FF1M 1995 Review : Part 5

German Grand Prix

The second half of the season began at Hockenheim, a circuit that favoured a strong engine over aerodynamic performance with four long, narrow straights into tight chicanes within a dense pine forest. The pecking order had the potential to be altered thanks to all 11 teams having opportunities to develop their engine, aerodynamics, and reliability. As it turned out, the front row was pretty much the same as ever with Damon Hill on pole position ahead of Mika Salo and some incredible top speeds for the Peugeot-powered Willows Racing, even if their reliability rate was by far the worst with double the mechanical failures of the next worst team. Two teams appeared to have concentrated on engine development with both Mitchell drivers making the top ten and Gojira AutoSport also performing well, while Andrew Racing and Monolith struggled for top speed.

Although Hill led away at the start, it was Michael Schumacher who made the most of the first lap as he overtook Salo around the outside at the Nordkurve before outbraking Hill into the lead going into the Jim Clark chicane. The other FJR of Jan Magnussen was also having a good first lap as he overtook Nigel Mansell for 4th at the same point, while Nicola Larini was making up for a poor qualifying session as he overtook Rubens Barrichello for 6th having started 10th. Going into the Ostkurve, Alessandro Zanardi was revelling in a car with a much gutsier engine as he overtook David Coulthard for 8th. Mark Blundell then overtook the Scot going into the Agipkurve before Coulthard lost another place on lap 2 to Roberto Moreno.

Although Zanardi’s new engine was helping him out, the Peugeot was still the one to have as Blundell moved up to 8th while teammate Mansell repassed Magnussen under braking at the Ostkurve, although the Dane had a look back going into the Agipkurve before running wide and spinning at the Nordkurve at the start of lap 3, dropping him down to the back of field. This ended up being 19th with Martin Brundle and Johnny Herbert having had synchronised crashes at the Südkurve, and Barrichello pulling over thanks to a failed driveshaft. The low downforce configuration then started to catch more drivers out with Gerhard Berger spinning round at the Agipkurve, Moreno ending Gojira’s entire participation at the Südkurve, and Jos Verstappen mirroring Berger’s error on lap 4. Some of the more commendable moments on that lap included Gianni Morbidelli squeezing past Zanardi for 7th into the Ostkurve and Coulthard enjoying a good scrap with Mika Hakkinen for 9th.

If Willows had attempted to work on their reliability, then it didn’t work for Salo as his Peugeot expired on lap 5, promoting Mansell into the top three. The black smoke seemed to distract Morbidelli as he spun round at the Agipkurve which allowed the rare sight of a Mitchell into the points, but only for a lap as Hakkinen effortlessly powered past Zanardi on the straight into the Ostkurve. Coulthard was next to have a go at the 1993 champion on lap 8 into the Ostkurve and succeeded, but Zanardi fought back and got back ahead going into the Ayrton Senna chicane with Heinz-Harald Frentzen also in the mix. All three drivers would suddenly gain two places as Larini’s engine blew up with Blundell yet another driver spinning round at the Agipkurve, possibly as a result of Larini’s failed Ferrari unit, and then the trio continued their battle with Coulthard and Frentzen finally getting ahead on lap 10. Frentzen got so excited about being in the points again that he had a spin at the infamous Agipkurve. The main beneficiary was Olivier Panis, who got ahead of Zanardi on the next lap, but not before being repassed by the gallant Zanardi, who then crashed out at the Südkurve.

The first round of pitstops approached with the pattern between the top two being Hill matching Schumacher on the straights before losing up to half a second in the stadium section. 5th-placed Coulthard was the first to pit on lap 14, indicating a two-stop strategy with it looking like the entire field was doing the same. Two laps later, Hill and Mansell made their first stops with the two separate by around a second. Mansell fancied his chances with Tornado having the favourable position in the pitlane, but a slick stop from Willows allowed Hill to stay ahead. Schumacher was due to pit on the next lap, but his throttle failed coming out of the Ostkurve and was destined not to win his home race.

As Hill and Mansell’s battle for 2nd became one for the lead, some drivers still had pitstops to make. Taki Inoue came in from a dizzying 4th on lap 17 and stuck to a two-stop strategy, but when Magnussen came in a lap later, he switched to a one-stop strategy, possibly as a result of his earlier errors to minimise time lost in the pits, and rejoined ahead of a spun Morbidelli. Another error came from an off the pace Jean Alesi, who chose the Südkurve as his place of mistake, but got away with no damage. Meanwhile, Berger was the last to make a pitstop on lap 20 which promoted the two CBA drivers into the top 5. 5th-placed Panis then found his mirrors full of Blundell and the two squabbled for a couple of laps with some contact at the Ostkurve before the Tornado driver assumed 5th. Further back, Berger was struggling on his heavier fuel load as he lost places to Magnussen and Frentzen before a loose wheel ended his race on lap 29.

At the front, Hill had kept the gap between himself and Mansell at around a second to a second and a half with Hill about half a second quicker in the first two sectors before losing that to Mansell in the twistier final sector. Hill was the first to pit on lap 30 with Mansell continuing for another lap. That extra lap allowed Mansell to jump Hill but momentum allowed the Willows driver to get back ahead. His lead would last until lap 34 as despite his straight line speed advantage, Mansell had enough grip in the final sector to keep up and eventually slipstream into the lead approaching Jim Clark. The other Tornado was also going well as Blundell moved up to 4th ahead of Coulthard on lap 35 before throwing it all away with his second spin at the Agipkurve, dropping him down to 9th. On the next lap, Mansell incredibly blew his lead with a mistake at the Südkurve, promoting Hill back up to the top spot.

With a seven second lead to rely on, Hill took it easy in the final laps for an important win to keep him in touch with championship leader Schumacher. Mansell took probably his least satisfying second place of the season with victory almost certain before his mistake, while Hakkinen gave Mercedes some German joy with a relatively quiet drive to 3rd, but it hadn’t been a good day for Germany overall with Frentzen’s many spins proving too much for his engine. CBA had their best race of the season so far with 4th and 5th for Coulthard and Panis, while Magnussen’s strategy gamble paid off with the final point.

Belgian Grand Prix

The picturesque Ardenne forest was the background to a very important Belgian Grand Prix where Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were separated by just one point and Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen not far behind. Victory for any one of those drivers could give them momentum into the final six races of the season. Qualifying as ever was one-sided with Willows Racing again the team to beat, but the performance difference between the top teams was fascinating. Hill’s pole position was largely won in the power sectors of one and three where he was seven tenths faster than Michael Schumacher in each, but Schumacher was able to claw back seven tenths in the grip dependent middle sector. In fact, Hill’s middle sector was three tenths slower than the Mitchell of Jos Verstappen, the Dutchman putting in a brilliant performance to qualify 6th.

Before the race, FJR team principal Tiago Ladrillos had said that Schumacher needed to pass both Willows drivers before Les Combes on the first lap to stand a chance of winning, but a good start was exactly what Schumacher didn’t get as he fell to 5th behind teammate Jan Magnussen and Mansell, while Mika Salo got the jump on his teammate. Going into Les Combes, David Coulthard punted Gianni Morbidelli off the circuit with the Italian nearly causing further commotion with a sketchy rejoin into the path of Roberto Moreno. Later that lap, Morbidelli’s heavy defence at the Bus Stop affected Moreno’s line to the point where Coulthard snuck past for 11th. Slightly further up, Verstappen had fallen to 9th during the second lap behind Nicola Larini, Martin Brundle, and Hakkinen, while the other Mitchell’s lack of straight line speed dropped him behind Olivier Panis.

At the front, Hill had less fuel than Salo and needed to regain the lead in order to maximise his chances of winning, so Salo decided to play the team game and allowed Hill through into the Bus Stop, while Magnussen was attempting a riskier team game by delaying Mansell in the hope that Schumacher could get past the Tornado. Further back, the typical Bus Stop bedlam made a return with Morbidelli clattering the kerbs and spinning into the path of most of the field while Rubens Barrichello coaxed Mark Blundell off the circuit, but received his karma by being blocked by the stationary Morbidelli. On lap 3, Magnussen played his role of team player to perfection when Mansell being boxed in going into Blanchimont caused Schumacher to sneak ahead around the outside, and then the Dane immediately let the championship leader through into 3rd at the Bus Stop, although quickly losing places to Mansell and Larini on the next lap wasn’t exactly part of the plan.

In free air, Schumacher immediately started catching Salo for 2nd and wiped out a near four second gap in just two laps. The Bus Stop seemed to be the main place to overtake in the race and on lap 6, Schumacher made his move into look easy and set about Hill’s 4.5 second lead. As was the case in qualifying, Willows had an edge in sector 1 by nearly two tenths, but Schumacher was taking a second off in sector 2 before Hill would regain another two tenths at the end of the lap. As for the other Willows, he had been caught by Mansell who had a go going into the Bus Stop on lap 8, but a late defence from Salo caused contact and Mansell spun round, rejoining in last after a shambolic rejoin.

While the race was beginning to settle down at the front, Coulthard was continuing his good season for CBA Racing as he overtook Brundle for 8th into the Bus Stop on lap 9. The Pedersen driver then lost another place to Moreno, while the other Gojira was fighting back at the expense of Johnny Herbert. At the front, Schumacher had caught up to Hill by lap 12 and showed his nose going into Blanchimont before taking the lead into the Bus Stop on the next lap. Hill’s response was to make a pitstop on lap 14 in the hope that new tyres would give him track position again. On that lap, Shake ‘n’ Bake nearly had their first retirement of the season when both drivers collided alarmingly at Eau Rouge but somehow, both Jean Alesi and Taki Inoue continued without damage.

Hill’s strategy wasn’t working as planned as he made contact with 3rd-placed Larini on lap 16 at the Bus Stop but managed to keep it on the circuit, unlike Larini who lost a further place to Hakkinen. Even in clear air and on new tyres, Hill could only match Schumacher at best and it transpired that the German was in fact on a one-stop strategy. Salo and Magnussen had also split their strategies despite pitting on the same lap with the Finn going for two and the Dane taking on a very heavy fuel load. Further back, Mansell was struggling to fight back having also gone for a one-stop strategy, but he did manage to avoid a Bus Stop blockade where Barrichello, Alesi, and Panis all tried and failed to cut the second apex simultaneously allowing Mansell to kill three birdbrains with one moustache. The Tornado driver then had a poo-in-the-pants moment after an Eau Rouge collision with Morbidelli, but both survived, and then he was caught out by Barrichello going round the outside of him at Pouhon.

Schumacher made his only stop on lap 19 and rejoined still in the lead despite Hill having another stop to make. Furthermore, the heavier fuel load wasn’t affecting Schumacher at all and he even began to pull away from the Willows. The same couldn’t be said for Magnussen as Coulthard effortlessly overtook the Dane into the Bus Stop, but the CBA driver still had another stop to make while Magnussen could go to the end. Hakkinen was also going to the end on a more conventional one-stop strategy and was on target to jump Salo for 3rd, but suspension failure put an early end to his race. Moments later, the other Monolith was out with gearbox problems, while Mansell’s terrible race continued with a clumsy spin at the Bus Stop on lap 27 and seemed reluctant to get going again before team principal Tobias Wolff got on the radio and told him to get on with it.

Having fallen to nine seconds behind Schumacher, Hill made his final stop on lap 28, but he either couldn’t get his new tyres to work or simply settled for 2nd with Schumacher able to control the gap and take his fifth win of the season with Hill joining him on the podium for the first time this season. All in all, it was a good result for Willows as Salo took his first podium of the season, especially after Tornado left Spa with no points after multiple incidents for Mansell and a late electrical drama for Blundell. Larini returned to the points for Andrew Racing, while Coulthard was 5th after his two-stop strategy paid off despite a very hairy battle with Magnussen in the closing stages that twice resulted in contact. During the second bout, Magnussen was delayed to the point where Moreno got ahead for the final point.

Paddock News

Almost immediately after the British Grand Prix, a third team announced their departure from FF1M and intention to join GPMB, and a big name as well in the form of forever frontrunners, Tornado Motorsport. This has come as a shock to the paddock as Tornado are one of the more successful teams in FF1M with the most wins of all heading into the 1995 season with 23, one more than Gojira, and also two drivers and teams championship from 1986 and 1990. They have also come close to further championships, most notably in 1993 where Riccardo Patrese and Gerhard Berger narrowly missed out to Alessandro Zanardi with CBA Racing stealing the teams championship by a single point.

Speaking to FF1M pit reporter Lewis Badman after the race at Silverstone, Tornado team principal Tobias Wolff was quoted in saying that “this wasn’t just Nigel Mansell’s final British Grand Prix.” At a press conference during the German Grand Prix, Wolff elaborated on this, confirming that he was joining GPMB along with Mitchell and Shake ‘n’ Bake Motorsport. Speaking to the even more eager media, Wolff said that he took exception to Gojira’s statement, claiming that Cramlington had “crossed the line with his criticisms and as far as I’m concerned, a rival racing series can only be good for competition and exposure.” Wolff also stated that his main reason for joining GPMB was that the series “needed a local derby to attract even more publicity, and who doesn’t love a local derby?” A journalist was quick to point out that GPMB already had a Yorkshire derby between Shake ‘n’ Bake and Darkfire to which Wolff physically applied gaffer tape to the journalist’s mouth and ushered him out of the room, uttering the words “nobody likes a smart alec.”

With three teams having defected to GPMB and potentially more to follow, the Belgian Grand Prix paddock was a hive of tension and uncertainty. When asked by a flippant journalist from tabloid publication The Moon which way they were going to go, FJR team principal Tiago Ladrillos admitted that he was on the fence. After the race, Pedersen made their move, declaring their intention to stay in FF1M and stating that they were “never that bothered about the 1996 regulations, it’s just the way it goes sometimes and I’m more than happy to stay,” although unlike Gojira, they wished the departing teams well.

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