FF1M 1995 Review : Part 3

Spanish Grand Prix

Another modified circuit was next on the 1995 calendar in the form of Circuit de Catalunya, although the only change that was made was the bypassing of the Nissan chicane as the circuit went from Campsa straight to La Caixa, and a new potential overtaking opportunity. Barcelona’s characteristics as an aerodynamically dependant circuit still remained, but it was still Willows Racing who looked favourites for pole position. While Damon Hill led the way for most of the session, a stunning final flying lap gave Nicola Larini a surprise maiden pole position, and only the second time a team with a customer engine took pole position since the start of the works/customer split in 1992. The only other time this happened was the 1993 Australian Grand Prix courtesy of CBA Racing with a customer Renault engine.

Come race day, teams were unsure how the tyres were going to perform, but most drivers were planning to stop three times with some aiming to stop twice. Larini on the other hand appeared to be going rogue with an audacious one-stop strategy, and the extra weight looked to affect his start as he fell behind Hill and Mark Blundell going into Elf. All drivers got through the first two sectors safely, but La Caixa broke that pattern when Jean Alesi once again tipped a driver into a spin on the first lap. This time it was Jan Magnussen, but it was the Dane’s impatience in rejoining that ended Eddie Irvine’s race and forced Magnussen into the pits for repairs.

Hill and Blundell were lightly-fuelled and likely three-stopping, which allowed them to streak into the distance while Larini performed the role of mobile chicane. His car had good top speed on the main straight, which was frustrating Martin Brundle, while Michael Schumacher was having similar issues with 5th-placed Mika Salo, but on lap 4, he cleverly used Brundle’s slipstream to execute a brave double overtake into Elf. Salo was so startled by this that he had an off-track moment exiting Renault and fell to 8th behind Nigel Mansell, David Coulthard, and Mika Hakkinen. On the next lap, Brundle was able to use his lighter fuel load to get back ahead of Schumacher for 4th, and then moved up to 3rd after Larini locked up into La Caixa. At the same time, Mansell snuck ahead of Schumacher for 5th, and then the FJR driver came under attack from a swarm of drivers at the start of lap 6 and was lucky not to be collected by a spinning Coulthard.

Larini was clearly struggling on his heavy fuel load as he was losing up to two seconds a lap to Hill. To demonstrate this further on lap 6, he locked his rear brakes into Repsol and spun into the gravel, dropping to the back of the field. The chaos continued later that lap as Salo ran wide at La Caixa and spun back onto the circuit with Gerhard Berger collecting him in the process. Both made it back into the pits for repairs but their races were trashed. Further up, Schumacher wasn’t as uncomfortable with his two-stop fuel load, but he still lost places to Hakkinen and Gianni Morbidelli on lap 8. The Andrew driver was making up for Larini’s difficult race, and not even a face full of smoke from Hakkinen detonated Deutsche engine could faze him.

The race then mercifully settled down after the chaotic opening with the focus shifting to Rubens Barrichello struggling to overtake Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 8th for a few laps, but he gladly accepted an invitation to move ahead on lap 12 when Frentzen ran wide at Wurth with Alesi also getting ahead. Two laps later, the first round of pitstops began with Brundle heading to the pits first from a fine 3rd place. Morbidelli and Barrichello also pitted early with it clear that they were going for three stops. Hill and Blundell came in on laps 16 and 17 with both rejoining behind the two-stopping Mansell and Schumacher, but it quickly became obvious that new tyres were very powerful as Hill caught and breezed past Schumacher for 2nd on lap 19. A less straightforward but more impressive overtake came from Barrichello as he went round the outside of teammate Roberto Moreno at Elf. Former teammate Alessandro Zanardi must’ve heard about his overtake as he attempted something similar on Berger, but the execution was rather more amateurish with a double spin into the gravel.

Mansell’s first stop came at the end of lap 20 which put Hill back into the lead. Of some of the other two-stoppers, Frentzen ruined his race by understeering off the circuit at the final corner and rejoining last of the runners, but he would quickly gain a place when Zanardi’s engine failed, probably as a result of excess gravel in his sidepods from his spin. Schumacher made his first stop on lap 22, rejoining a lonely 6th but with a podium finish still on the cards as he was only 12 seconds behind 3rd-placed Brundle, raising the prospect of the four-way battle for the final place on the podium. This suddenly became a battle for two places on the podium as one of Blundell’s wheels loosened up, damaging the hub and forcing him to pull over just before the pit entrance. Further back, a different four-way battle resulted in a pile-up at Elf when Alesi clattered into Larini with Coulthard spinning of his own accord.

Despite his heavier fuel load, Mansell was able to overtake Morbidelli for 3rd into La Caixa, and then moved up to 2nd on lap 31 with a simple slipstreaming move on Brundle. Schumacher then moved ahead of the two three-stoppers to assume 3rd by lap 33. Morbidelli and Brundle then swapped places on lap 38 after a somewhat dicey battle, and then both gained their places on the podium when first, Mansell’s throttle linkage failed, and then Schumacher’s suspension broke shortly after his second stop. Other retirements included Larini, whose tumultuous race ended thanks to a puncture, and Salo, whose gearbox broke on lap 42, while further battles included a fierce scrap for an eventual 9th involving Berger, Jos Verstappen, Frentzen, and Taki Inoue, with the Mitchell driver eventually coming out on top.

With the top six mostly spread out, Hill was free to take his second consecutive win, propelling himself up to 2nd in the drivers championship ahead of Mansell and only one point behind Schumacher. Morbidelli took his second podium finish of the season with Brundle taking Yamaha’s first ever podium finish. The high attrition rate helped Barrichello to his first points of the season with Olivier Panis putting in a quietly strong drive from last on the grid to 5th, while Roberto Moreno made it two Gojira drivers in the points.

Monaco Grand Prix

The cramped street circuit of Monte Carlo made its annual appearance on the FF1M calendar with the tight confines expected to favour cars with strong traction out of the corners. Qualifying was pretty much decided within the first few minutes as Damon Hill set a fast lap on his first run that would prove to be unbeatable. Nigel Mansell was 2nd with Nicola Larini once again impressing with 3rd, while championship leader Michael Schumacher struggled to 7th with it becoming apparent that the FJR car wasn’t particularly well developed compared to Willows, Tornado, and Andrew Racing.

On the short run to St Devote, Hill once again had the perfect getaway, while Mansell’s was less so as he lost 2nd to Larini. The other Tornado had a better time of it as Mark Blundell got ahead of Gianni Morbidelli for 4th. With the faster Mansell stuck behind the slower Larini, Hill scampered away and built on his lead by up to a second per lap. By the start of the pitstops, of which nearly all drivers had opted for three, Hill had built up a lead of nearly 15 seconds, but it was his teammate who came in first on lap 18. Although it was scheduled, there were concerns of a slow puncture after he grazed the Armco barrier exiting Casino. Checks on the car revealed no immediate damage, but the delay meant that David Coulthard, who had also stopped on the same lap, jumped the Finn.

Larini gave Mansell cause for optimism as he pitted on the next lap along with Mika Hakkinen, and then Hill came in on lap 20 just he had caught up to traffic. Although he briefly dropped to 3rd, he regained the lead on the next lap after Mansell and Morbidelli made their first pitstops. Schumacher’s first stop was a disaster as he fell behind Coulthard, who had made the most of his new tyres. Also making the most of his new tyres was Mansell, who set a new fastest lap once he had freed himself from Larini, while Blundell did the impossible round Monaco as he overtook Morbidelli going into Mirabeau. The team were so impressed by his overtake that Blundell gave them a second helping, overtaking the other Andrew at the same corner on lap 28 to move up to 3rd. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, running in last place, was informed that overtaking was possible and had a go himself, getting past Alessandro Zanardi on the next lap. The Italian then asked his team if he could leave early, and they gave him permission to crash out of the race exiting the swimming pool.

With Hill deep in traffic during the second stint, Mansell closed the gap to around five seconds before the second round of pitstops began. Once again, Schumacher would find himself frustrated as he was delayed by the departing Johnny Herbert with the few seconds lost causing him to rejoin behind both Andrew drivers and Coulthard, but his frustration would heighten as spending the entirety of his race in traffic caused his engine to overheat on lap 50. Other retirements at this point included Eddie Irvine and Jos Verstappen, both due to crashes, while Salo’s driveshaft failed on lap 52, possible as a legacy of his earlier skirmish with the barrier. This did however put a reliability worry on race leader Hill, but it was 2nd-placed Mansell who would bow out early with suspension trouble.

At the final round of pitstops, Herbert would once again cause some bother as he delayed enough for the Andrew driver to be jumped by Coulthard, who was having a fine race in the underpowered CBA. A strong outlap nearly allowed him to jump the other Andrew, but Morbidelli just held on. Both drivers however lost track position to the two-stopping Brundle, and it seemed as if the Pedersen was heading for a second consecutive podium finish, but he pushed too hard at the swimming pool and crashed out on lap 68.

The race then settled down over the final 10 laps with Hill taking yet another commanding victory to move himself and Willows into the lead of both championships. Despite Mansell’s demise, Blundell still gave Tornado some cheer with his best career result of 2nd ahead of the impressive Morbidelli. Coulthard took a strong 4th for CBA Racing ahead of Larini, while Hakkinen was back in the points for Monolith with 6th.

Paddock News

Prior to the Monaco Grand Prix, the AFIA officially announced the foundations for the 1996 FF1M season with the expected financial changes being confirmed. The immediate reaction from the teams was largely negative with concerns over a two-tier system and more emphasis being placed on meritocracy and the stockpiling of budgets. During the Monaco Grand Prix meeting, JOCA president Jaakko Valkoinen privately met up with some of the FF1M teams in a focus group setting and promptly announced the regulations for the 1996 GPMB season, which were wildly different from the AFIA’s regulations.

The big story came immediately after the Monaco Grand Prix when Mitchell announced that they would be leaving FF1M at the end of the season to join GPMB. In a press conference, team principal Giuseppe Micelli explained his reasoning:

“Well, as you know, 1995 has been about as bad as you can imagine with our Coca Cola engines hurting the two best drivers in the world. I mean, I recently bought a macchina agricoltura and that has more power than the flat Budweisers we’ve been given, and our Jos the boss and our Parigino deserve better. So, along came Jaakko, and let’s just say we did a deal that will see our great name conquer the hills of Roma in less than a day.”

Micelli concluded the press conference by showing off his brand new agricultural machine and somehow performed a wheelie before eventually losing control and running over an unsuspecting Taki Inoue. The Japanese driver was rushed to the medical centre with leg, neck, and mouth pains.

Despite being one of the established teams having been in FF1M since 1987, Mitchell have yet to win a race with a handful of podium finishes and one pole position to their name so far. 1994 was a relatively solid season for them with Damon Hill in particular putting in some great performances, but as Micelli touched upon, 1995 has been torrid so far. A combination of this, their modest record, their feelings towards the 1996 FF1M regulations, and Valkoinen’s persuasive bargaining have led to Mitchell becoming the first team to change allegiance.

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