May 25 1996

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All of the information in this section was obtained from a bloke down the pub, which means that while we believe all the following information to be true, we couldn't swear that it is.

What we will say however, is that usually, "there's no smoke without fire".....

Previous Issues

Panis Lifts Ligier
Benetton Back On Track
McLaren May Alternate Cars
Tyres
Verstappen Hot Property
Minardi Calls For New Drivers
Irvine 'Happy At Ferrari'
Schumacher To Drive For Benetton
Schumacher In Trouble
Badoer In Trouble
Hill's Luck Run Out ?
Monaco Review
Monaco Results





Panis Lifts Ligier

Olivier Panis won his first GP, and Ligier's first for 15 years at Monaco on Sunday. The win makes Ligier the team with the longest time between GP wins. No team has ever won a race after such a long time without success, and it must be hard on Tom Walkinshaw who bought Arrows instead of Ligier because he could not get 100% of the Ligier shares. For Panis, he becomes the 73rd man to win a GP and the second F3000 champion to do so (Jean Alesi was the first 1989 F3000 champion). His win rockets him up to fourth place in the championship level with Alesi (Spooky huh?).

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Benetton Back On Track

Benetton put their troubles behind them this week and put in a fine performance at Monaco. The two cars were on the second row of the grid and ran well until Berger retired with gearbox trouble on lap 9 and Alesi while leading the race was forced to retire with broken suspension. Benetton are hoping to use a revised car for Canada, with a new front wing and under tray. The suspension modifications used at the Nurburgring and Imola will be retested after the Spanish GP.

Headlines

Buoyed by the success of the shorter wheelbase MP4/11B, McLaren have said that they may use the "B" variant at other circuits where the track is tight and twisty. The MP4/11B has a lower centre of gravity and it turns better thanks to the shorter wheel base. Suzuka and Estoril look likely candidates.

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Tyres

Tyres. Well, things are hotting up. Firstly there are rumours that the number of tyre sets a driver may use during a GP weekend could be cut from seven to five. Drivers may also be forced to start the race on the set with which they set their fastest lap. This is to stop the use of extra sticky qualifying tyres, which are only good for eight or so laps. A dual compound tyre has been talked about, which would have a qualifying surface which would wear away to reveal a race surface.Secondly, Goodyear are concerned about the proposed changes and are rumoured to be considering withdrawal. Goodyear do not want to see "hard" compounds which offer reduced grip being forced onto drivers and teams. Goodyear boss Cal Lint said "Our number one policy is safety...if they legislate us into a position where we feel uncomfortable, it has to be questionable whether we would want to continue to race. We don't want people out on tyres that we wouldn't want to put on the track"

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Verstappen Hot Property

Despite a crash at the first corner in Monaco (Slick tyres), Jos "The Boss" Verstappen is rumoured to be in talks with Benetton and Jordan about drives for next season. The two likely casualties of his move would be Berger or Brundle. Current team boss Tom Walkinshaw is also keen to keep the flying Dutchman in his team.

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Minardi Calls For New Drivers

Giancarlo Minardi hit out at other F1 teams this week, saying that they didn't give young drivers the chances they deserved. He cited Williams as the only other team to have given a young driver a chance this year. He said that Ferrari could use their second car to alternate between two young drivers instead of having two top flight drivers.

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Irvine 'Happy At Ferrari'

Despite his lack of testing and his lack of confidence in the car, Eddie Irvine has said that he is happy at Ferrari. He says that he knew he would be the number two driver and the team would concentrate on Michael. The Ferrari factory can't make the gearboxes fast enough for Eddie to be able to test, a situation which should ease before the Spanish GP. Ferrari's Jean Todt insisted that Ferrari was very happy with Eddie Irvine, "he never complains, is hard working and shows fighting spirit".

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Schumacher To Drive For Benetton

Yes it's almost true (sorry couldn't resist) Michael Schumacher's younger brother Ralf has been linked with a test session for the Benetton team. Currently leading the Japanese equivalent of F3000, Ralf is expected to return to Europe next year and enter F1. He is linked with Benetton, but his Mercedes links could also see him offered a test drive at McLaren.

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Schumacher In Trouble

World champion Michael Schumacher was summoned to the stewards office after an incident involving Gerhard Berger. Schumacher was coasting around the track waving to the crowd while other drivers were still trying to improve on their times in the last lap of qualifying. Gerhard Berger was pitched into a high speed spin as he avoided the coasting Ferrari. Berger said "I was going flat out but he changed his position onto the ideal line going through the tunnel". Ron Dennis was also deeply critical, adding that heavier action would almost certainly have resulted if the accident had been caused by a driver in a lesser team.

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Badoer In Trouble

Luca Badoer was also in trouble, after he ended Jacques Villeneuve's Monaco race by forcing him into the wall at the Mirabeau. Badoer was fined 5000 US Dollars and handed a two race ban, suspended for three races.

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Hill's Luck Run Out ?

Many articles in the press this week have said how Hill's luck ran out at Monaco. Ran out? Not many drivers who fail to finish the race are joined by all their chief rivals and end up with an untouched points lead. As far as the top four drivers scores are concerned, Monaco has made no impact at all. It would seem that his luck is running better than ever.

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Monaco Review

Monaco is always a special race and tends to stick in your mind longer than most. On Saturday Michael Schumacher was on incredible form as he secured pole for the second successive race.
On race day, the heavens opened and a wet start was declared, Hill got one of his best starts of the season and was in the lead by the first corner. By the end of the first lap six cars were 'missing in action'. Montermini had broken his toy in the familiarisation session when he crashed exiting the tunnel, so he did not start. The two Minardi cars collided and went out at Ste Devote (Er sorry Mr. Minardi), Verstappen bravely opting for slick tyres went out, Barrichello spun at Casino followed by Schumacher "I made a mistake. I'm sorry for the team and angry with myself" who didn't quite make it all the way round Portier. All on the first lap!
Katayama lasted until the third lap before going off at the Tabac followed by Rosset on lap 3 and Diniz who spun and stalled after 5 laps. That ended the early carnage. By the time the field had been reduced to 13 cars Hill had built up a 13 second lead.
As Hill continued to pull away more and more cars began to queue behind the Ferrari of Irvine. Frentzen, Coulthard, Villeneuve, Salo and Herbert were all in formation. Gerhard Berger's race finished, along with his gearbox, on lap 9. Things progressed in pretty much the same way until lap 17 when Frentzen collided with the back of the lone Ferrari and had to pit for a new nose cone. He came out in 11th place (last if you discount Badoer) and started to set fastest lap times. Up to lap 27 Frentzen, Alesi, Hill and finally Coulthard all posted fastest lap times, then the switch to slicks became the way to go. Practically the whole field pitted on laps 28 and 29.
Martin Brundle was the next to retire, spinning while on cold slicks on lap 30. Damon Hill suffered a rare failure on lap 40 when his engine blew in the tunnel. This left Alesi in the lead, though he was to retire on lap 60 with suspension failure. Jacques Villeneuve (on his 66th lap) was driven into the wall by Badoer (on his 60th lap) and both cars retired leaving seven cars running. Finally Eddie Irvine (on his 68th lap) spun coming out of the Portier, and Mika Salo and Mika Hakkinen (both on their 70th lap) crashed into the stationary Ferrari, leaving four cars running. Panis, Coulthard and Herbert were the only three drivers to finish, Frentzen was still running but was a lap down and pulled into the pits.

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Monaco Results

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