1997 Australian Grand Prix Explained

Type:F1
Country:Australia
Grand Prix:Australian
Race No:1
Season No:17
Year:1997
Official Name:Qantas Australian Grand Prix
Date:9 March
Location:Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne
Course:Temporary street circuit
Course Mi:3.295
Course Km:5.302
Distance Laps:58
Distance Mi:191.110
Distance Km:307.516
Weather:Partly Cloudy, Dry
Pole Country:Canada
Pole Driver:Jacques Villeneuve
Pole Team:Williams-Renault
Pole Time:1:29.369
Fast Country:Germany
Fast Driver:Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Fast Team:Williams-Renault
Fast Time:1:30.585
Fast Lap:36
First Country:United Kingdom
First Driver:David Coulthard
First Team:McLaren-Mercedes
Second Country:Germany
Second Driver:Michael Schumacher
Second Team:Ferrari
Third Country:Finland
Third Driver:Mika Häkkinen
Third Team:McLaren-Mercedes
Previous Round:1996 Japanese Grand Prix
Next Round:1997 Brazilian Grand Prix

The 1997 Australian Grand Prix (formally the Qantas Australian Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race held at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on 9 March 1997. It was the first race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship, and the second Australian Grand Prix to be held in Melbourne.

The 58-lap race was won by David Coulthard, driving a McLaren-Mercedes, after he started from fourth position. It was Coulthard's second F1 victory, and the first for the McLaren team since the 1993 Australian Grand Prix. German Michael Schumacher finished second in a Ferrari, with Coulthard's Finnish teammate Mika Häkkinen third. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took pole position in his Williams-Renault but retired after a first-lap collision, while reigning World Champion Damon Hill, in his first race for the Arrows team, suffered a throttle failure on the formation lap and did not start.

This race marked the debuts of Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli and Shinji Nakano; the entry of Bridgestone as a tyre supplier to compete with Goodyear; and the only appearance of the MasterCard Lola team, whose cars were over 11 seconds off Villeneuve's pole time and thus did not qualify.[2]

Report

Background

Two new teams came into Formula One in 1997: Stewart and Lola. This was Lola's first F1 race weekend involvement in F1 since 1993 when they were car supplier for the defunct BMS Scuderia Italia team and the first time they had entered their own team. Footwork reverted to their old name of Arrows and acquired Yamaha engines, while Ligier were bought by Alain Prost and changed their name to Prost Grand Prix. Tyrrell acquired Ford engines.

The change that dominated the drivers line up was Damon Hill's surprise sacking from Williams having just won the World Championship. He joined Tom Walkinshaw and the newly purchased Arrows team. In the week up to the race, there were rumours, which proved to be unfounded, of Hill having left Arrows due to the poor performance of the car.[3] Pedro Diniz brought significant sponsorship backing, and was hired as Hill's teammate. Williams retained Jacques Villeneuve and replaced Hill with Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Villeneuve was the bookmaker's favourite heading into the new season. He said that being the favourite put "extra pressure, but it's good pressure [on me]".[4] [5]

Ferrari retained Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, Benetton kept Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger and McLaren retained Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. The Jordan team had two new drivers in Giancarlo Fisichella, previously at Minardi, and Ralf Schumacher, brother of Michael. The new Prost Grand Prix team kept Olivier Panis and signed Japanese rookie driver Shinji Nakano. Sauber kept Johnny Herbert and the loss of Frentzen saw Peter Sauber sign Ferrari test driver Nicola Larini. Tyrrell retained Mika Salo for a third year and added Jos Verstappen to the team from Arrows. Minardi with V8 Hart engines signed Ukyo Katayama and Italian driver Jarno Trulli. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Olivier Panis were both making their 50th race entry, and Johnny Herbert was making his 100th race entry.

The new Stewart Grand Prix team had signed Rubens Barrichello and Danish driver Jan Magnussen. Lola recruited ex-Footwork Arrows driver Ricardo Rosset and former Benetton test driver Vincenzo Sospiri.

Bridgestone also made their first official appearance in Formula 1, breaking Goodyear's reign as a sole tyre supplier which began in 1992. They provided tyres for Minardi, Arrows, Prost, Stewart and Lola. Previously, the company had produced Formula One tyres at the 1976 and 1977 Japanese Grand Prix for Japanese entrants such as Kazuyoshi Hoshino's Heros Racing and Kojima.

The British television coverage switched to ITV for the 1997 season and beyond, after 18 years of regular coverage for the BBC. Former driver Martin Brundle joined Murray Walker in the commentary box.

In the build-up to the weekend, Michael Schumacher said that the circuit "wasn't particularly special", resulting in some criticism from locals.[6] There were also protests in the lead-up to the race, with protestors pouring diesel on to the track the week before the race.[6] A strike also meant that there was no tram shuttle service running, with spectators forced to catch buses to the track. Jeff Kennett, the Premier of Victoria, labelling them "bloody minded" and that they will have to "incur the wrath of the community".[6]

Practice and qualifying

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took his fourth career pole position with a lap of 1:29.369, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen could only manage a 1:31.121 to fill the remaining spot on the front row. Only six drivers managed to qualify within 3 seconds of the pole position time. The session was red flagged with just over two minutes remaining after a collision between Gerhard Berger and Nicola Larini on the straight between turns 10 and 11. This resulted in many of the cars effectively having to complete a one-lap sprint to post a lap time before the end of the session. Damon Hill struggled during the session, only just qualifying inside of the 107% limit due to an oil leak which hampered the lap times. Both of the Lola cars failed to make the qualifying limit and were over ten seconds slower than Villeneuve in their first and only F1 qualifying session, as the team had to withdraw from the next race due to a lack of funds. Pedro Diniz was also outside of the 107% time, but he was permitted to race as he had set a time in practice within the 107% time.

Race

On the parade lap, Damon Hill's throttle jammed, leaving him stranded on the track and causing him to retire from the race. At the first corner, Eddie Irvine misjudged his braking, hitting both Villeneuve and Herbert - all three retired from the race. Williams adopted a two-stop strategy, while most other teams were going for one-stop races. Jos Verstappen spun off on lap two while attempting to overtake Ukyo Katayama. Frentzen quickly built up a lead: 2.7secs on the first lap, 3.7s on the second, 5.3s on the third and 7.2s on the fourth. Both of the Jordan cars soon retired from the race, Ralf Schumacher suffering a gearbox problem and Fisichella spinning off the track while passing Barrichello. By lap 12, however, Frentzen eased off, and for the next six laps the gap between first and second stayed at 17-18s. Frentzen pitted on lap 18 and rejoined third.

Jean Alesi retired from the race after running out of fuel, to the fury of his Benetton team, who had been trying to call him into the pits for 5 laps. In the laps that followed Frentzen was able to close up on Coulthard and Schumacher. He lost time in traffic, struggling with his brakes. Coulthard and Schumacher pitted in mid-race and so Frentzen moved ahead again and ran very quickly for a few laps before he began to fade again. On lap 40 he came in for his second stop. The gap to Coulthard was only 23secs, and with the time in the pitlane being around 22-24secs it was unclear whether he could emerge ahead. In the end, his pit stop was delayed for several seconds by a right rear tire problem, allowing Coulthard and Schumacher to move ahead. At the front David Coulthard continued to keep away from these incidents to lead the race, followed by Michael Schumacher and Frentzen. Frentzen closed up on Coulthard and Schumacher who were by then running together but Schumacher had to make an unscheduled fuel stop towards the end of the race, promoting Frentzen to second. Large quantities of dust had been coming from Frentzen's brakes for some time and with three laps to go a brake disc failed, sending him into the gravel trap at the end of the start/finish straight. Coulthard went on to take his second career win. It was McLaren's first win since Ayrton Senna won the 1993 Australian Grand Prix. It was also their first win with Mercedes as an engine supplier, and Mercedes' first victory as an engine manufacturer since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Time Gap
13 Jacques VilleneuveWilliams-Renault1:29.3691
24 Heinz-Harald FrentzenWilliams-Renault1:31.123+1.7542
35 Michael SchumacherFerrari1:31.472+2.1033
410 David CoulthardMcLaren-Mercedes1:31.531+2.1624
56 Eddie IrvineFerrari1:31.881+2.5125
69 Mika HäkkinenMcLaren-Mercedes1:31.971+2.6026
716 Johnny HerbertSauber-Petronas1:32.287+2.9187
87 Jean AlesiBenetton-Renault1:32.593+3.2248
914 Olivier PanisProst-Mugen-Honda1:32.842+3.4739
108 Gerhard BergerBenetton-Renault1:32.870+3.50110
1122 Rubens BarrichelloStewart-Ford1:33.075+3.70611
1211 Ralf SchumacherJordan-Peugeot1:33.130+3.76112
1317 Nicola LariniSauber-Petronas1:33.327+3.95813
1412 Giancarlo FisichellaJordan-Peugeot1:33.552+4.18314
1520 Ukyo KatayamaMinardi-Hart1:33.798+4.42915
1615 Shinji NakanoProst-Mugen-Honda1:33.989+4.62016
1721 Jarno TrulliMinardi-Hart1:34.120+4.75117
1819 Mika SaloTyrrell-Ford1:34.229+4.86018
1923 Jan MagnussenStewart-Ford1:34.623+5.25419
201 Damon HillArrows-Yamaha1:34.806+5.43720
2118 Jos VerstappenTyrrell-Ford1:34.943+5.57421
107% time

1:35.625

222 Pedro DinizArrows-Yamaha1:35.972+6.60322
DNQ24 Vincenzo SospiriLola-Ford1:40.972+11.603
DNQ25 Ricardo RossetLola-Ford1:42.086+12.717

Race

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
110 David CoulthardMcLaren-Mercedes581:30:28.718410
25 Michael SchumacherFerrari58+20.04636
39 Mika HäkkinenMcLaren-Mercedes58+22.17764
48 Gerhard BergerBenetton-Renault58+22.841103
514 Olivier PanisProst-Mugen-Honda58+1:00.30892
617 Nicola LariniSauber-Petronas58+1:36.040131
715 Shinji NakanoProst-Mugen-Honda56+2 Laps16 
84 Heinz-Harald FrentzenWilliams-Renault55Brakes2 
921 Jarno TrulliMinardi-Hart55+3 Laps17 
102 Pedro DinizArrows-Yamaha54+4 Laps22 
Ret22 Rubens BarrichelloStewart-Ford49Engine11 
Ret19 Mika SaloTyrrell-Ford42Engine18 
Ret23 Jan MagnussenStewart-Ford36Suspension19 
Ret7 Jean AlesiBenetton-Renault34Out of Fuel8 
Ret20 Ukyo KatayamaMinardi-Hart32Electrical15 
Ret12 Giancarlo FisichellaJordan-Peugeot14Spun Off14 
Ret18 Jos VerstappenTyrrell-Ford2Spun Off21 
Ret11 Ralf SchumacherJordan-Peugeot1Gearbox12 
Ret3 Jacques VilleneuveWilliams-Renault0Collision1 
Ret6 Eddie IrvineFerrari0Collision5 
Ret16 Johnny HerbertSauber-Petronas0Collision7 
DNS1 Damon HillArrows-Yamaha0Throttle20 

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
PosDriverPoints
1 David Coulthard10
2 Michael Schumacher6
3 Mika Häkkinen4
4 Gerhard Berger3
5 Olivier Panis2
Source:[7]
Constructors' Championship standings
PosConstructorPoints
1 McLaren-Mercedes14
2 Ferrari6
3 Benetton-Renault3
4 Prost-Mugen-Honda2
5 Sauber-Petronas1
Source:

References

Race Details: Web site: 1997 Australian Grand Prix . Chicane F1 . 2 August 2007.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Australia. Formula1.com. 9 October 2023.
  2. Web site: Bring Back V10s Podcast: Lola's disastrous 1997 F1 team . The Race . 11 February 2021 . The Race Media . 11 February 2021.
  3. . 8 March 1997 . F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live . Television production . . London, England . 11:25–11:40.
  4. . 8 March 1997 . F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live . Television production . . London, England . 03:10–03:20.
  5. . 8 March 1997 . F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live . Television production . . London, England . 15:04–16:04.
  6. . 8 March 1997 . F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live . Television production . . London, England . 09:30–11:15.
  7. Web site: Australia 1997 - Championship • STATS F1. www.statsf1.com. 6 March 2019.