Canadian Grand Prix
FF1M’s second visit to North America (the other being the pre-season test at Sebring) was for the Canadian Grand Prix, a popular race with many attendees despite there not being a local driver to support, although Jacques Villeneuve was rumoured to be joining Gojira AutoSport for 1996. The Brazilian-Japanese team have had to endure a difficult season so far with just four points on the board courtesy of a double points finish at Barcelona. Qualifying produced mixed results for the team with Roberto Moreno 8th and Rubens Barrichello down in 16th. The session was initially headed by Mika Salo before Nicola Larini took provisional pole on his second run. Both Willows Racing drivers still had speed leftover with first Damon Hill, and then Salo setting two more fast laps for his second career pole position.
Despite an attack from his teammate into Virage Senna, Salo held onto the lead at the start with the only change within the top six being Mansell moving ahead of his teammate. Going into L’Epingle, Hill got too close to Salo and tagged the back of his teammate. Neither driver spun round, but Hill lost places to Nicola Larini, Michael Schumacher, and Gianni Morbidelli. Out of frustration, Hill tapped Morbidelli into the final chicane and minor mayhem ensued. Mansell then did a Moses and parted the Hill and Morbidelli waves into 4th place, while Moreno punted Mika Hakkinen off the circuit at Virage Senna, dropping the Finn from 8th to 14th. Further up front, Schumacher powered past Larini for 2nd, and then moved into the lead on lap 3 with an identical move on Salo. Schumacher was very lightly-fuelled and scampered off into the distance.
The end of lap 3 saw a small mistake from David Coulthard which lost him two places to Mark Blundell and Johnny Herbert. The other Tornado was also gaining places as Mansell moved up to 3rd ahead of Morbidelli at the start of lap 5. Morbidelli then lost another place to Hill at the end of lap 5. The Brit had a good view of Salo’s attempt to hold Mansell up, but the 1988 champion was wise to Willows’ tactics and pressured Salo into an error at the final chicane on lap 6. Salo then held Hill up for a lap before the two swapped places, and then Salo lost another place to Larini and proceeded to delay those behind him. One of those was Herbert, but his left front tyre decided that he shouldn’t be in the queue and forced an early retirement.
As early as lap 10, the first round of pitstops began with Jan Magnussen the first to blink. On the next lap, his teammate was in having built a lead of around 13 seconds to Mansell. He rejoined 4th behind Larini, who had gained track position over the German with a two-stop strategy. Mansell was also two-stopping, but Hill had chosen the same strategy as Schumacher and just didn’t have the car underneath him to stay with Mansell. New tyres looked to be the more beneficiary factor as Schumacher slipstreamed past Larini and then regained the lead when Mansell made his first stop on lap 20. Those on two stops had brought themselves into play including Hakkinen, and once again, his Monolith mechanics didn’t disappoint as good pitwork got him ahead of Salo in the pits and ahead of Blundell thanks to some good inlaps.
Schumacher’s task for his second stint was to try and build up enough of a lead to rejoin from his second pitstop ahead of Mansell, but his job was made a lot simpler as on lap 25, Mansell’s Peugeot pulverised itself into oblivion and out of the race. Therefore when Schumacher made his second stop on lap 31, he easily maintained the lead. Hill had also pitted but his lack of pace meant that he fell behind the two-stopping Larini and Hakkinen. Morbidelli had also got ahead, but his second of three stops was due, as was Larini’s retirement from 2nd thanks to a failed Ferrari. Then at exactly half-distance, Alessandro Zanardi’s miserable season continued thanks to a broken gearbox.
Once Morbidelli pitted on lap 35, Hakkinen was up to 2nd and seemingly had the measure over Hill, who despite his new tyres, was falling away from the Monolith driver. Hill’s concerns grew with two simultaneous Peugeot engine failures on lap 38 for Blundell and Salo. Their retirements brought Rubens Barrichello and Heinz-Harald Frentzen into the points despite both starting down in 16th and 18th. Having fallen to over five seconds behind Hakkinen, Hill regained 2nd when the Finn made his second and final stop on lap 42 with Barrichello and Brundle following him in. Frentzen pitted two laps later and jumped Barrichello for position. He then gained another two places in quick succession when first, Hill’s engine ended Peugeot’s entire participation, and then Schumacher cruelly lost a certain win with gearbox problems.
Hakkinen therefore inherited the lead having made all his pitstops, but the rest of the top six, consisting of Morbidelli, Gerhard Berger, Coulthard, Magnussen, and Moreno, all had their third and final stops to make. Morbidelli was far enough ahead to maintain second, but the remaining drivers all rejoined behind Frentzen, who was having a great race having moved up to 3rd. Barrichello’s two-stop strategy had also paid off as he moved up to 4th ahead of Berger, but the Austrian’s new tyres allowed him to overtake the Gojira driver on lap 57. Coulthard looked to follow through into 5th, but Barrichello held on. Berger then looked to challenge Frentzen for the final place on the podium, but with four laps remaining, the Pedersen’s Yamaha engine exploded on the start-finish straight.
Although it was an inherited win, Hakkinen’s drive was still superb nonetheless as he took his first win since the 1993 British Grand Prix, and Monolith’s first win outright, and brought himself to within 14 points of championship leader Hill. Taking 2nd in what was turning into a solid season was Morbidelli, his fourth podium finish of the season, while Frentzen took his first career podium finish, redemption after being dropped by FJR in the previous season. Barrichello and Coulthard took more points for their teams, while Jean Alesi was the main beneficiary of Berger’s late engine failure as he took his and Shake ‘n’ Bake’s first points of the season with 6th. The Frenchman celebrated by throwing his helmet into the crowd at L’Epingle.
French Grand Prix
FF1M made its fifth visit to Magny-Cours since the French Grand Prix shifted from the south of France to the middle of nowhere. Despite the long run from Estoril to Adelaide, the circuit was far from overtaking friendly, so the 22 drivers were keen for a strong qualifying performance and most got in the way of each other as traffic proved particularly bad. As has been the case for pretty much all the season, Willows were the team to beat with Mika Salo setting the initial pace before Damon Hill took provisional pole on his second flying lap and then lowered the benchmark on his third with an improved final sector. This would prove to be unbeatable and Hill therefore took his fourth pole of the season ahead of Salo, while a standout performance came from Martin Brundle up in 3rd ahead of Nicola Larini.
The run to Grande Courbe was one of the shortest of the season, but that didn’t stop Salo from having a go at Hill before the Brit maintained the initiative. The true acid test however was the Adelaide hairpin, and it was Michael Schumacher who appeared to have taken his brave pills as he outbraked both Andrew drivers and Nigel Mansell to move up to 4th and was millimetres away from losing his front wing against Brundle. The Pedersen driver then immediately assumed the role of mobile chicane, but Schumacher managed to find a way past going into Lycee to move up to 3rd, so Brundle decided to try and delay Mansell and others instead. This only lasted until lap 5 when a small error at Imola allowed Mansell to get ahead.
By lap 7, Salo was already nine seconds behind his teammate and had Schumacher all over his gearbox, so he assumed the role of rear gunner. This allowed Hill to build a lead of 16 seconds by lap 12, but having taken a second dose of brave pills, Schumacher muscled past Salo at Adelaide despite at least two bouts of contact. It wasn’t pretty, but no less effective, and it pleased Mansell as well as he was able to move up to 3rd from the duel. Someone who was far from pleased was Johnny Herbert, who suffered yet another early retirement due to a failed wheel bearing, but at least it was a more dignified retirement compared to Jos Verstappen, who understeered into the tyre barrier at Estoril.
The first round of pitstops began on lap 12 with Brundle the first to pit having clearly overperformed in qualifying. It was a long stop as well which didn’t do his chances of points much good, but neither did spinning off at high speed at Estoril and losing his rear wing eight laps later. Hill was the next to pit on lap 13 with the slow pitlane entrance briefly dropping him to 4th, but he quickly regained the lead once Schumacher, Mansell, and Salo made their first stops. Schumacher found himself stuck behind Eddie Irvine, who waited until lap 19 to make his first stop, which allowed Mansell to catch back up.
Thank to some clear track after his first stop, Hill had extended his lead to over 19 seconds before switching to preservation mode after hearing news of yet another retirement for teammate Salo. This brought the other Mika into the points having made great gains up the order thanks to a well-timed first stop. Conversely, Gianni Morbidelli had lost out badly and fell outside the top ten. Hakkinen then gained another place on lap 24 after pressuring David Coulthard into a spin at Imola. The Scot rejoined 7th behind Mark Blundell, and then seconds later, Jean Alesi spun at the same corner despite not being under any pressure. Coulthard would have his karma balanced out as Blundell had his own spin at Imola on lap 26, dropping down to 12th in the process.
Irvine’s long first stint had brought him into play, and with the aim of a points finish looking reasonable, he neatly outbraked Roberto Moreno for 7th into Adelaide on lap 27, but couldn’t make much of an impression on Coulthard afterwards, so needed something to go wrong in the top six. That something nearly did go wrong for race leader Hill, who nearly went off the circuit at Imola on lap 29 having started pushing with his lead being cut into. He could take comfort in Schumacher having a lighter fuel load and pitting first on lap 32 and being bothered by Alesi on his outlap. Hakkinen had also pitted early and rejoined behind the scrapping Morbidelli and Gerhard Berger which allowed Larini to maintain track position ahead of the Finn.
Hill made his second stop five laps later than Schumacher, but his lead had been further reduced to eight seconds. The third stint was characterised by heavy traffic which caused the lead gap to yo-yo wildly. Moreno in particular proved reluctant to let Hill through at Lycee and his dithering allowed Jan Magnussen to opportunistically get ahead on the main straight to move up to 8th. Once Irvine was cleared, Schumacher had slashed the gap down to three seconds and despite older tyres, was able to match Hill. Both pitted on lap 56 and maintained their places, while Hakkinen was able to successfully undercut Larini for 4th. Irvine’s later strategy nearly became his undoing as Magnussen threatened to overtake him into Adelaide, but the Ulsterman braved it round the outside and maintained 7th.
On identically-aged tyres for their final stints and with Mansell fading, Schumacher started to gradually close the gap to race leader Hill and the scene was set for a grandstand finish. With four laps to go, Schumacher had cut the gap to eight tenths of a second and was two tenths quicker in the first two sectors, but then the anti-climax happened as heartbreakingly, Hill’s right rear tyre suddenly deflated, damaged the driveshaft, and forced him to pull over. Therefore, Schumacher took his third win of the season to move back into the lead of the championship. Mansell took yet another 2nd place with Hakkinen continuing his purple patch with 3rd, a great drive after starting 15th on a circuit that was hard to overtake on. Larini ensured points in every race but one so far for Andrew Racing with Coulthard 5th and Irvine’s good drive being rewarded with 6th, Tildesley’s first career points (chronologically).
British Grand Prix
Having happily returned to the calendar in 1994, the historic Silverstone circuit played hosted to the British Grand Prix, albeit on a revised layout that saw a new chicane at Abbey and a modified Luffield where it had become one long corner rather than a double right. Like Barcelona, the circuit favoured cars with strong aerodynamics and good top speed down the long Hangar Straight. An Andrew Racing driver had taken pole position at Barcelona, and it looked as if they’d repeat the feat with Nicola Larini setting a strong first lap with others struggling to beat it, but then out of nowhere, Jan Magnussen set a stunning final lap and looked on course for a shock pole position. Enter Damon Hill, who moments later, aced his final lap to take pole by a whopping half a second with Magnussen on the front row, Larini 3rd, and Michael Schumacher 4th. Two more Brits were in the top ten with Martin Brundle 6th and David Coulthard 7th while Tornado’s two Brits struggled to 12th and 14th with Mark Blundell ahead of Nigel Mansell despite losing one of his flying laps when his car faltered on his first outlap.
Keen to regain the lead in the drivers championship, Hill got a good enough start to lead going through Copse corner, while Larini moved up to 2nd ahead of Magnussen. Right from the first lap, Larini wanted the lead having gone aggressive with his race strategy, but he was too aggressive and tagged the back of Hill going into Club. The Italian spun round and fell to last place while Hill took a trip across the grass allowing Schumacher to take the lead, the German having passed his teammate going into Stowe. Hill maintained 2nd despite Willows’ anger at Larini, while Magnussen held 3rd and couldn’t match his brilliant qualifying performance.
Further back, Mika Hakkinen had made a good start to go from 9th to 6th which included sneaking past Coulthard when the Scot locked up going into Abbey, and on lap 2, he gained another place when he slipstreamed past his fellow Mika down the Hangar Straight. Brundle was a little trickier to overtake, but the outcome was the same as he repeated his manoeuvre on lap 4 to move up to 4th. Meanwhile, Blundell’s good start of his own was negated by an off-track moment at Abbey, dropping him from 7th to 15th, while the other Tornado was going in the other direction as he pressured Rubens Barrichello slightly beyond the exit kerb at Stowe to move up to 8th. The delay wrong footed Gianni Morbidelli into being overtaken by Roberto Moreno. Three laps later, Mansell left his braking very late to overtake Coulthard for 7th, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen left his turning completely too late as he went for a spin at Stowe.
A battle for 3rd place had developed between Magnussen and Hakkinen with the Dane holding up the Finn with some very defensive driving, but their battle then became one for 2nd as the British crowd were silenced by yet another car failure for Hill, this time in the engine department. His white haze became a black smokescreen through Maggots and Becketts and temporarily blinded the battle for 2nd before pulling off at the exit of Chapel. British spirits were then lifted slightly by Mansell overtaking Salo for 5th into Stowe on lap 10, then deflated gently with Coulthard steadily dropping down the order behind the two Gojira drivers and Morbidelli, and then remained indifferent with Mansell overtaking Brundle for 4th on lap 12, while Salo’s rear end received some attention from Barrichello. Meanwhile, former CBA Racing teammates Jean Alesi and Olivier Panis resumed their pleasantries from Buenos Aires with contact into Abbey resulting in a spin for Panis, while the other CBA frustrated Gerhard Berger into contact and a spin at Club.
Magnussen had been enjoying his role of rear gunner to Schumacher as it took Hakkinen until lap 14 to finally overtake him. Moments later, the Dane’s Mercedes engine let go, costing him a chance of a strong points finish, but his tactics had allowed Schumacher to build up a lead of over 17 seconds. With Hakkinen and Mansell comfortably in 2nd and 3rd, attention switched to the battle for 4th, where Brundle was holding up three cars. In amongst the queue, Barrichello nearly lost it at Abbey, and Salo attempted to overtake Brundle on lap 16 into Stowe, but the Pedersen driver held on round the outside. Further back, Larini was in the middle of a fightback after his first lap spin and effortlessly powered past Jos Verstappen on the outside line of Hangar Straight, demonstrating Ford’s lack of power.
On lap 20, Schumacher came into the pits for the first of two stops and regained it on the next lap when Hakkinen made his first stop. The top three remained as they were, but Larini had somehow managed to work his way back up to 4th. His place was out of sync with most of the field as he still had two more stops to make. Comparatively, Salo had lost out to Moreno and Morbidelli, but regained a place from Moreno going into Copse on lap 25. Attempting to regain the place caused Moreno to be passed around the outside by Berger going into Club with Eddie Irvine also fancying his chances. Salo then undid his hard work on the next lap by going off the track at Stowe and dropping down to 14th, while Frentzen’s earlier spin at the same corner had forced gravel into his radiators causing his engine to overheat. Then it was Morbidelli’s turn to have a spin on lap 29, this time at Copse.
Those on a three-stop strategy began their sequence on lap 30 with Berger pitting followed by Larini two laps later. Their stops allowed the two-stoppers to gain track position, particularly Irvine who had moved up to 5th despite starting from last on the grid. Alesi had also moved into the points, but then had a spin exiting Copse on lap 35, dropping him to 11th behind Larini. The Italian then overtook Salo for 9th on the following lap and quickly disposed of Barrichello and Blundell by lap 39. Then the pit window for the two-stoppers began with Schumacher pitting on lap 41 followed by Hakkinen and Mansell on the next lap, although the Finn’s race nearly came a cropper after contact with an uncooperative Johnny Herbert at the pitlane entrance. In amongst the final stops, Coulthard got the jump on Irvine thanks to good pitwork from CBA Racing, but the Ulsterman would get back in front a few laps later.
Despite his lead being slowly cut down by the flying Hakkinen in the final stint, Schumacher had a comfortable lead to rely on and duly went on to take his fourth win of the season and extend his lead in the championship with FJR retaking the lead in the teams championship. Hakkinen took another podium finish and his first career fastest lap while Mansell gave some joy to his loyal fanbase with 3rd. Brundle and Irvine made it two more Brits in the top six with Irvine’s drive being particularly stellar after a difficult qualifying session, while Larini took the final point after pressuring Coulthard into a mistake at Abbey with a few laps remaining.
Paddock News
Following the French Grand Prix, a second team has announced their departure from FF1M and intention to join GPMB, Shake ‘n’ Bake Motorsport. This hasn’t been met with much surprise from the paddock considering their team principal Corey Cassidy and Jaakko Valkoinen are close friends away from the circuit, although the official Shake ‘n’ Bake statement has cited their main reason for their departure as a “desire to be competitive again given that our last few seasons have received a worse reception than the ending to Double Dragon.” This was in reference to them not having won a race since the 1989 Italian Grand Prix courtesy of Jean Alesi, and the Frenchman is currently enduring a difficult season with a lack of works support from the Mugen Honda engine hurting the team’s qualifying performance, therefore he celebrated his single point at Montreal as if he’d won the championship. The engine itself was largely provided by Taki Inoue, who probably has about 10% of Alesi’s talent, although according to Cassidy, Inoue is an “essential member of the Shake ‘n’ Bake family with his hard work and dedication to his role, overcoming his gruesome injuries from that mad bastard on a lawnmower. I mean, you should’ve seen how bad his toothache was.”
In the lead up to the British Grand Prix, Gojira AutoSport held a press conference declaring their support for the AFIA and announced their intention to stay in FF1M for 1996. Speaking to the eager press, Gojira team principal William Cramlington condemned the actions of JOCA president Jaakko Valkoinen for “disrupting the peace with a pointless series created out of spite and will probably never happen anyway,” referring to Darkfire’s response to their rejected 1995 entry. Cramlington then went on to harshly criticise the two defected teams by stating that they “naively signed their own death wish and should never be allowed back into FF1M along with any others who defect… except for maybe Pedersen.” To conclude, Gojira announced that for 1996, they would be reverting back to the Gui Racing name which was last used during the 1987 season, effectively ending their partnership with their Japanese shareholders. On the name change, Cramlington explained that “as FF1M will look very different in 1996, a change of identity seems right. We thank our Japanese partners for the many years we’ve shared together and all the success we’ve experienced. Maybe some day, we’ll meet again…”
Whilst all of this “nonsense”, in the words of AFIA boss Ajay Ecclescakes, had been going on, The AFIA today confirmed that all the teams had completed their development work ahead of the German Grand Prix and that a new set of development was due to begin ahead of the Italian Grand Prix in September.
About The Author
More Stories
1995 : R8 – Great Britain – Race Result
1995 : R8 – Britain – Qualifying
1995 : R7 – France – Race Result