi behind, while his Ferrari team-mate tired to pass Kovacshazi.
The battle for 5th place wore down the Pacific’s tires but that was a calculate risk. Kovacshazi arrived to his first pitstop in lap 21, and as the rest of the field was running on a one stop strategy, he could be almost a second faster per lap than Berger in the next few laps.
In lap 26 Hill’s Renault engine blew up and he registered his fourth retirement in six races. Last season it took him till Hungary to register that many DNFs. To make things worse, he was soon joined by his team-mate, who stopped among alarmingly similar conditions. Hakkinen retired too from 7th place in lap 34 with a suspension failure.
After the first stops Schumacher has a more than 20 seconds lead ahead of Alesi, who leapfrogged Herbert in the pits. Kovacshazi was 4th, way behind the #2 Benetton, but more than 10 seconds ahead of Berger which meant a chance to chase down the Ferrari after his second planned stop. Gachot was 6th, but he was hunted from close by Gounon and Blundell.
In lap 37 Kovacshazi’s Ilmor engine blew in the straight before the hairpin, which meant that everyone stepped one place forward. In Gounon’s case, that meant two because he used the smoke covering the straight to overtake Gachot before the temporary chicane.
The order didn’t change from there until lap 64, when Schumacher having a 44 seconds gap ahead of Alesi and almost a minute ahead of Herbert suddenly slowed down drastically and limped back into the pits, where the mechanics spent good 50 seconds meddling in his cockpit before he was sent back to the track.
Jean Alesi found himself in the lead, uncontested, and out of nowhere, he scored his first victory on his 92th grand prix and his 31st birthday. He excitedly yelled into the team radio for several seconds. Schumacher finished second after overtaking his team-mate in the last lap. Berger finished 4th, and the Jordan duo of Gachot and Irvine profited from Gounon’s blowing engine in lap 64. The bitter Frenchman had been classified 10th. Newcomer Jean-Christophe Boullion silently finished 7th, only a couple of seconds behind Irvine.
Canadian Grand Prix – Final Results:
1. Jean Alesi – Ferrari 1:42:19.372
2. Michael Schumacher – Benetton-Reanult +0:11.299
3. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Reanult +0:13.534
4. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari +0:59.328
5. Bertrand Gachot – Jordan-Peugeot +1 lap
6. Eddie Irvine – Jordan-Peugeot +1 lap
7. Jean-Christophe Boullion – Sauber-Ford +1 lap
8. Gianni Morbidelli – Footwork-Hart +2 laps
9. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +2 laps
10. Jean-Marc Gounon – Pacific-Ilmor +3 laps
11. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +4 laps
12. Andrea Montermini – Footwork-Ford +4 laps
13. Eric Bernard – Larrousse-Peugeot +6 laps
DNF: Panis (L57), Badoer (L43), Blundell (L38), Kovacshazi (L37), Hakkinen (L34), Coulthard (L31), Frentzen (L29), Hill (L26), Inue (L23), Brundle (L21), Moreno (L5), Bounchut (L3), Katayama (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 6
1. Schumacher 44 (-)
2. Alesi 22 (+2)
3. Herbert 20 (-1)
4. Berger 16 (-1)
5. Hill 11 (-)
6. Coulthard 9 (-)
7. Gachot 8 (+1)
8. Hakkinen 7 (-1)
9. Frentzen 5 (-)
10. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
11. Suzuki 3 (-)
12. Irvine 3 (+1)
13. Salo 2 (-1)
14. Wendlinger 1 (-)
15. Blundell 1 (-)
Constructors Championship – after Round 6
1. Benetton 64 (-)
2. Ferrari 38 (-)
3. Williams 20 (-)
4. Jordan 11 (-)
5. McLaren 8 (-)
6. Sauber 6 (-)
7. Pacific 4 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
Race commentaries wrote:Jean Alesi (1st): “I can’t find words, I am so happy! My start wasn’t good, but I managed to pass Kovacshazi, then Herbert. I was lucky with the retirements of course, and Michael’s difficulties were needed to di it, but I’m here, and that’s all what matters!”
Michael Schumacher (2nd): “First of all, I’m glad to see Jean win, he’s a great guy and a very fast driver and I congratulate him for his first victory. I had a good race, we were the fastest and we finished while our rivals didn’t so all in all it was a good race for us.”
Johnny Herbert (3rd): “I’m satisfied with today’s result. My car wasn’t as fast as I was hoping to, but we had the reliability when others didn’t and that’s a big satisfaction. Next time I hope we gonna fight for the victory.”
Damon Hill (DNF): “This can’t go on! We’re fast on every race, then we have some mechanical failure and we retire. This championship is slipping out of our hands very fast…”
Jean-Marc Gounon (DNF): “I have mixed feelings after this race. I finally felt good in the car and I was competitive. Too bad my engine blew up, but I think we can build on this in the future, and if we solve our reliability issues we’ll be steadily in the points.”
Merse Kovacshazi (DNF): “What to say? We were fast again, were in good position, lost it because of an engine failure. McLaren had 3 engine problems so far, we had 10. We must find what the problem is.”
Hill was very upset of course and Williams team held an emergency meeting after the race to solve their reliability issues.
NOTE: For those who are interested: Gounon's engine blew in the chicane and blocked the way. As AI cars are very bad at avoiding obstacles on the track Schumacher rammed the Pacific and lost his front wing and was stuck behind it until Gounon was warped back to the pits. That's how Schumy lost almost a minute and I'm pretty happy that it happened in Canada and with Alesi in 2nd place
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – France
Round 7 - French Grand Prix:
Boring, business as usual
There were several topics to talk about in France. Simtek’s going into voluntary liquidation and retirement from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship was one of them. The small team had a rough season last year, and being overshadowed by fellow debutant Pacific made their situation even harder. Newspapers pointed out that Simtek was the ninth F1 team to close down in the last four years, following in the footsteps of AGS, Coloni, Lamborghini F1, Andrea Moda, March, Brabham, Fondmetal, Scuderia Italia and Lotus.
Williams held an emergency meeting with Renault after the Canadian GP. Having the worst season start since 1988, there were many topics to discuss. The result of the meeting was the new version of the RS7 engine which was promised to be more reliable. The timing was not entirely random, Renault usually brings a special engine to its home Grand Prix.
Meanwhile McLaren was looking for someone to replace Nigel Mansell and while Mark Blundell was doing a competent job he did not have the kind of profile required to keep Marlboro happy. The main candidates were rising stars Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Merse Kovacshazi. However, although Frentzen's Sauber contract included a buyout clause but in order for him to get out of the contract the agreement of both Sauber and Ford would be required, and Kovacshazi’s had no clause which would let him leave Pacific other than being fired, which the team obviously wouldn’t do. “I wasn’t officially approached yet” Kovacshazi said in Nevers “but I understand it would be a contract only for this year and I won’t walk away from Pacific just to have to look for a new team in a few months.”
The Hungarian had a rough weekend by the way. On Friday he was suffering from electrical gremlins, and overheating, then he fought harder than he should have with old buddy Gachot which ended witha Jordan in the gravel. Both drivers were warned. Then, on Saturday morning Schumacher tried an unreasonably optimistic maneuver on him in the Imola corner. The collision wore down both cars. Schumacher later claimed that he had brake problems but Kovacshazi didn’t buy it and used harsh words about what he thinks about Michael’s on-track behavior.
Minardi had an unpleasant affair with French bailiffs sent by Flavio Briatore. Benetton’s first man claimed that the team owed his company $3.15 million for a supply of engines he arranged. The dispute dated back to a deal struck in September 1992 between Minardi, Cosworth and Briatore’s company about that Minardi would use 15 Ford HB V8 engines in 1993 and 1994. The engines were not competitive, and Minardi made deal with Cosworth for a direct supply of engines for 1994. Minardi said that it was agreed that the 1994 part of the contract would be terminated and a payment schedule was arranged to pay off the debts for the 1993 supply. They paid a part of it, then stopped, when it became clear that Briatore was going to have to pay them damages for convincing Mugen Honda to break a contract with Minardi for 1995 and supply Ligier instead. In November last year Briatore telephoned Minardi and offered the team $1.5m to cancel the Mugen Honda deal. Minardi refused the offer and has started a lawsuit against Briatore, claiming "wrongful interference" by him in the deal. The lawyers of Briatore’s company said that the case would be dropped if Minardi withdrew all his law suits against Flavio. Minardi refused and told that he was willing to pay the money outstanding from the 1993 debt but arguing that the 1994 part of the contract is not applicable as the engines were never supplied and that a release from the contract was agreed.
With so much things going on in the paddock, there was little focus on the qualifying when Renault engine cars dominated, beating everyone else by at least a second. Schumacher, Hill, Coulthard and Herbert were followed by Alesi, Berger, Irvine, Hakkinen and Gachot. Ligier’s usual shining in Magny-Cours was hindered by Panis’ engine problems and Brundle’s weight infringement which meant they had to start 12th and 26th.
French Grand Prix – Starting grid
1. Schumacher – Benetton
2. Hill - Williams
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Herbert - Benetton
5. Alesi - Ferrari
6. Berger - Ferrari
7. Irvine - Jordan
8. Hakkinen - McLaren
9. Gachot - Jordan
10. Blundell - McLaren
11. Kovacshazi - Pacific
12. Panis - Ligier
13. Frentzen - Sauber
14. Boullion - Sauber
15. Salo - Tyrrell
16. Gounon - Pacific
17. Morbidelli - Footwork
18. Katayama - Tyrrell
19. Badoer - Minardi
20. Martini - Minardi
21. Montermin - Forti
22. Inoue - Footwork
23. Bernard - Larrousse
24. Bouchut - Larrousse
25. Moreno - Forti
26. Brundle – Ligier
As boring races go, the 1995 French Grand Prix was up there with the best of them. Magny-Cours is famous for producing no overtaking races. Normally what happens is that everyone goes crazy on the first lap and then settles down to a long boring race. And that’s exactly what happened. At the start Herbert and Coulthard switched places and Kovacshazi stepped up 9th ahead of Gachot and Blundell. And basically the race was over. The number-crunchers in the team trucks came up with the information that two pit stops were needed - because of tyre wear - and so even the strategic element was gone.
Gounon’s home GP lasted for only a couple of meters when his electrical system went down. Inoue soon joined him after he spun in the Adelaide corner. The first major loss was Gachot who suffered a suspension failure just before his pitstop. Kovacshazi climbed up to 5th place, ahead of Berger thanks to his longer first stint and to the fact that his rivals were stuck behind slower cars after they stopped. But the Hungarian’s race ended prematurely as well, with yet another engine failure.
The most important event was in lap 41. Hill, still in 2nd, behind Schumacher and ahead of Herbert was about to give Eddie Irvine his second lap. But as he passed the Ulsterman’s front right suspension fell apart and the Jordan uncontrollably crashed into the Williams.
With Hill out of the picture, Schumacher comfortably won the race. The dominance of Benetton was fulfilled by Herbert’s second place, while Coulthard salvaged a podium finish but that didn’t help the fact that Williams was now more than 50 points behind Benetton in the constructor’s championship. Alesi finished 4th, followed by Hakkinen and Blundell who stepped one place forward after Berger retired with a failing gearbox with just 5 laps to go.
French Grand Prix – Final Results
1. Michael Schumacer – Benetton-Renault 1:34:23.999
2. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Renault +0:08.533
3. David Coulthard – Williams-Renault +0:13.426
4. Jean Alesi – Ferrari +0:29.960
5. Mika Hakkinen – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
6. Mark Blundell – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
7. Olivier Panis – Liger-Mugen-Honda +2 laps
8. Jean-Christophe Boullion – Sauber-Ford +3 laps
9. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +4 laps
10. Luca Badoer – Minardi-Ford +4 laps
11. Gerhard Berger - Ferrari +5 laps
12. Ukyo Katayama – Tyrrell-Yamaha +5 laps
13. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +6 laps
DNF: Morbidelli (L57), Hill (L41), Irvine (L39), Brundle (L38), Kovacshazi (L28), Bouchut (L25), Gachot (L22), Bernard (L13), Frentzen (L12), Montermini (L9), Moreno (L3), Inoue (L1), Gounon (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 7
1. Schumacher 54 (-)
2. Herbert 26 (+1)
3. Alesi 25 (-)
4. Herbert 20 (-)
5. Berger 16 (-)
6. Coulthard 13 (+1)
7. Hill 11 (-)
8. Hakkinen 9 (+1)
9. Gachot 8 (-1)
10. Frentzen 5 (-)
11. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
12. Suzuki 3 (-)
13. Irvine 3 (-)
14. Salo 2 (-)
15. Blundell 2 (+1)
16. Wendlinger 1 (-1)
Constructors Championship – after Round 7
1. Benetton 80 (-)
2. Ferrari 41 (-)
3. Williams 24 (-)
4. Jordan 11 (-)
5. McLaren 11 (-)
6. Sauber 6 (-)
7. Pacific 4 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
Boring, business as usual
BBC wrote:Murray Walker: “We're talking all about what happened earlier this weekend, and please forigve us but it's so much more exciting than the race!”
Jonathan Palmer: "Well, let's face it Murray, there are few things that are less interesting than this race."
There were several topics to talk about in France. Simtek’s going into voluntary liquidation and retirement from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship was one of them. The small team had a rough season last year, and being overshadowed by fellow debutant Pacific made their situation even harder. Newspapers pointed out that Simtek was the ninth F1 team to close down in the last four years, following in the footsteps of AGS, Coloni, Lamborghini F1, Andrea Moda, March, Brabham, Fondmetal, Scuderia Italia and Lotus.
Williams held an emergency meeting with Renault after the Canadian GP. Having the worst season start since 1988, there were many topics to discuss. The result of the meeting was the new version of the RS7 engine which was promised to be more reliable. The timing was not entirely random, Renault usually brings a special engine to its home Grand Prix.
Meanwhile McLaren was looking for someone to replace Nigel Mansell and while Mark Blundell was doing a competent job he did not have the kind of profile required to keep Marlboro happy. The main candidates were rising stars Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Merse Kovacshazi. However, although Frentzen's Sauber contract included a buyout clause but in order for him to get out of the contract the agreement of both Sauber and Ford would be required, and Kovacshazi’s had no clause which would let him leave Pacific other than being fired, which the team obviously wouldn’t do. “I wasn’t officially approached yet” Kovacshazi said in Nevers “but I understand it would be a contract only for this year and I won’t walk away from Pacific just to have to look for a new team in a few months.”
The Hungarian had a rough weekend by the way. On Friday he was suffering from electrical gremlins, and overheating, then he fought harder than he should have with old buddy Gachot which ended witha Jordan in the gravel. Both drivers were warned. Then, on Saturday morning Schumacher tried an unreasonably optimistic maneuver on him in the Imola corner. The collision wore down both cars. Schumacher later claimed that he had brake problems but Kovacshazi didn’t buy it and used harsh words about what he thinks about Michael’s on-track behavior.
Minardi had an unpleasant affair with French bailiffs sent by Flavio Briatore. Benetton’s first man claimed that the team owed his company $3.15 million for a supply of engines he arranged. The dispute dated back to a deal struck in September 1992 between Minardi, Cosworth and Briatore’s company about that Minardi would use 15 Ford HB V8 engines in 1993 and 1994. The engines were not competitive, and Minardi made deal with Cosworth for a direct supply of engines for 1994. Minardi said that it was agreed that the 1994 part of the contract would be terminated and a payment schedule was arranged to pay off the debts for the 1993 supply. They paid a part of it, then stopped, when it became clear that Briatore was going to have to pay them damages for convincing Mugen Honda to break a contract with Minardi for 1995 and supply Ligier instead. In November last year Briatore telephoned Minardi and offered the team $1.5m to cancel the Mugen Honda deal. Minardi refused the offer and has started a lawsuit against Briatore, claiming "wrongful interference" by him in the deal. The lawyers of Briatore’s company said that the case would be dropped if Minardi withdrew all his law suits against Flavio. Minardi refused and told that he was willing to pay the money outstanding from the 1993 debt but arguing that the 1994 part of the contract is not applicable as the engines were never supplied and that a release from the contract was agreed.
With so much things going on in the paddock, there was little focus on the qualifying when Renault engine cars dominated, beating everyone else by at least a second. Schumacher, Hill, Coulthard and Herbert were followed by Alesi, Berger, Irvine, Hakkinen and Gachot. Ligier’s usual shining in Magny-Cours was hindered by Panis’ engine problems and Brundle’s weight infringement which meant they had to start 12th and 26th.
French Grand Prix – Starting grid
1. Schumacher – Benetton
2. Hill - Williams
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Herbert - Benetton
5. Alesi - Ferrari
6. Berger - Ferrari
7. Irvine - Jordan
8. Hakkinen - McLaren
9. Gachot - Jordan
10. Blundell - McLaren
11. Kovacshazi - Pacific
12. Panis - Ligier
13. Frentzen - Sauber
14. Boullion - Sauber
15. Salo - Tyrrell
16. Gounon - Pacific
17. Morbidelli - Footwork
18. Katayama - Tyrrell
19. Badoer - Minardi
20. Martini - Minardi
21. Montermin - Forti
22. Inoue - Footwork
23. Bernard - Larrousse
24. Bouchut - Larrousse
25. Moreno - Forti
26. Brundle – Ligier
As boring races go, the 1995 French Grand Prix was up there with the best of them. Magny-Cours is famous for producing no overtaking races. Normally what happens is that everyone goes crazy on the first lap and then settles down to a long boring race. And that’s exactly what happened. At the start Herbert and Coulthard switched places and Kovacshazi stepped up 9th ahead of Gachot and Blundell. And basically the race was over. The number-crunchers in the team trucks came up with the information that two pit stops were needed - because of tyre wear - and so even the strategic element was gone.
Gounon’s home GP lasted for only a couple of meters when his electrical system went down. Inoue soon joined him after he spun in the Adelaide corner. The first major loss was Gachot who suffered a suspension failure just before his pitstop. Kovacshazi climbed up to 5th place, ahead of Berger thanks to his longer first stint and to the fact that his rivals were stuck behind slower cars after they stopped. But the Hungarian’s race ended prematurely as well, with yet another engine failure.
The most important event was in lap 41. Hill, still in 2nd, behind Schumacher and ahead of Herbert was about to give Eddie Irvine his second lap. But as he passed the Ulsterman’s front right suspension fell apart and the Jordan uncontrollably crashed into the Williams.
With Hill out of the picture, Schumacher comfortably won the race. The dominance of Benetton was fulfilled by Herbert’s second place, while Coulthard salvaged a podium finish but that didn’t help the fact that Williams was now more than 50 points behind Benetton in the constructor’s championship. Alesi finished 4th, followed by Hakkinen and Blundell who stepped one place forward after Berger retired with a failing gearbox with just 5 laps to go.
French Grand Prix – Final Results
1. Michael Schumacer – Benetton-Renault 1:34:23.999
2. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Renault +0:08.533
3. David Coulthard – Williams-Renault +0:13.426
4. Jean Alesi – Ferrari +0:29.960
5. Mika Hakkinen – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
6. Mark Blundell – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
7. Olivier Panis – Liger-Mugen-Honda +2 laps
8. Jean-Christophe Boullion – Sauber-Ford +3 laps
9. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +4 laps
10. Luca Badoer – Minardi-Ford +4 laps
11. Gerhard Berger - Ferrari +5 laps
12. Ukyo Katayama – Tyrrell-Yamaha +5 laps
13. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +6 laps
DNF: Morbidelli (L57), Hill (L41), Irvine (L39), Brundle (L38), Kovacshazi (L28), Bouchut (L25), Gachot (L22), Bernard (L13), Frentzen (L12), Montermini (L9), Moreno (L3), Inoue (L1), Gounon (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 7
1. Schumacher 54 (-)
2. Herbert 26 (+1)
3. Alesi 25 (-)
4. Herbert 20 (-)
5. Berger 16 (-)
6. Coulthard 13 (+1)
7. Hill 11 (-)
8. Hakkinen 9 (+1)
9. Gachot 8 (-1)
10. Frentzen 5 (-)
11. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
12. Suzuki 3 (-)
13. Irvine 3 (-)
14. Salo 2 (-)
15. Blundell 2 (+1)
16. Wendlinger 1 (-1)
Constructors Championship – after Round 7
1. Benetton 80 (-)
2. Ferrari 41 (-)
3. Williams 24 (-)
4. Jordan 11 (-)
5. McLaren 11 (-)
6. Sauber 6 (-)
7. Pacific 4 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
Race commentaries wrote:Michael Scumacher (1st): “Well, you know, it wasn’t a too exciting race, but it is always a great feeling to win of course. We are happy that we are so dominant in this year. I want to thank the team for giving me such a fantastic car and for their dedicated work, I’ll try to keep up the good job until the end of the season.”
Johnny Herbert (2nd): “It’s a great feeling that the car finally made what I wanted it to do. For races I was begging for changes and today I finally was in par with Michael. I think I’ll be able to fight for victories form now on. Who knows? Maybe even challenge Michael for the title.”
David Coulthard (3rd): “My start wasn’t the best and Johnny passed me. I was chasing him through the whole race but I couldn’t pass him. It’s always good to be on the podium, even though if it’s not the result we came for. But the car was fast and reliable and we have to focus on this.”
Olivier Panis (7th): “I want to apologize our fans for not getting what they came for. Our weekend wasn’t exactly as we expected, we were struggling through the three days. By the time we got to the race we found the problem, but I was stuck behind slower cars and it is very difficult to overtake on this track. Still, it’s a good thing to be disappointed if you can’t score points.”
Eddie Irvine (DNF): “This definitely won’t be my favorite weekend. I want to apologize Damon for knocking him out of the race. My suspension failed just when we were side by side and I couldn’t avoid the collision. We talked it through so there are no hard feelings but this is not the way I want to be involved in the fight for the title.”
Merse Kovacshazi (DNF): “It seems that this track doesn’t like me. Last year we couldn’t qualify, now I had more problems on a weekend than some other teams in the whole season so far. The start was good, then I passed Gachot in the first lap, but I couldn’t keep up with Irvine and Hakkinen. It was a good decision to make the first pitstop a bit later, I managed to build up some gap and I gained a few positions, but then my engine blew again. End of story.”
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – British Brawl
Round 8 - British Grand Prix:
British Brawl
There was one change on the grid in Silverstone: After causing so much trouble, and particularly because of his careless parking at Spain, Taki Inoue got a one race break from Footwork, and was replaced by Massimiliano Papis. Officially the Japanese driver had indigestion.
The big news of the early weekend was the struggle with McLaren and Pacific on one side and Mercedes on the other. It all begun when McLaren mechanics showed up at Pacific’s garage and asked about some engine parts that did not seem to fit anywhere. It turned out that two of the Mercedes containers were accidentally mixed up.
Officially both crews thought that they got the same package from Stuttgart, but in fact Pacific’s deal had a closure which allowed Mercedes to use the cars as mobile testing facilities testing facility for experimental parts. Both the Pacific and the McLaren staff were furious of course. The Thetford guys felt that Mercedes ruined their season because constant experimenting with untested parts was the reason of their engine failures. Meanwhile the Woking outfit thought that Mercedes doesn’t handle them with honesty and that Pacific could beat them on more than one occasion because their newer engines.
Tension grew higher during the day, Kovacshazi even promised openly to settle the matter physically with Mario Ilien and Norbert Haug. Even Max Mosley weighted in supporting equality and expressing his concerns about using not properly tested parts during races. By the end of Saturday Mercedes backed off and promised to supply both McLaren and Pacific with same specification of engines starting from Germany.
On the qualifying hill scored his fifth pole on home soil. Schumacher finished only 4th, behind Berger and Coulthard. Pacific brought the usual result with Kovacshazi 10th between the two McLarens and Gounon 16th, one second behind. Finally being on a fast track, Larrousse left the last row and Bernard qualified as high as 23rd. Newcomer “Max” Papis made a good impression, qualifying ahead of his veteran team mate.
British Grand Prix – Starting grid
1. Hill - Williams
2. Berger - Ferrari
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Schumacher - Benetton
5. Herbert - Benetton
6. Alesi - Ferrari
7. Irvine - Jordan
8. Gachot - Jordan
9. Hakkinen - McLaren
10. Kovacshazi - Pacific
11. Blundell - McLaren
12. Panis - Ligier
13. Frenzten - Sauber
14. Salo - Tyrrell
15. Brundle - Ligier
16. Gounon - Pacific
17. Boullion - Sauber
18. Papis - Footwork
19. Morbidelli - Footwork
20. Katayama - Tyrrell
21. Martini - Minardi
22. Montermini - Forti
23. Bernard - Larrousse
24. Badoer - Minardi
25. Bouchut - Larrousse
26. Moreno - Forti
When the lights went out, Hill blitzed forward, with Coulthard, Berger, Schumacher, Herbert, Alesi, Gachot, Irvine, Kovacshazi, Blundell, Hakkinen and Panis following. In the first lap Badoer and Bouchut couldn’t find enough room on the widest track of the season and they took Katayama with them in a pileup.
Hill was gradually pulling away, but Coulthard couldn’t play the role of rearguard for long before his Renault engine blew after 11 laps. One lap later Boullion had a suspension failure in the Vale straight and he couldn’t stop the car before he collided with his team mate who was just ahead of him. That was a too short afternoon for Sauber.
Alesi passed Schumacher in lap 19, the German was apparently running on high fuel load. Kovacshazi found himself once again in a fierce battle with the Jordans, which almost had an ugly end, when Gachot run wide in Copse at high speed and barely avoided the Armco.
The pitstops started in lap 16 with Alesi being the first to fill up. Schumacher took the provisional lead with his one stop strategy; Hill was second 16 seconds behind. Berger had chosen an interesting strategy and in lap 20 he took enough fuel to get to the end. The order after the first tops was Schumacher, Hill, Alesi, Herbert, Kovacshazi, Berger, Irvine, Hakkinen, Blundell.
As Kovacshazi’s Pacific approached the Club chicane, the left rear suspension spectacularly exploded, the car spun, and without braking slammed right into Frentzen’s empty Sauber, which was left in an area thought to be safe and out of harm’s way…
In the same lap Schumacher made his only pitstop and came back 12 seconds behind Hill. The struggle for the British Grand Prix begun. Schumacher was faster than Hill on his worn tires, but after the second pitstops took place this changed. Schumacher took the lead with only 20 laps to go, Hill followed 15 seconds behind. Berger climbed to 3rd with his alternative strategy, while Irvine retired with a suspension failure, giving 6th place to Blundell.
The last 20 laps were definitely one of Damon Hill’s best performances. He gave 1-1.2 seconds per lap to Schumacher, while the German was struggling on his wearing rubbers. The Williams arrived into the Benetton’s slipstream in lap 60 of 65, but three backmakers helped Schumacher to pull away to 4 seconds. But Hill was back on him in lap 62, and although Schumacher repelled the first attacks with valiant effort, when in lap 63 the Williams caught the slipstream in the Hangars straight, the fate of the victory was sealed. Schumacher defended his position hard, almost pushing Hill onto the grass, but he had to give up his position.
After Monaco, Hill scored his second victory in the season and his second in Silverstone. Schumacher finished second, while Berger’s unique strategy worth a third place. Herbert passed Alesi in the last laps, finishing 4th, and Mark Blundell was faster than Hakkinen the first time and took 6th position.
British Grand Prix – Final results
1. Damon Hill – Williams-Renault 1:30:33.932
2. Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault +0:03.503
3. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari +0:35.053
4. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Renault +1 lap
5. Jean Alesi - Ferrari +1 lap
6. Mark Blundell – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
7. Mika Hakkinen – McLaren-Mercedes +2 laps
8. Bertrand Gachot – Jordan-Peugeot +2 laps
9. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +2 laps
10. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +5 laps
11. Eric Bernard – Larrousse-Peugeot +7 laps (not classified)
DNF: Panis (L49), Gounon (L43), Moreno (L39), Irvine (L39), Papis (L35), Kovacshazi (L30), Morbidelli (L23), Brundle (L15), Boullion (L12), Frentzen (L12), Coulthard (L11), Montermin (L5), Badoer (L1), Bouchut (L1), Katayama (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 8
1. Schumacher 60 (-)
2. Herbert 29 (-)
3. Alesi 27 (-)
4. Hill 21 (+2)
5. Berger 20 (-1)
6. Coulthard 13 (-1)
7. Hakkinen 9 (-)
8. Gachot 8 (-)
9. Frentzen 5 (-)
10. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
11. Suzuki 3 (-)
12. Irvine 3 (-)
13. Blundell 3 (+1)
14. Salo 2 (-1)
15. Wendlinger 1 (-)
Constructors Championship – after Round 8
1. Benetton 89 (-)
2. Ferrari 47 (-)
3. Williams 34 (-)
4. McLaren 12 (+1)
5. Jordan 11 (-1)
6. Sauber 6 (-)
7. Pacific 4 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
British Brawl
Damon Hill wrote:He almost pushed me on the grass, did you see that?!
There was one change on the grid in Silverstone: After causing so much trouble, and particularly because of his careless parking at Spain, Taki Inoue got a one race break from Footwork, and was replaced by Massimiliano Papis. Officially the Japanese driver had indigestion.
The big news of the early weekend was the struggle with McLaren and Pacific on one side and Mercedes on the other. It all begun when McLaren mechanics showed up at Pacific’s garage and asked about some engine parts that did not seem to fit anywhere. It turned out that two of the Mercedes containers were accidentally mixed up.
Officially both crews thought that they got the same package from Stuttgart, but in fact Pacific’s deal had a closure which allowed Mercedes to use the cars as mobile testing facilities testing facility for experimental parts. Both the Pacific and the McLaren staff were furious of course. The Thetford guys felt that Mercedes ruined their season because constant experimenting with untested parts was the reason of their engine failures. Meanwhile the Woking outfit thought that Mercedes doesn’t handle them with honesty and that Pacific could beat them on more than one occasion because their newer engines.
Tension grew higher during the day, Kovacshazi even promised openly to settle the matter physically with Mario Ilien and Norbert Haug. Even Max Mosley weighted in supporting equality and expressing his concerns about using not properly tested parts during races. By the end of Saturday Mercedes backed off and promised to supply both McLaren and Pacific with same specification of engines starting from Germany.
On the qualifying hill scored his fifth pole on home soil. Schumacher finished only 4th, behind Berger and Coulthard. Pacific brought the usual result with Kovacshazi 10th between the two McLarens and Gounon 16th, one second behind. Finally being on a fast track, Larrousse left the last row and Bernard qualified as high as 23rd. Newcomer “Max” Papis made a good impression, qualifying ahead of his veteran team mate.
British Grand Prix – Starting grid
1. Hill - Williams
2. Berger - Ferrari
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Schumacher - Benetton
5. Herbert - Benetton
6. Alesi - Ferrari
7. Irvine - Jordan
8. Gachot - Jordan
9. Hakkinen - McLaren
10. Kovacshazi - Pacific
11. Blundell - McLaren
12. Panis - Ligier
13. Frenzten - Sauber
14. Salo - Tyrrell
15. Brundle - Ligier
16. Gounon - Pacific
17. Boullion - Sauber
18. Papis - Footwork
19. Morbidelli - Footwork
20. Katayama - Tyrrell
21. Martini - Minardi
22. Montermini - Forti
23. Bernard - Larrousse
24. Badoer - Minardi
25. Bouchut - Larrousse
26. Moreno - Forti
When the lights went out, Hill blitzed forward, with Coulthard, Berger, Schumacher, Herbert, Alesi, Gachot, Irvine, Kovacshazi, Blundell, Hakkinen and Panis following. In the first lap Badoer and Bouchut couldn’t find enough room on the widest track of the season and they took Katayama with them in a pileup.
Hill was gradually pulling away, but Coulthard couldn’t play the role of rearguard for long before his Renault engine blew after 11 laps. One lap later Boullion had a suspension failure in the Vale straight and he couldn’t stop the car before he collided with his team mate who was just ahead of him. That was a too short afternoon for Sauber.
Alesi passed Schumacher in lap 19, the German was apparently running on high fuel load. Kovacshazi found himself once again in a fierce battle with the Jordans, which almost had an ugly end, when Gachot run wide in Copse at high speed and barely avoided the Armco.
The pitstops started in lap 16 with Alesi being the first to fill up. Schumacher took the provisional lead with his one stop strategy; Hill was second 16 seconds behind. Berger had chosen an interesting strategy and in lap 20 he took enough fuel to get to the end. The order after the first tops was Schumacher, Hill, Alesi, Herbert, Kovacshazi, Berger, Irvine, Hakkinen, Blundell.
Pacific Racing #17 team radio: wrote:Lap 29:
(Car comes out from Abbey)
“Ehh… guys, I think something just broke. I almost lost it at the end of the back straight.”
“Ok, what happened?”
“I don’t know, it suddenly became unstable and was pulling to the left. But now it seems fine.”
(Car approaches Priory 2)
“Merse, please confirm, the problem is solved?”
“Now it looks like it, but something strange happened back there… A brake, a spring or something…?”
“We’re looking into it, keep running, but be careful” (Car passes the pits) “Merse we did not see anything from here. Is the car all right?”
Lap 30:
(Car goes through Becketts and Chapel)
“Ok, guys, something is definitely not right here. I almost lost it in the Becketts.”
“Copy that, please come back in and we’ll look into it. So box, box, box, box.”
“Copy that.”
As Kovacshazi’s Pacific approached the Club chicane, the left rear suspension spectacularly exploded, the car spun, and without braking slammed right into Frentzen’s empty Sauber, which was left in an area thought to be safe and out of harm’s way…
Pacific Racing #17 team radio: wrote:“Guys, I’m out. Something broke and I spun out. I’m fine but I hit the parking Sauber and lost a rear wheel.”
In the same lap Schumacher made his only pitstop and came back 12 seconds behind Hill. The struggle for the British Grand Prix begun. Schumacher was faster than Hill on his worn tires, but after the second pitstops took place this changed. Schumacher took the lead with only 20 laps to go, Hill followed 15 seconds behind. Berger climbed to 3rd with his alternative strategy, while Irvine retired with a suspension failure, giving 6th place to Blundell.
The last 20 laps were definitely one of Damon Hill’s best performances. He gave 1-1.2 seconds per lap to Schumacher, while the German was struggling on his wearing rubbers. The Williams arrived into the Benetton’s slipstream in lap 60 of 65, but three backmakers helped Schumacher to pull away to 4 seconds. But Hill was back on him in lap 62, and although Schumacher repelled the first attacks with valiant effort, when in lap 63 the Williams caught the slipstream in the Hangars straight, the fate of the victory was sealed. Schumacher defended his position hard, almost pushing Hill onto the grass, but he had to give up his position.
After Monaco, Hill scored his second victory in the season and his second in Silverstone. Schumacher finished second, while Berger’s unique strategy worth a third place. Herbert passed Alesi in the last laps, finishing 4th, and Mark Blundell was faster than Hakkinen the first time and took 6th position.
British Grand Prix – Final results
1. Damon Hill – Williams-Renault 1:30:33.932
2. Michael Schumacher Benetton-Renault +0:03.503
3. Gerhard Berger – Ferrari +0:35.053
4. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Renault +1 lap
5. Jean Alesi - Ferrari +1 lap
6. Mark Blundell – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
7. Mika Hakkinen – McLaren-Mercedes +2 laps
8. Bertrand Gachot – Jordan-Peugeot +2 laps
9. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +2 laps
10. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +5 laps
11. Eric Bernard – Larrousse-Peugeot +7 laps (not classified)
DNF: Panis (L49), Gounon (L43), Moreno (L39), Irvine (L39), Papis (L35), Kovacshazi (L30), Morbidelli (L23), Brundle (L15), Boullion (L12), Frentzen (L12), Coulthard (L11), Montermin (L5), Badoer (L1), Bouchut (L1), Katayama (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 8
1. Schumacher 60 (-)
2. Herbert 29 (-)
3. Alesi 27 (-)
4. Hill 21 (+2)
5. Berger 20 (-1)
6. Coulthard 13 (-1)
7. Hakkinen 9 (-)
8. Gachot 8 (-)
9. Frentzen 5 (-)
10. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
11. Suzuki 3 (-)
12. Irvine 3 (-)
13. Blundell 3 (+1)
14. Salo 2 (-1)
15. Wendlinger 1 (-)
Constructors Championship – after Round 8
1. Benetton 89 (-)
2. Ferrari 47 (-)
3. Williams 34 (-)
4. McLaren 12 (+1)
5. Jordan 11 (-1)
6. Sauber 6 (-)
7. Pacific 4 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
Race commentaries: wrote:Damon Hill (1st): “I can’t tell how happy I am! My race was great. Michael surprised us with his strategy, but I knew he would be struggling at the end of the race and I could catch him. It was a difficult task, and he was defending his position very hard, but I had the speed and the grip. We’re still 40 points behind, but from now on step by step we gonna close it.”
Michael Schumacher (2nd): “It was a difficult race because we started form the back, so we tried something different, and it worked, but I lost a lot of time with the backmakers and Hill could close the gap on me. Now I finished second, which is not a tragedy, especially that I started form 4th, so it’s a good result.
Gerhard Berger (3rd): “Well, it definitely wasn’t an usual race, was it? When Jean pitted my engineer said that his tires were in very good shape and that we could try to make a single stop and make it to the end and I said ‘sure, let’s try it’. It was very difficult, I had to be careful with the fuel but the car worked great on high fuel load and I could conserve the tires and I finished on the podium.”
Merse Kovacshazi (DNF): “This is ridiculous! It’s the same story on every race. We’re fast, I have a great time, we climb up to the points, then something breaks and I’m out! If I wouldn’t know that Jimmy has the same problems I would think that someone is messing with me… Oh yeah… I’m sorry for the Sauber guys for wrecking their car. I didn’t mean to…”
Massimiliano Papis (DNF): “For a first experience, it was great. I’m glad I could be faster than Gianni on the qualifying, but the race didn’t go as planned. After my first pitstop my gearbox started to fail, I lost one gear after another and eventually I had to stop the car. But it was a great experience and now we’re working on with Footwork to form a long-term relationship.”
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – German Grudges
Round 9 - German Grand Prix:
German Grudges
Rumors swept Europe after the British GP, that Michael Schumacher signed to Ferrari for 1996. Although both parties rejected the rumors during the weekend, it was enough to the community to start speculating about the future.
If Schumacher really would move to Maranello, Jean Alesi would be the top candidate to replace him. The Frenchman has made it plain that he would not be Schumacher's team mate, and he was praised by Benetton boss Flavio Briatore last week: "If Schumacher decides to leave our team, we will keep on winning Grand Prix races with another driver. Alesi is a driver I like very much" he said. Who could partner him was up to a debate. Herbert wasn’t impressed by the fact that he was a clear number two driver, so he would most likely leave at the end of the season. Some have mentioned Merse Kovacshazi, but Briatore turned those rumors down, comparing the Hungarian to Andrea de Cesaris who was always fast but was involved in way too many incidents during his career.
Gerhard Berger would most definitely leave Ferrari as well. He is one of the harshest critics of Schumacher, and he was believed to have offers from both McLaren and Williams. Mika Hakkinen was already confirmed with McLaren last year, but Mark Blundell's drive was definitely up for grabs. Berger’s name and plenty of experience would be a valuable asset. However, Mercedes was also interested in bringing Kovacshazi to Woking from Pacific. But one couldn't forget that McLaren went to court to get David Coulthard last year.
Berger might also move to Williams to partner Damon Hill whose contract was tipped to await only his signature, or Coulthard who could be even faster than Hill in the future but still would need time to develop. Some rumors also associated Heinz-Harald Frentzen with the Didcot team.
While the top teams were pondering about their future driver lineup, some other teams announced some changes, effective immediately. Aguri Suzki got another chance from Ligier, sending Brundle on a short vacation. Taki Inoue was back, and Foorwork had shown the door to Gianni Morbielli to make place for Massimiliano Papis and his new sponsors.
The Larrousse cars made only 5 laps together during the practice session. They used up all their spare parts, blew all their previously bought Peugeot engines and Gerard Larrousse had no money to buy new ones. Jean-Paul Driot, owner of DAMS was seen in the paddock on the weekend and it was rumored that Larrousse might reconsider his offer of cooperation.
After the qualifying it was kind of a surprise that Williams and Benetton occupied the first two rows. The Ferraris were expected to be much stronger on this power demanding course, but they were off the pace, while the Jordans capitalized from their 7 gears and Peugeot power plant and were in par with Ferrari.
Kovacshazi arrived very frustrated to Germany, and it left a mark on his results. He crashed on the first practice session in the Stadium section, and while Gounon showed his best and qualified 11th, Kovacshazi was struggling and finished only 17th.
At the end of the grid Bouchut finished 24th making a single flying lap, beating on Moreno who suffered from gearbox issues but still managed to scrap a timed lap together. Bernard however failed to set a recorded lap because his engine blew after only 2 kms and the team had no spares.
German Grand Prix – Starting grid:
1. Coulthard - Williams
2. Hill - Williams
3. Schumacher - Benetton
4. Herbert - Benetton
5. Alesi - Ferrari
6. Irvine - Jordan
7. Berger - Ferrari
8. Gachot - Jordan
9. Hakkinen - McLaren
10. Blundell - McLaren
11. Gounon - Pacific
12. Panis - Ligier
13. Frentzen - Sauber
14. Suzuki - Ligier
15. Boullion - Sauber
16. Salo - Tyrrell
17. Kovacshazi - Pacific
18. Papis - Footwork
19. Katayama - Tyrrell
20. Badoer - Minardi
21. Martini - Minardi
22. Inoue - Footwokr
23. Montermini - Forti
24. Bouchut - Larrousse
25. Moreno - Forti
DNQ: Bernard
When the red lights went out Coulthard, Hill and Schumacher had a clear getaway. Irvine made a great start challenging Herbert for 4th position. At the back of the pack Moreno stalled on the grid but managed to fire up his car eventually, while Inoue’s race was cut short by Bouchut in the first corner.
At the end of the first lap Coulthard was leading with 1.5 seconds ahead of Hill who had trouble keeping Schumacher behind. Herbert built up a slight gap ahead of Irvine, Berger and Alesi, while Gachot was just ahead of Hakkinen, Gounon, Blundell, Kovacshazi who had an excellent start, and the pair of Ligiers.
In lap 3 Berger’s engine started to stutter and finally stopped. One lap later Irvine spun out with a brake failure, blocking the pit entrance for a few seconds. Blundell lost his nerve, had run wide in the last corner and fell back behind Kovacshazi. In lap 6 Frentzen cooked over an overtaking maneuver and took Panis along into the gravel. And finally, Kovacshazi spun at the end of lap 7 and Blundell couldn’t avoud him, breaking the Pacific’s front left suspension and his own front wing.
Meanwhile Coulthard extended his lead to 5 seconds ahead of the pack of Hill, Schuamcher, Herbert and Alesi. Gachot stepped up to 6th place, Hakkinen was lapping alone in 7th, similarly to Gounon who was 8th.
In lap 12 Alesi was the first to refuel, but Ferrari’s fuel pump refused to work properly, so left the pits only to return one lap later to be filed up to the end of the race. But by that time he was 8th and lost 20 valuable seconds.
This time Hill had chosen to stop once and Schumacher twice. The German pitted in lap 19, while his rival prolonged his only stop until Lap 23. He returned just ahead of Schumacher. The German had the advantage of hotter tires and in the end of the next lap he made his move. There would be a lot of argument what happened next. Maybe Schumacher was overly optimistic, or plainly too aggressive, or because he was fighting his only potential rival he was more reckless. Maybe Hill didn’t pay attention, or that he was risking too much to keep his opponent behind. But the point is that they collided in the second chicane. Schumacher crashed into the Armco, and Hill had to limp back to the pits for a new front wing.
Herbert stepped up to second place, 15 seconds behind Coulthard and about 20 ahead of Hill. Gachot found himself in 4th position. Alesi, Hakkinen, Gounon, Salo, Boullion and Suzuki was the following order.
It looked like Coulthard’s day finally came and he would get his first victory, but in lap 33 his engine started to quietly smoke and two laps later he retired with an oil leak.
And in the end, after everyone else’s misfortune Herbert’s second victory dropped into his arms. Hill wasn’t fast enough to catch him and finished second. Gachot was defending his inherited third position from Alesi for six laps. The Frenchman eventually passed him, but he had to stop one lap before the checkered flag because his thirsty engine used up all the petrol, so he had to settle with a fourth position. Gounon and Hakkinen finished in the points, Pacific’s Frenchman collected his first units in his career.
With this victory Herbert strengthened his second position in the championship, but Hill made a step to the right direction to challenge Schumacher. Benetton extended its lead once again in the constructors’ championship, while Jordan jumped back to 4th position ahead of McLaren.
German Grand Prix – Final Results
1. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Renault 1:18:10.204
2. Damon Hill – Williams-Renault +0:03.207
3. Bertrand Gachot – Jordan-Peugeot +1:09.302
4. Jean Alesi – Ferrari +1:25.580
5. Jean-Marc Gounon – Pacific-Ilmor +1 lap
6. Mika Hakkinen – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
7. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +1 lap
8. Jean-Christophe Boullion – Sauber-Ford +1 lap
9. Aguri Suzuki – Ligier-Mugen-Honga +1 lap
10. Mark Blundell – McLaren-Mercedes +2 laps
11. Ukyo Katayama – Tyrrell-Yamaha +2 laps
12. Luca Badoer – Minardi-Ford +2 laps
13. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +2 laps
14. Andrea Montermini – Forti-Ford +3 laps
15. Roberto Moreno – Forti Ford +5 laps (not classified)
DNF: Coulthard (L35), Papis (L30), Schumacher (L24), Bouchut (L20), Kovacshazi (L6), Frentzen (L5), Panis (L5), Irvine (L4), Berger (L3), Inoue (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 9
1. Schumacher 60 (-)
2. Herbert 39 (-)
3. Alesi 30 (-)
4. Hill 27 (-)
5. Berger 20 (-)
6. Coulthard 13 (-)
7. Gachot 12 (+1)
8. Hakkinen 10 (-1)
9. Frentzen 5 (-)
10. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
11. Suzuki 3 (-)
12. Irvine 3 (-)
13. Blundell 3 (-)
14. Salo 2 (-)
15. Gounon 2
16. Wendlinger 1 (-1)
Constructors Championship – after Round 9
1. Benetton 99 (-)
2. Ferrari 50 (-)
3. Williams 40 (-)
4. Jordan 17 (+1)
5. McLaren 13 (-1)
6. Pacific 6 (+1)
7. Sauber 6 (-1)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
The stewards examined the Schumacher-Hill crash after the race and they warned both drivers, but there were no further penalty for either of hem. This time at least.
German Grudges
Murray Walker wrote:It was expected that they would collide at some point of the championship. They almost did it in Silversone. And now here is the result!
Rumors swept Europe after the British GP, that Michael Schumacher signed to Ferrari for 1996. Although both parties rejected the rumors during the weekend, it was enough to the community to start speculating about the future.
If Schumacher really would move to Maranello, Jean Alesi would be the top candidate to replace him. The Frenchman has made it plain that he would not be Schumacher's team mate, and he was praised by Benetton boss Flavio Briatore last week: "If Schumacher decides to leave our team, we will keep on winning Grand Prix races with another driver. Alesi is a driver I like very much" he said. Who could partner him was up to a debate. Herbert wasn’t impressed by the fact that he was a clear number two driver, so he would most likely leave at the end of the season. Some have mentioned Merse Kovacshazi, but Briatore turned those rumors down, comparing the Hungarian to Andrea de Cesaris who was always fast but was involved in way too many incidents during his career.
Gerhard Berger would most definitely leave Ferrari as well. He is one of the harshest critics of Schumacher, and he was believed to have offers from both McLaren and Williams. Mika Hakkinen was already confirmed with McLaren last year, but Mark Blundell's drive was definitely up for grabs. Berger’s name and plenty of experience would be a valuable asset. However, Mercedes was also interested in bringing Kovacshazi to Woking from Pacific. But one couldn't forget that McLaren went to court to get David Coulthard last year.
Berger might also move to Williams to partner Damon Hill whose contract was tipped to await only his signature, or Coulthard who could be even faster than Hill in the future but still would need time to develop. Some rumors also associated Heinz-Harald Frentzen with the Didcot team.
While the top teams were pondering about their future driver lineup, some other teams announced some changes, effective immediately. Aguri Suzki got another chance from Ligier, sending Brundle on a short vacation. Taki Inoue was back, and Foorwork had shown the door to Gianni Morbielli to make place for Massimiliano Papis and his new sponsors.
The Larrousse cars made only 5 laps together during the practice session. They used up all their spare parts, blew all their previously bought Peugeot engines and Gerard Larrousse had no money to buy new ones. Jean-Paul Driot, owner of DAMS was seen in the paddock on the weekend and it was rumored that Larrousse might reconsider his offer of cooperation.
After the qualifying it was kind of a surprise that Williams and Benetton occupied the first two rows. The Ferraris were expected to be much stronger on this power demanding course, but they were off the pace, while the Jordans capitalized from their 7 gears and Peugeot power plant and were in par with Ferrari.
Kovacshazi arrived very frustrated to Germany, and it left a mark on his results. He crashed on the first practice session in the Stadium section, and while Gounon showed his best and qualified 11th, Kovacshazi was struggling and finished only 17th.
At the end of the grid Bouchut finished 24th making a single flying lap, beating on Moreno who suffered from gearbox issues but still managed to scrap a timed lap together. Bernard however failed to set a recorded lap because his engine blew after only 2 kms and the team had no spares.
German Grand Prix – Starting grid:
1. Coulthard - Williams
2. Hill - Williams
3. Schumacher - Benetton
4. Herbert - Benetton
5. Alesi - Ferrari
6. Irvine - Jordan
7. Berger - Ferrari
8. Gachot - Jordan
9. Hakkinen - McLaren
10. Blundell - McLaren
11. Gounon - Pacific
12. Panis - Ligier
13. Frentzen - Sauber
14. Suzuki - Ligier
15. Boullion - Sauber
16. Salo - Tyrrell
17. Kovacshazi - Pacific
18. Papis - Footwork
19. Katayama - Tyrrell
20. Badoer - Minardi
21. Martini - Minardi
22. Inoue - Footwokr
23. Montermini - Forti
24. Bouchut - Larrousse
25. Moreno - Forti
DNQ: Bernard
When the red lights went out Coulthard, Hill and Schumacher had a clear getaway. Irvine made a great start challenging Herbert for 4th position. At the back of the pack Moreno stalled on the grid but managed to fire up his car eventually, while Inoue’s race was cut short by Bouchut in the first corner.
At the end of the first lap Coulthard was leading with 1.5 seconds ahead of Hill who had trouble keeping Schumacher behind. Herbert built up a slight gap ahead of Irvine, Berger and Alesi, while Gachot was just ahead of Hakkinen, Gounon, Blundell, Kovacshazi who had an excellent start, and the pair of Ligiers.
In lap 3 Berger’s engine started to stutter and finally stopped. One lap later Irvine spun out with a brake failure, blocking the pit entrance for a few seconds. Blundell lost his nerve, had run wide in the last corner and fell back behind Kovacshazi. In lap 6 Frentzen cooked over an overtaking maneuver and took Panis along into the gravel. And finally, Kovacshazi spun at the end of lap 7 and Blundell couldn’t avoud him, breaking the Pacific’s front left suspension and his own front wing.
Meanwhile Coulthard extended his lead to 5 seconds ahead of the pack of Hill, Schuamcher, Herbert and Alesi. Gachot stepped up to 6th place, Hakkinen was lapping alone in 7th, similarly to Gounon who was 8th.
In lap 12 Alesi was the first to refuel, but Ferrari’s fuel pump refused to work properly, so left the pits only to return one lap later to be filed up to the end of the race. But by that time he was 8th and lost 20 valuable seconds.
This time Hill had chosen to stop once and Schumacher twice. The German pitted in lap 19, while his rival prolonged his only stop until Lap 23. He returned just ahead of Schumacher. The German had the advantage of hotter tires and in the end of the next lap he made his move. There would be a lot of argument what happened next. Maybe Schumacher was overly optimistic, or plainly too aggressive, or because he was fighting his only potential rival he was more reckless. Maybe Hill didn’t pay attention, or that he was risking too much to keep his opponent behind. But the point is that they collided in the second chicane. Schumacher crashed into the Armco, and Hill had to limp back to the pits for a new front wing.
Herbert stepped up to second place, 15 seconds behind Coulthard and about 20 ahead of Hill. Gachot found himself in 4th position. Alesi, Hakkinen, Gounon, Salo, Boullion and Suzuki was the following order.
It looked like Coulthard’s day finally came and he would get his first victory, but in lap 33 his engine started to quietly smoke and two laps later he retired with an oil leak.
And in the end, after everyone else’s misfortune Herbert’s second victory dropped into his arms. Hill wasn’t fast enough to catch him and finished second. Gachot was defending his inherited third position from Alesi for six laps. The Frenchman eventually passed him, but he had to stop one lap before the checkered flag because his thirsty engine used up all the petrol, so he had to settle with a fourth position. Gounon and Hakkinen finished in the points, Pacific’s Frenchman collected his first units in his career.
With this victory Herbert strengthened his second position in the championship, but Hill made a step to the right direction to challenge Schumacher. Benetton extended its lead once again in the constructors’ championship, while Jordan jumped back to 4th position ahead of McLaren.
German Grand Prix – Final Results
1. Johnny Herbert – Benetton-Renault 1:18:10.204
2. Damon Hill – Williams-Renault +0:03.207
3. Bertrand Gachot – Jordan-Peugeot +1:09.302
4. Jean Alesi – Ferrari +1:25.580
5. Jean-Marc Gounon – Pacific-Ilmor +1 lap
6. Mika Hakkinen – McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
7. Mika Salo – Tyrrell-Yamaha +1 lap
8. Jean-Christophe Boullion – Sauber-Ford +1 lap
9. Aguri Suzuki – Ligier-Mugen-Honga +1 lap
10. Mark Blundell – McLaren-Mercedes +2 laps
11. Ukyo Katayama – Tyrrell-Yamaha +2 laps
12. Luca Badoer – Minardi-Ford +2 laps
13. Pierluigi Martini – Minardi-Ford +2 laps
14. Andrea Montermini – Forti-Ford +3 laps
15. Roberto Moreno – Forti Ford +5 laps (not classified)
DNF: Coulthard (L35), Papis (L30), Schumacher (L24), Bouchut (L20), Kovacshazi (L6), Frentzen (L5), Panis (L5), Irvine (L4), Berger (L3), Inoue (L1)
Drivers Championship – after Round 9
1. Schumacher 60 (-)
2. Herbert 39 (-)
3. Alesi 30 (-)
4. Hill 27 (-)
5. Berger 20 (-)
6. Coulthard 13 (-)
7. Gachot 12 (+1)
8. Hakkinen 10 (-1)
9. Frentzen 5 (-)
10. Kovacshazi 4 (-)
11. Suzuki 3 (-)
12. Irvine 3 (-)
13. Blundell 3 (-)
14. Salo 2 (-)
15. Gounon 2
16. Wendlinger 1 (-1)
Constructors Championship – after Round 9
1. Benetton 99 (-)
2. Ferrari 50 (-)
3. Williams 40 (-)
4. Jordan 17 (+1)
5. McLaren 13 (-1)
6. Pacific 6 (+1)
7. Sauber 6 (-1)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
Race commentaries: wrote:Johnny Herbert (1st): “Well, the saying is true, to win the race, first you must finish it. I capitalized from the troubles of the others but that’s part of motor racing. We scored important points today, and the team can be happy that we have beaten Williams once again.”
Damon Hill (2nd): “Our strategy worked perfectly, I could have won today. What Michael did cannot be explained! I was ahead of him, I did not have to make another pitstop, I had the position and the tactical advantage and he rammed me. There is no way to describe it better! He wanted to knock me out of the race. I was fast after my second pitstop, but there was not enough time to catch Herbert. Still we gained 6 points so we tightened the gap to Michael.”
Bertrand Gachot (3rd): “This was a quiet race for the most part. I was lapping alone, and my engineer told me that ‘this retired, that has a problem’ and I was quietly stepping up in the ranks. At the end Alesi chased me down, it was a great fight, then he passed me but he had to stop once again. All in all, I’m very glad, I think I left my mark. I couldn’t have done it with a Pacific!”
Jean-Marc Gounon (5th): “I’m happy I finally scored my first points in Formula One. I felt confident during the whole weekend, I knew I have a chance of a great result here. We were working very hard all year to find the proper balance of the car and now I think I’m ahead of Merse in that. I hope from now on our reliability will be as good as our pace.”
Michael Schumacher (DNF): “I can’t say anything. Hill had the door open and I jumped on the chance. I just had to do it. Maybe I wouldn’t have done it on another track, because I know how difficult for him is if I try to pass him, but we’re in Germany! He closed the door, forced me off the track and I had no way to avoid collision. It was clearly his fault!”
Merse Kovacshazi (DNF): “I was struggling the whole weekend, I couldn’t find the balance between speed and stability, and I didn’t feel comfortable in the car. It seems that Jimmy found something and we’ll try to use that. At least it seems that our reliability is improving, maybe we’ll start finishing races after all…”
The stewards examined the Schumacher-Hill crash after the race and they warned both drivers, but there were no further penalty for either of hem. This time at least.
Re: Rider of the Carpathians – Heroes of the Hungaroring
Round 10 - Hungarian Grand Prix:
Heroes of the Hungaroring
The speculations about next year’s driver lineup continued in Hungary. Canadian CART champion, Jacques Villeneuve, appeared on the Williams candidate list, alongside Jean Alesi. The Frenchman was said to be close to an agreement with Renault, and if Schumacher would move to Ferrari, he would replace him at Benetton. If the German stays, Jean would join Williams, partnering a hopefully new star, which could be either Coulthard, Villeneuve or Frentzen.
Larrousse accumulated a huge debt, and to avoid liquidation, good old Gerard had to sell the team to Jean-Paul Driot, who was trying to establish cooperation between his DAMS and Larrousse’s team. Larrousse turned down his offer in December, but now he was forced to cooperate. But all was not well as the team had no more engines to race with. Bernie Ecclestone however, gave them the same allowance to miss one GP that he had given to Simtek in Canada, and Driot wasn’t wasting the time. He quickly finalized a two years supply deal for Ford ED engines, and also confirmed Erik Comas to replace Eric Bernard in Belgium.
Ford had more announcements on the weekend. They announced the arrival of a brand new V10 engine to replace the Zetec-R, and they had extended their deal with Sauber. On the driver front, it was unclear whether Sauber could keep either Frentzen or Boullion. Frentzen was rumored to be on the shopping list of several top teams, and Boullion was likely to be placed elsewhere by Elf. It was likely, therefore, that Sauber would be looking for at least one new driver; and Briton Johnny Herbert was one name being mentioned.
Speaking of drivers, Jordan was happy to welcome back Rubens Barrichello, who recovered from his spinal injury he suffered in Brazil. Pedro Diniz, the cause of his injury also returned to Forti. The Italian team bought Montermini’s services of the rest of the season from Pacific, which meant an early retirement for Roberto Moreno. The Brazilian driver debuted on the 1982 Dutch GP , but he failed to qualify. He participated on altogether 68 GPs qualified on 42 occasions. His best result was his second place behind his Benetton team-mate Nelson Piquet on the 1990 Japanese GP.
There were two more changes on the grid. Brundle sat back into the #25 Ligier, and Minardi has dropped its longtime stalwart driver Pierluigi Martini and replaced him with Portuguese pay-driver Pedro Lamy. The runner-up to Olivier Panis in the 1993 European F3000 Championship, has taken part in eight GPs for Lotus in the past, and was believed to be bringing a sizable amount of sponsorship with him.
It was not the first time that Martini has been dropped by Minardi - the team with which he started his F1 career in 1985 and for which he has driven 102 GPs. When the team needed money in 1993, Martini stood down to let Fabrizio Barbazza and Jean-Marc Gounon drive, but he was back in action the following year. Pierluigi has been responsible for all the high points in Minardi history: he scored the team's first World Championship point at Detroit in 1988; he led the Portuguese GP in 1989 for one lap; qualified second to Gerhard Berger's McLaren at Phoenix in 1990; and his two fourth place at San Marino and Estoril in 1991 and at San Marino again in 1994 remain the team's best finishes.
Merse Kovacshazi arrived home in a very bad mood. Apart from Imola he failed to finish any race, his reputation was tarnished by his continuous retirements and incidents, and recently even his team mate got the best of him, and Hungarian trash media welcomed him with a smear campaign, claiming that he is wasting money while the country suffers under the economic crisis and the government's never ending austerity measures. His mood it only became worse on Friday. During the practice sessions he was totally lost, struggling with the car all weekend and being horribly off the pace.
“I don’t know what to say” he commented “It all feels wrong. The car is sluggish at the entries and unstable on the exits, sometimes it changes between oversteer and understeer in the middle of the corner. It’s a nightmare.”
On a happier note, after the German GP at Hockenheim, Michael Schumacher married his girlfriend Corinna Betsch in a quick civil ceremony in Mannheim, not far from the circuit.
Maybe this gave him the extra strength to be the fastest on Saturday ahead of Hill, Coulthard, Alesi, Berger, Herbert Hakkinen and Irvine. Barrichello qualified in a decent 10th position, Gounon was 12th, while Kovacshazi finished as low as 16th, one second off the pace of Gounon.
Hungarian Grand Prix – Starting grid
1. Schumacher - Benetton
2. Hill - Williams
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Alesi - Ferrari
5. Berger - Ferrari
6. Herbert - Benetton
7. Hakkinen - McLaren
8. Irvine - Jordan
9. Blundell - McLaren
10. Barrichello - Jordan
11. Panis - Ligier
12. Gounon - Pacific
13. Frentzen - Sauber
14. Brundle - Ligier
15. Boullion - Sauber
16. Kovacshazi - Pacific
17. Salo - Tyrrell
18. Papis - Footwork
19. Lamy - Minard
20. Katayama - Tyrell
21. Badoer - Minardi
22. Montermini - Forti
23. Inoue - Footwork
24. Diniz – Forti
The Sunday warm-up session brought a surprise result as Kovacshazi finished 5th, being more than a second faster, than he was during the qualifying! “We were so lost with the setups on Friday on Saturday we sat down with the mechanics and decided to try something radically different.” he explained. “We weren't there on the qualifying, we made a lot of extrapolation, and we spent the warmup to try out the changes we made, but finally it seems to be working! I finally feel in control.”
The Hungaroring was always famous about boring starts, and this race wasn’t an exception. Hill challenged Schumacher, but the German kept his position. Berger took 4th from Alesi, while Kovacshazi performed one of the greatest starts of the year, jumping to 10th. Granted, he needed that Frentzen almost stalled his car that held Boullion and Brundle up, but he passed Gounon and Panis in the second corner from the outside, and then Barrichello in the inside in the last corner.
By the end of lap 3 Schumacher extended his lead to 2.5 seconds ahead of the Williams duo, as the pack started to pull apart down to Blundell who held up Kovacshazi, Barrichello, Panis and Gounon.
The race was quiet until lap 9, when events started to stir up. First Herbert collided with Alesi which ended with two broken front wings, then Berger blew the Ferrari engine, and finally Kovacshazi had run wide in turn 4 and dropped back behind Barrichello and Panis.
Schumacher was leading the race in lap 11, but Hill came back to only 1.5 seconds behind him. Coulthard, Hakkinen, Irvine, Blundell, Barrichello, Panis, Kovacshazi, Gounon and Brundle followed. Alesi had dropped back to 15th, Herbert to 17th.
By the time the first pit-stops started Kovacshazi was back in 7th with two spectacular overtaking maneuvers. His knowledge of the track started to pay off. Coulthard opened the planned stops in lap 16, then came Schumacher and Hill, leaving Mika Hakkinen in the lead. Coulthard returned jut behind Kovacshazi but before the Hungarian would have got a chance to show what he can do against a Williams, the Scotsman’s gearbox fell apart. He got Herbert instead, who was on his gearbox after the Pacific made its first stop.
In lap 22 McLaren’s promising race reached an abrupt end. Hakkinen still in the lead, under pressure from Schumacher, tried to lap Papis, who didn’t pay attention. There was contact, Papis flew into the Armco, Hakkinen spun, Schumacher could just avoid the accident, but Hill behind him couldn’t, and knocked off his front wing on the McLaren’s front right suspension. Blundell, who was 4th and about 4 seconds behind Hill somehow avoided the Williams but he couldn’t see his team-mate. In only a matter of seconds the two McLarens were out of the race. It barely got any attention that Katayama retired with brake problems and the Ligier crew spent half a minute before they managed to attach the fuel pump to Brundle’s car on the very same lap.
After the dust settled and everybody made their first pit-stops Schumacher was leading with more than 30 seconds ahead of Hill. Kovacshazi found himself in 3rd, only a few seconds behind Hill, and about 4 seconds ahead of Irvine. Panis and Alesi, who somehow got a huge hole on the Ferrari's left sidepod, fought for 5th place. Barrichello, Frentzen, Gounon, Boullion, Herbert was the following order. Hill’s car suffered some substantial damage in the collision because first Kovacshazi, then Irvine passed him, and Alesi was closing up on him as well.
For a while the Kovacshazi-Irvine-Hill-Alesi quartet provided the only entertainment on the track. The group was broken up by Irvine who stopped for refueling in lap 34 and come back right between Frentzen an Gounon, writing himself out of the fight for second place. Kovacshazi was under a lot of pressure from Hill, then from Alesi, but managed to hold his position which paid out when he came back from his pit-stop 5 seconds ahead of Irvine.
Schumacher was still leading in lap 40 by a lot. Hill was second but he might or might not have to stop once more. Barrichello was temporarily third, Kovacshazi, and Alesi were 4th and 5th after their pit-stops, fighting with each other, until the Ferrari driver had to make an extra stop due an electrical problem. Frentzen temporarily occupied 6th position and was followed by Irvine, Panis, Herbert and Gounon in a tight order.
The race settled down until lap 47 when havoc broke out again. First Salo retired with a spectacular spin in Turn 4. Then Inoue’s car caught fire and he got so terrified that he stopped on the worst possible place: half occupying the racing line in the inside of Turn 11. As he jumped out of his car running away from the spreading flames he didn’t spotted the arriving firefighter car that overrun him. He rolled on the bonnet of the car and fell right on the racing line!
Hill arrived there first at top speed, the tragedy seemed inevitable. But Damon with lightning reflexes changed his course and hit the brakes. He miraculously avoided Taki, but he couldn’t stop before he hit the tire barrier. Inoue jumped up the next second and rushed off the track, but by then Hill was out of the race.
“I wasn’t thinking." Hill explained later. "Somehow I realized that there was a body on the road and ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna run him over.' I don’t remember exactly what I did but I know I avoided the body but I couldn’t stop the car and I was out. In a hindsight it was worth it but Inoue should be locked into a box during racedys!”
Meanwhile Panis spun retired with a brake failure, and lost valuable points for Ligier. Barrichello and Gounon tangled one lap later, and both had to go to the pits, Rubens with a puncture, Jean-Marc with a broken front wing.
When the chaos settled once again, Schumacher was still in the lead. Kovacshazi was second, but Herbert, capitalizing from the misfortune of others was closing up on him very fast. Irvine was fourth, Frentzen fifth and Alesi sixth. Barrichello, Gounon and Brundle were seventh, eighth and ninth. In lap 61 Kovacshazi’s brakes blocked and he knocked off his front wing on the Armco in Turn 2. He soldiered on, and after an extra pit-stop he dropped back to 6th position. And the two Benettons found themselves in 1-2!
Kovacshazi charged, being the fastest on the track in the next few laps, but he couldn’t catch up with Alesi and Frentzen in time. But this time Alesi helped him with an overly optimistic maneuver in turn 1. The Ferrari and the Sauber spun, but both Kovacshazi and Barrichello passed them.
And so, on a race when everybody had frightening adventures Schumacher, the only man who was avoided by any incident, won the with almost 50 seconds race ahead of his team-mate. Eddie Irvine snatched a lucky third. Kovacshazi finished fourth and he couldn’t decide if he should be sad or happy about it. Alesi passed Barrichello in lap 76 of 77 for fifth.
This victory meant that with only seven races left Schumacher was 38 points ahead of his closest rival Alesi, and Benetton had more than twice as many points as Ferrari. But the Hungarian fans were more interested in Kovacshazi, who finished in an excellent 4th place and was clearly the man of the race!
Hungarian Grand Prix – Final Results
1. Michael Schumacher 1:44:59.098
2. Johnny Herbert +0:47.375
3. Eddie Irvine +1 lap
4. Merse Kovacshazi +1 lap
5. Jean Alesi +1 lap
6. Rubens Barrichello +1 lap
7. Jean-Marc Gounon +1 lap
8. Martin Brundle +2 laps
DNF: Frentzen (L67), Diniz (L61), Hill (52), Panis (L52), Montermini (L49), Inoue (L48), Salo (L47), Boullion (L35), Hakkinen (L22), Blundell (L22), Papis (L21), Katayama (L21), Coulthard (L19), Badoer (L16), Berger (L9), Lamy (L6)
Drivers Championship – after Round 10
1. Schumacher 70 (-)
2. Herbert 45 (-)
3. Alesi 32 (-)
4. Hill 27 (-)
5. Berger 20 (-)
6. Coulthard 13 (-)
7. Gachot 12 (-)
8. Hakkinen 10 (-)
9. Kovacshazi 7 (+1)
10. Irvine 7 (+2)
11. Frentzen 5 (-2)
12. Suzuki 3 (-1)
13. Blundell 3 (-)
14. Salo 2 (-)
15. Gounon 2 (-)
16. Wendlinger 1 (-)
17. Barrichello 1
Constructors Championship – after Round 10
1. Benetton 115 (-)
2. Ferrari 52 (-)
3. Williams 40 (-)
4. Jordan 22 (-)
5. McLaren 13 (-)
6. Pacific 9 (-)
7. Sauber 6 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
[quote=Race commentaries:]
Michael Schumacher (1st): “Well, I have not much to say about this race. To be honest, it was pretty uneventful for me. I was lapping in my own pace, Damon was close behind me for a while but then he had some problem, then Hakkinen spun ahead of me, that was pretty close, but otherwise, it was a smooth ride home.”
Johnny Herbert (2nd): “What a race! When I lost my front wing I thought this race was over, but then my pace was great and everyone around me had problems, so I found myself in second place. I’m very happy with this result, it was the best I could hope for on this race.”
Eddie Irvine (3rd): “I had my fair share of luck on this race to be honest. I had no major problems, although I got stuck behind some cars after my second pitstop and I lost some time, but then the others dropped out ahead of me… I can’t say how happy I am! This is my first podium and I hope it will be followed by many more.”
Merse Kovacshazi (4th): “I can’t say how angry I am! I was second and I lost it because my brakes blocked at Turn 2. Then again, it is a good thing to be angry about a fourth place. Sunday afternoon we were totally lost with the setups, then today we found the perfect balance. We had some luck with that, but the car worked perfectly on the race. I had some exciting moments and great battles, and overall I think this is a result we should build upon.
Damon Hill (DNF): “That guy [Inoue] is just not belongs to Formula One! He is always in the way, he is horribly slow and somehow he is always involved in some incident. After the race he came to me and thanked me for not running him over. If he stays away from me that will be enough.”
Mika Hakkinen: (DNF): “I am very sad about what happened today. I had the winning strategy, I was keeping Michael behind me, and I think I had to stop one time less than he did, so we may have lost a victory here, but definitely a podium finish. But Max didn’t leave enough room for me in that corner and we contacted, and I couldn’t stop the car.”[/quote]
Note: The years 1994-95 were the age of "capitalist depression" of Hungary. By 1994 the people had to face that many comfortable things they got used to during the communism (like 100% employment, organized holidays, state-controlled prices etc.) doesn't get granted in a Western democracy. People were so depressed that on the 1994 election they voted the successor of the Hungarian communist party an absolute majority in the parliament. Then this very party in march 1995 announced the harshest, most brutal austerity measures the country had ever seen (pension reduced by 50%, no state support for families whatsoever, these kind of things...). In this era anyone who was showing off how much money he had was a subject of envy, despise and hatred.
Heroes of the Hungaroring
Murray Walker wrote:If a man gets up with the wrong foot, you call it a weird day. If twenty-four men does that, you call it the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The speculations about next year’s driver lineup continued in Hungary. Canadian CART champion, Jacques Villeneuve, appeared on the Williams candidate list, alongside Jean Alesi. The Frenchman was said to be close to an agreement with Renault, and if Schumacher would move to Ferrari, he would replace him at Benetton. If the German stays, Jean would join Williams, partnering a hopefully new star, which could be either Coulthard, Villeneuve or Frentzen.
Larrousse accumulated a huge debt, and to avoid liquidation, good old Gerard had to sell the team to Jean-Paul Driot, who was trying to establish cooperation between his DAMS and Larrousse’s team. Larrousse turned down his offer in December, but now he was forced to cooperate. But all was not well as the team had no more engines to race with. Bernie Ecclestone however, gave them the same allowance to miss one GP that he had given to Simtek in Canada, and Driot wasn’t wasting the time. He quickly finalized a two years supply deal for Ford ED engines, and also confirmed Erik Comas to replace Eric Bernard in Belgium.
Ford had more announcements on the weekend. They announced the arrival of a brand new V10 engine to replace the Zetec-R, and they had extended their deal with Sauber. On the driver front, it was unclear whether Sauber could keep either Frentzen or Boullion. Frentzen was rumored to be on the shopping list of several top teams, and Boullion was likely to be placed elsewhere by Elf. It was likely, therefore, that Sauber would be looking for at least one new driver; and Briton Johnny Herbert was one name being mentioned.
Speaking of drivers, Jordan was happy to welcome back Rubens Barrichello, who recovered from his spinal injury he suffered in Brazil. Pedro Diniz, the cause of his injury also returned to Forti. The Italian team bought Montermini’s services of the rest of the season from Pacific, which meant an early retirement for Roberto Moreno. The Brazilian driver debuted on the 1982 Dutch GP , but he failed to qualify. He participated on altogether 68 GPs qualified on 42 occasions. His best result was his second place behind his Benetton team-mate Nelson Piquet on the 1990 Japanese GP.
There were two more changes on the grid. Brundle sat back into the #25 Ligier, and Minardi has dropped its longtime stalwart driver Pierluigi Martini and replaced him with Portuguese pay-driver Pedro Lamy. The runner-up to Olivier Panis in the 1993 European F3000 Championship, has taken part in eight GPs for Lotus in the past, and was believed to be bringing a sizable amount of sponsorship with him.
It was not the first time that Martini has been dropped by Minardi - the team with which he started his F1 career in 1985 and for which he has driven 102 GPs. When the team needed money in 1993, Martini stood down to let Fabrizio Barbazza and Jean-Marc Gounon drive, but he was back in action the following year. Pierluigi has been responsible for all the high points in Minardi history: he scored the team's first World Championship point at Detroit in 1988; he led the Portuguese GP in 1989 for one lap; qualified second to Gerhard Berger's McLaren at Phoenix in 1990; and his two fourth place at San Marino and Estoril in 1991 and at San Marino again in 1994 remain the team's best finishes.
Merse Kovacshazi arrived home in a very bad mood. Apart from Imola he failed to finish any race, his reputation was tarnished by his continuous retirements and incidents, and recently even his team mate got the best of him, and Hungarian trash media welcomed him with a smear campaign, claiming that he is wasting money while the country suffers under the economic crisis and the government's never ending austerity measures. His mood it only became worse on Friday. During the practice sessions he was totally lost, struggling with the car all weekend and being horribly off the pace.
“I don’t know what to say” he commented “It all feels wrong. The car is sluggish at the entries and unstable on the exits, sometimes it changes between oversteer and understeer in the middle of the corner. It’s a nightmare.”
On a happier note, after the German GP at Hockenheim, Michael Schumacher married his girlfriend Corinna Betsch in a quick civil ceremony in Mannheim, not far from the circuit.
Maybe this gave him the extra strength to be the fastest on Saturday ahead of Hill, Coulthard, Alesi, Berger, Herbert Hakkinen and Irvine. Barrichello qualified in a decent 10th position, Gounon was 12th, while Kovacshazi finished as low as 16th, one second off the pace of Gounon.
Hungarian Grand Prix – Starting grid
1. Schumacher - Benetton
2. Hill - Williams
3. Coulthard - Williams
4. Alesi - Ferrari
5. Berger - Ferrari
6. Herbert - Benetton
7. Hakkinen - McLaren
8. Irvine - Jordan
9. Blundell - McLaren
10. Barrichello - Jordan
11. Panis - Ligier
12. Gounon - Pacific
13. Frentzen - Sauber
14. Brundle - Ligier
15. Boullion - Sauber
16. Kovacshazi - Pacific
17. Salo - Tyrrell
18. Papis - Footwork
19. Lamy - Minard
20. Katayama - Tyrell
21. Badoer - Minardi
22. Montermini - Forti
23. Inoue - Footwork
24. Diniz – Forti
The Sunday warm-up session brought a surprise result as Kovacshazi finished 5th, being more than a second faster, than he was during the qualifying! “We were so lost with the setups on Friday on Saturday we sat down with the mechanics and decided to try something radically different.” he explained. “We weren't there on the qualifying, we made a lot of extrapolation, and we spent the warmup to try out the changes we made, but finally it seems to be working! I finally feel in control.”
The Hungaroring was always famous about boring starts, and this race wasn’t an exception. Hill challenged Schumacher, but the German kept his position. Berger took 4th from Alesi, while Kovacshazi performed one of the greatest starts of the year, jumping to 10th. Granted, he needed that Frentzen almost stalled his car that held Boullion and Brundle up, but he passed Gounon and Panis in the second corner from the outside, and then Barrichello in the inside in the last corner.
By the end of lap 3 Schumacher extended his lead to 2.5 seconds ahead of the Williams duo, as the pack started to pull apart down to Blundell who held up Kovacshazi, Barrichello, Panis and Gounon.
The race was quiet until lap 9, when events started to stir up. First Herbert collided with Alesi which ended with two broken front wings, then Berger blew the Ferrari engine, and finally Kovacshazi had run wide in turn 4 and dropped back behind Barrichello and Panis.
Schumacher was leading the race in lap 11, but Hill came back to only 1.5 seconds behind him. Coulthard, Hakkinen, Irvine, Blundell, Barrichello, Panis, Kovacshazi, Gounon and Brundle followed. Alesi had dropped back to 15th, Herbert to 17th.
By the time the first pit-stops started Kovacshazi was back in 7th with two spectacular overtaking maneuvers. His knowledge of the track started to pay off. Coulthard opened the planned stops in lap 16, then came Schumacher and Hill, leaving Mika Hakkinen in the lead. Coulthard returned jut behind Kovacshazi but before the Hungarian would have got a chance to show what he can do against a Williams, the Scotsman’s gearbox fell apart. He got Herbert instead, who was on his gearbox after the Pacific made its first stop.
In lap 22 McLaren’s promising race reached an abrupt end. Hakkinen still in the lead, under pressure from Schumacher, tried to lap Papis, who didn’t pay attention. There was contact, Papis flew into the Armco, Hakkinen spun, Schumacher could just avoid the accident, but Hill behind him couldn’t, and knocked off his front wing on the McLaren’s front right suspension. Blundell, who was 4th and about 4 seconds behind Hill somehow avoided the Williams but he couldn’t see his team-mate. In only a matter of seconds the two McLarens were out of the race. It barely got any attention that Katayama retired with brake problems and the Ligier crew spent half a minute before they managed to attach the fuel pump to Brundle’s car on the very same lap.
After the dust settled and everybody made their first pit-stops Schumacher was leading with more than 30 seconds ahead of Hill. Kovacshazi found himself in 3rd, only a few seconds behind Hill, and about 4 seconds ahead of Irvine. Panis and Alesi, who somehow got a huge hole on the Ferrari's left sidepod, fought for 5th place. Barrichello, Frentzen, Gounon, Boullion, Herbert was the following order. Hill’s car suffered some substantial damage in the collision because first Kovacshazi, then Irvine passed him, and Alesi was closing up on him as well.
For a while the Kovacshazi-Irvine-Hill-Alesi quartet provided the only entertainment on the track. The group was broken up by Irvine who stopped for refueling in lap 34 and come back right between Frentzen an Gounon, writing himself out of the fight for second place. Kovacshazi was under a lot of pressure from Hill, then from Alesi, but managed to hold his position which paid out when he came back from his pit-stop 5 seconds ahead of Irvine.
Schumacher was still leading in lap 40 by a lot. Hill was second but he might or might not have to stop once more. Barrichello was temporarily third, Kovacshazi, and Alesi were 4th and 5th after their pit-stops, fighting with each other, until the Ferrari driver had to make an extra stop due an electrical problem. Frentzen temporarily occupied 6th position and was followed by Irvine, Panis, Herbert and Gounon in a tight order.
The race settled down until lap 47 when havoc broke out again. First Salo retired with a spectacular spin in Turn 4. Then Inoue’s car caught fire and he got so terrified that he stopped on the worst possible place: half occupying the racing line in the inside of Turn 11. As he jumped out of his car running away from the spreading flames he didn’t spotted the arriving firefighter car that overrun him. He rolled on the bonnet of the car and fell right on the racing line!
Hill arrived there first at top speed, the tragedy seemed inevitable. But Damon with lightning reflexes changed his course and hit the brakes. He miraculously avoided Taki, but he couldn’t stop before he hit the tire barrier. Inoue jumped up the next second and rushed off the track, but by then Hill was out of the race.
“I wasn’t thinking." Hill explained later. "Somehow I realized that there was a body on the road and ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna run him over.' I don’t remember exactly what I did but I know I avoided the body but I couldn’t stop the car and I was out. In a hindsight it was worth it but Inoue should be locked into a box during racedys!”
Meanwhile Panis spun retired with a brake failure, and lost valuable points for Ligier. Barrichello and Gounon tangled one lap later, and both had to go to the pits, Rubens with a puncture, Jean-Marc with a broken front wing.
When the chaos settled once again, Schumacher was still in the lead. Kovacshazi was second, but Herbert, capitalizing from the misfortune of others was closing up on him very fast. Irvine was fourth, Frentzen fifth and Alesi sixth. Barrichello, Gounon and Brundle were seventh, eighth and ninth. In lap 61 Kovacshazi’s brakes blocked and he knocked off his front wing on the Armco in Turn 2. He soldiered on, and after an extra pit-stop he dropped back to 6th position. And the two Benettons found themselves in 1-2!
Kovacshazi charged, being the fastest on the track in the next few laps, but he couldn’t catch up with Alesi and Frentzen in time. But this time Alesi helped him with an overly optimistic maneuver in turn 1. The Ferrari and the Sauber spun, but both Kovacshazi and Barrichello passed them.
And so, on a race when everybody had frightening adventures Schumacher, the only man who was avoided by any incident, won the with almost 50 seconds race ahead of his team-mate. Eddie Irvine snatched a lucky third. Kovacshazi finished fourth and he couldn’t decide if he should be sad or happy about it. Alesi passed Barrichello in lap 76 of 77 for fifth.
This victory meant that with only seven races left Schumacher was 38 points ahead of his closest rival Alesi, and Benetton had more than twice as many points as Ferrari. But the Hungarian fans were more interested in Kovacshazi, who finished in an excellent 4th place and was clearly the man of the race!
Hungarian Grand Prix – Final Results
1. Michael Schumacher 1:44:59.098
2. Johnny Herbert +0:47.375
3. Eddie Irvine +1 lap
4. Merse Kovacshazi +1 lap
5. Jean Alesi +1 lap
6. Rubens Barrichello +1 lap
7. Jean-Marc Gounon +1 lap
8. Martin Brundle +2 laps
DNF: Frentzen (L67), Diniz (L61), Hill (52), Panis (L52), Montermini (L49), Inoue (L48), Salo (L47), Boullion (L35), Hakkinen (L22), Blundell (L22), Papis (L21), Katayama (L21), Coulthard (L19), Badoer (L16), Berger (L9), Lamy (L6)
Drivers Championship – after Round 10
1. Schumacher 70 (-)
2. Herbert 45 (-)
3. Alesi 32 (-)
4. Hill 27 (-)
5. Berger 20 (-)
6. Coulthard 13 (-)
7. Gachot 12 (-)
8. Hakkinen 10 (-)
9. Kovacshazi 7 (+1)
10. Irvine 7 (+2)
11. Frentzen 5 (-2)
12. Suzuki 3 (-1)
13. Blundell 3 (-)
14. Salo 2 (-)
15. Gounon 2 (-)
16. Wendlinger 1 (-)
17. Barrichello 1
Constructors Championship – after Round 10
1. Benetton 115 (-)
2. Ferrari 52 (-)
3. Williams 40 (-)
4. Jordan 22 (-)
5. McLaren 13 (-)
6. Pacific 9 (-)
7. Sauber 6 (-)
8. Ligier 3 (-)
9. Tyrrell 2 (-)
[quote=Race commentaries:]
Michael Schumacher (1st): “Well, I have not much to say about this race. To be honest, it was pretty uneventful for me. I was lapping in my own pace, Damon was close behind me for a while but then he had some problem, then Hakkinen spun ahead of me, that was pretty close, but otherwise, it was a smooth ride home.”
Johnny Herbert (2nd): “What a race! When I lost my front wing I thought this race was over, but then my pace was great and everyone around me had problems, so I found myself in second place. I’m very happy with this result, it was the best I could hope for on this race.”
Eddie Irvine (3rd): “I had my fair share of luck on this race to be honest. I had no major problems, although I got stuck behind some cars after my second pitstop and I lost some time, but then the others dropped out ahead of me… I can’t say how happy I am! This is my first podium and I hope it will be followed by many more.”
Merse Kovacshazi (4th): “I can’t say how angry I am! I was second and I lost it because my brakes blocked at Turn 2. Then again, it is a good thing to be angry about a fourth place. Sunday afternoon we were totally lost with the setups, then today we found the perfect balance. We had some luck with that, but the car worked perfectly on the race. I had some exciting moments and great battles, and overall I think this is a result we should build upon.
Damon Hill (DNF): “That guy [Inoue] is just not belongs to Formula One! He is always in the way, he is horribly slow and somehow he is always involved in some incident. After the race he came to me and thanked me for not running him over. If he stays away from me that will be enough.”
Mika Hakkinen: (DNF): “I am very sad about what happened today. I had the winning strategy, I was keeping Michael behind me, and I think I had to stop one time less than he did, so we may have lost a victory here, but definitely a podium finish. But Max didn’t leave enough room for me in that corner and we contacted, and I couldn’t stop the car.”[/quote]
Note: The years 1994-95 were the age of "capitalist depression" of Hungary. By 1994 the people had to face that many comfortable things they got used to during the communism (like 100% employment, organized holidays, state-controlled prices etc.) doesn't get granted in a Western democracy. People were so depressed that on the 1994 election they voted the successor of the Hungarian communist party an absolute majority in the parliament. Then this very party in march 1995 announced the harshest, most brutal austerity measures the country had ever seen (pension reduced by 50%, no state support for families whatsoever, these kind of things...). In this era anyone who was showing off how much money he had was a subject of envy, despise and hatred.