FF1M 1995 Review : Part 6

Italian Grand Prix

Since FF1M held its first season in 1986 (so far), only three venues have hosted races in every year, Monaco, Australia, and Italy, specifically at Monza which has often been the scene of mayhem and controversy. 1993 was a textbook example with virtually every driver inventing their own circuit and two first lap pile-ups. With both championships at crucial stages and a second round of upgrades occurring from this race, there was the potential for carnage, but there was small matter of qualifying to deal with first, and not much had changed with Willows Racing seemingly the only team to get their gear ratios right. This time, it was Mika Salo who was on top form, setting not one, but two laps that were good enough for pole position. Row two was filled out by the two Gojira AutoSport cars and looked in prime place to play the role of disruptor amongst the championship battle. In particular, 4th-placed Rubens Barrichello could be considered a dark horse for the race as he had won the last two races at Monza and had become a bit of a specialist around the circuit.

From the start, Willows were already playing team tactics as a lightly-fuelled Damon Hill immediately took the lead from a very heavy Salo. The run through Rettifilo was remarkably clean, but Michael Schumacher curiously found himself on the inner grass strip after what he described as a “loss of traction” exiting the first chicane and fell from 6th to 11th with Olivier Panis giving him a hard time later on in the lap. Heading to Roggia, Pedersen made up for the lack of contact when Martin Brundle tagged the back of Jos Verstappen under braking and spun into the path of his teammate, which caused the Austrian to barrel roll into the gravel but he amazingly managed to continue. Further up, Nigel Mansell was on a mission as he slipstreamed past Roberto Moreno for 3rd into the Parabolica and immediately overtook Salo seconds later. The Finn then used his engine power to frustrate the field behind him which led to Barrichello sneaking ahead of his teammate, whose almost immediate response was to smash his car into the barriers at Lesmo 1 on lap 3.

Renault’s lack of horsepower was evident with Barrichello struggling to overtake Salo and David Coulthard having similar issues against the Ferrari-powered Nicola Larini. Mark Blundell could’ve capitalised on Barrichello’s woes on lap 4 but ended up second guessing his own brake pedal into Roggia and nearly lost it. Meanwhile, the two FJR drivers were having their own battle for 9th and Schumacher must’ve been gobsmacked at Jan Magnussen divebombing him into Rettifilo on lap 5, not the best team tactics. At the same time, Blundell found some confidence with his brakes to move up to 4th ahead of Barrichello, while Mansell had overtaken Hill for the lead into Roggia. The Willows driver had caught the second apex kerb of the chicane rather awkwardly and lost more time with a small error at Lesmo 2, picking up a right front puncture in the process and being forced to retire on lap 6. Seconds before, Blundell had overtaken Salo but hesitated when he saw the slowing Hill at Curva Grande and Salo nipped back past for 2nd and both continued to trade places, while Barrichello and Larini began their own game of cat and mouse in their battle for 4th.

The shenanigans for 2nd allowed Mansell to pull away at a rate of between two to four seconds a lap, and the Salo slow-goods was growing all the way back to 12th-placed Panis. On lap 8, Blundell finally made it a Tornado 1-2 into Ascari with the two FJR drivers still scrapping. On the next lap, it was Coulthard’s turn to get feisty as he got alongside Gianni Morbidelli into Ascari, but braked too late and tagged the back of Larini, forcing him to take a minor detour. The two Andrew drivers were then side by side for 6th at the start of the next lap, but Schumacher bravely dived down the inside of the pair and despite taking a shortcut, succeeded in moving not up to 6th, but 4th as Barrichello and Salo had collided and spun in front of the trio. The biggest loser was Salo, who had dropped to the back of the field much to Willows’ frustration, while Schumacher and Magnussen had gained the most with the Dane sneaking his way past Larini into the points. The Italian regained the initiative into Ascari before being coaxed into taking a shortcut by the Dane, which allowed Mika Hakkinen into the points, but only as far as Roggia after Magnussen dawdled into the back of him. Larini was also delayed by the incident and fell to 10th with Johnny Herbert briefly assuming 6th before Barrichello overtook him.

Despite their two-stop strategies, things looked good for the two Tornado drivers, but things took a sharp left for Blundell, literally, as a mistake at Ascari led to him spinning into the inside barriers and damaging his rear wing, forcing him to make repairs in the pits and rejoining a lap down. Nevertheless, things were looking peachy for Mansell as he had a lead of nearly 35 seconds over Coulthard by the time he made his first pitstop on lap 16 and rejoined comfortably in the lead. Meanwhile, Larini and Herbert enjoyed a good, clean battle for 6th over two laps. The next to pit on lap 17 were Coulthard and Barrichello with Herbert pitting on the following lap, while Schumacher and the two Andrew drivers were on one-stop strategies.

On new tyres, Mansell steadily pulled away from Schumacher while Herbert used his to overtake the two Shake ‘n’ Bake drivers in quick succession, and Coulthard was also making his fresh rubber count as he moved past his teammate for 5th, although he couldn’t match the pace of Schumacher. The other FJR wasn’t having such a lovely time behind Salo and eventually let frustration get the better of him on lap 24 and spun at Rettifilo. Attempting to rejoin, he stalled his engine, and then to add insult to injury, Berger potted his Danish lordship smack on the conk and out of harm’s way. He watched helplessly for a bit as the field circulated, including race leader Mansell, who was 16 seconds ahead of Schumacher. The German would have probably been satisfied to finish 2nd with his nearest championship rival out of the running, but on lap 25, he received an additional Christmas present as Mansell suddenly slowed to a stop with a left rear puncture. Tyre failures would also end the races of Alessandro Zanardi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

New race leader Schumacher then made his only pitstop on lap 26 and rejoined behind the battling Andrew drivers with Larini taking the lead from Morbidelli. Larini was the first to pit on lap 29 with Morbidelli going two laps longer. The Italian would have his inlap spoilt by Schumacher, who needlessly barged him out of the way at Ascari, and this also allowed Barrichello to catch up to Coulthard with the Brazilian getting ahead at Rettifilo after a dicey tussle with stuck out elbows. Barrichello then slowly closed in on race leader Schumacher before making his second stop on lap 38. Unlike Coulthard, he rejoined ahead of Morbidelli for what would be a net 3rd place. Further back, Salo looked to salvage what was left of his race by making mincemeat of Verstappen on the main straight, highlighting Peugeot’s power gulf over Ford before pulling over with suspension problems. Tornado’s number two would also retire before the end of the race with gearbox problems, possibly as a result of his earlier backwards impact into the barriers.

On new tyres, Barrichello could sniff a 2nd place as he caught Larini with four laps remaining, but Renault horsepower wasn’t enough to overhaul the Ferrari-powered Andrew on the straights, and Panis didn’t help matters when he got in the way at Rettifilo on lap 51. Further up front, Schumacher’s had a mostly simple run aside from encountering the scrapping Verstappen and Jean Alesi and took his sixth win of the season to move 15 points clear of Hill in the drivers championship. Larini held on to take 2nd by just over a tenth of a second from Barrichello, the Italian’s second podium of the season and like at Imola, on home soil. Morbidelli finished 4th in a strong race for Andrew ahead of the consistent Coulthard, while Herbert survived a penultimate lap assault from Hakkinen to take his first points finish of the season to the delight of Tildesley’s team principal.

Portuguese Grand Prix

With a 15 point lead in the drivers championship with five races remaining, things were looking good for Michael Schumacher having had the stars align for him at Monza where he was gifted a win thanks to the unfortunate Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell both suffering punctures. Estoril was a different circuit compared to Monza with one long straight and a series of long corners including the infamous first corner, scene of many accidents over the seasons. For once, a Willows was not on pole position for the first time since the other Iberian race at Barcelona as the front row was occupied by the much improved Gojira AutoSport with Rubens Barrichello taking his first pole position since the 1993 Australian Grand Prix. This was in spite of encountering Mark Blundell at the Parabolica. Hill and Mansell were on the second row and were hoping for no tyre failures on Estoril’s abrasive asphalt, while Schumacher was 5th.

At the green light, both Willows drivers made excellent starts with Hill taking the lead into the first corner and Salo going from 6th to 3rd while Roberto Moreno had a terrible start and dropped from 2nd to 8th. Immediately, Salo began playing the team game to maximise his teammate’s chances in the championship and started holding the field up, in part thanks to a very heavy two-stop fuel load, but mostly because of Willows’ superior straight line speed. Hill was using his to prevent the faster Barrichello from overtaking. Further back, Olivier Panis had also made a good start from 16th with good gains into turn 3 on the first lap, and he overtook Martin Brundle for 12th into the first corner on lap 2.

The Salo slow-goods was as close to stationary as it could’ve been as he was lapping two seconds a lap slower than the two leaders and the train eventually stretched all the way down to last place. This prompted a few cat and mouse battles within the logjam as Brundle got back ahead of Panis at the start of lap 3 while Mika Hakkinen overtook Alessandro Zanardi for 14th. Three laps later, Nicola Larini overtook Schumacher for 5th before the German got back ahead on the next lap. Only Hakkinen and Jean Alesi seemed to be able to perform some consistent overtaking at the Finn had moved up to 11th behind Jan Magnussen and Alesi had been making progress from 20th to move up to 13th ahead of Brundle and Panis.

On lap 9, Hakkinen made up yet another position courtesy of Magnussen but found Gianni Morbidelli more challenging with the Andrew Racing showing some good top speed. Alesi was also continuing his strong opening stint as he had overtaken David Coulthard for 12th, but things weren’t as pleasant for his teammate as he suffered a suspension failure and retired. Amazingly, this was Shake ‘n’ Bake’s first retirement of the season having experienced tremendous reliability, even if they’ve been comparatively slow all season, although Alesi was still motoring on as he moved up to 11th on lap 14 at the expense of Magnussen with the Dane getting back ahead on the next lap.

Such was Salo’s lack of pace that by the first round of pitstops, Hill and Barrichello were nearly half a minute ahead of the Finn. Moreno, Alesi and Brundle were the first to pit on lap 16 and were clearly three-stopping, while Hill was next to pit on the following lap. Barrichello stayed out for one lap longer and a quicker pitstop allowed him to overcut Hill into the lead. The Willows driver had a speculative look going into Parabolica Interior but Barrichello held onto the lead and began to pull away, setting a new fastest lap in the process on lap 19. The last of the three-stoppers to make their first pitstops were Morbidelli and Eddie Irvine with the Andrew driver rejoining behind the flying Moreno, Alesi, and Magnussen, all of whom were making the most of a clear track.

Hakkinen was next to pit on lap 21 and had opted for a long middle stint, indicating a two-stop strategy. Schumacher and Larini came in on the next lap having battled with each other at Parabolica Interior. Crucially for the German, he rejoined just ahead of Hakkinen, whose Mercedes engine suddenly let go in a big way exiting turn 3, while Mansell had a disastrous stop as he fell behind Panis. Although Schumacher had fallen to 11th behind most of the three-stoppers, he only had one more stop to make with everyone else in front of him needing to make two more, so was looking good for a podium finish. Unfortunately, his race lasted until lap 26 as it transpired that one of his wheel nuts was cross-threaded during his pitstop and the loosened wheel damaged the hub, forcing him into an untimely retirement.

Even before Salo finally pitted on lap 26, Moreno had already caught up to him and assumed 3rd place ahead of Morbidelli with Magnussen and Alesi completing the top six. The first of the two-stoppers was Coulthard in 12th, but he had Larini all over his gearbox so decided to get a move on and overtook Johnny Herbert on lap 28 with Larini overtaking the Tildesley around the outside at Curva VIP. Mansell was also on the move as having already overtaken Panis, he forced Gerhard Berger to give him room at Parabolica Interior before powering past Herbert for 13th. On lap 30, he muscled past Larini before challenging Coulthard to be the lead driver on a two-stop strategy. The CBA driver sensed the threat and overtook Brundle for 10th into the first corner on lap 32 with Mansell going round the outside of the Pedersen driver at Parabolica Interior. Mansell then assumed the role of lead two-stopper on lap 34 when he overtook Coulthard into the first corner.

Hill was the first of the three-stoppers to make his second stop on lap 33 and could’ve probably made an extra stop on the next lap and still be 2nd ahead of Moreno such was the gap. Curiously, both Gojira drivers pitted on the next lap and while Barrichello maintained a comfortable lead, Moreno was jumped by Morbidelli for the final place on the podium. Crucially, both rejoined ahead of Mansell and were able to use their new tyres to maintain track position ahead of the Brit. The other Tornado was also going well as he overtook Coulthard and Larini to move into the points on lap 40 with the Andrew driver proceeding to hold up Magnussen. At this point, turn 1 had yet to claim any victims, so Blundell decided to break that trend by running wide onto the exit kerb and spinning into the Armco barrier on lap 45, damaging his front wing in the process.

Mansell made his final stop on lap 47 and rejoined just behind the Larini and Magnussen scrap, which resolved when better traction out of Orelha allowed the FJR to overtake the Andrew into Tanque with Mansell repeating his earlier manoeuvre on Larini at the start of the next lap. Things then got worse for the Italian as he was jumped by Coulthard in the pits while Mansell didn’t wait for Magnussen’s final stop to move up to 5th, but the delay meant that he wasn’t able to jump Morbidelli and Moreno when the two drivers had made their final stops by lap 53. Once Alesi was the last to make his final stop on lap 56, Magnussen had reassumed the final points position, but he didn’t seem to have the tyres underneath him and was therefore not safe. Conversely, despite Mansell having older tyres, he caught and passed Moreno for 4th on lap 66.

At the front, it had been plain sailing for Barrichello who dominated the race once he took the lead from Hill after the first round of pitstops for his first win of the season. Although he wasn’t able to fully capitalise on Schumacher’s retirement, Hill still took a useful 2nd place and moved to within nine points of the championship leader. Morbidelli returned to the podium for the first time since Montreal after benefitting from good strategic calls from Andrew Racing, while Mansell finished 4th ahead of Moreno. The final point went to Larini after a late charge for the Italian saw him overtake Coulthard and Magnussen in the closing stages.

European Grand Prix

The final European race of the season took place at the Nurburgring, which gave Germany a second chance to see a home win after Michael Schumacher failed to do so at Hockenheim due to reliability issues. Although he suffered his fifth retirement of the season at Estoril, he was still leading the championship thanks to his six wins and could take solace from Damon Hill not managing to win at Estoril thanks to the resurgent Gojira AutoSport and a dominant Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian was in fine form once again during qualifying as he took his second consecutive pole position with Schumacher joining him on the front row. The two Willows drivers occupied the second row with Mika Salo ahead of Damon Hill and ready to play the team game once again, while Roberto Moreno was annoyed with 5th after being held up by an Andrew Racing driver on his final lap which might’ve seen him on the front row.

For this race, pole position was on the inside line with 2nd on the outside, and it was Schumacher who made the better start on the racing line as he inched ahead of Barrichello into the Castrol S with the two Willows drivers holding station, while Gianni Morbidelli committed the cardinal sin of colliding with his teammate having braked extremely late. Nicola Larini survived the assault but fell to 11th, and his red mist caused him to clobber the back of Olivier Panis going into the Veedol chicane but with no damage to either driver. At the same time, Jan Magnussen overtook both Mika Hakkinen and Alessandro Zanardi on the inside to move up to 14th, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen chose the outside line and some demon late braking to overtake both Tildesley drivers, although he may have been forced into being brave by Martin Brundle nudging him.

Barrichello had less fuel than Schumacher and was all over the back of him. Conversely, Hill had plenty of fuel onboard and was holding up Morbidelli and Nigel Mansell. Going into Veedol on lap 2, Mansell caused a chain reaction when he hit Morbidelli into Hill with the Willows falling to 7th, but this was nothing compared to what happened to Alessandro Zanardi when contact with Brundle caused the poor Italian to turn over and destroy most of his front end. On the next lap, Morbidelli’s messy start continued when a small tap on Mansell’s rear caused him to spin at Veedol, dropping him to 15th, but again, this was nothing compared to another incident involving Brundle. Going into Dunlop on lap 4, Johnny Herbert got up the inside of the Pedersen driver, contact was made, and Brundle got to experience Zanardi’s acrobatics. Both drivers retired from the collision with extensive damage.

On lap 5, Larini began his fightback when he overtook Moreno for 8th into Dunlop and set about Mark Blundell, while Eddie Irvine made a similar manoeuvre on Jos Verstappen for 15th. At the front, Barrichello wasn’t enjoying the luxury of overtaking despite pressuring Schumacher into a couple of lock ups. He then started to drop back as Schumacher upped his pace and set a new fastest lap on lap 9. Meanwhile, Magnussen wasn’t having such a good time as having lost a place to the recovering Morbidelli, he was pressured off the circuit by Hakkinen going into Ford and rejoined just in front of the other Monolith.

Further up the order, Mansell had caught up to Salo for 3rd but couldn’t overtake as Willows’ fabled straight line speed shone through. Both headed for the pits on lap 12 along with 2nd-placed Barrichello. The three left the pits in the same order but on the outlap, Gojira were crestfallen to see both their drivers collide into Dunlop and spinning off with dropping both down the order. At the same time, Mansell went off on own at Ford, ruining any chance of a podium finish. Schumacher waited until lap 17 to make his first pitstop and committed to a three-stop strategy, rejoining still in the lead from the two-stopping Hill. The Gojira shenanigans meant that David Coulthard jumped Barrichello for position, although the Brazilian immediately piled the pressure on and overtook the Scot for 6th into the Castrol S on lap 19. The other Brazilian was also trying to make up for lost time as he overtook Irvine for 18th into Dunlop, while Coulthard lost another place on the next lap Blundell.

Both Mansell and Morbidelli weren’t where they were supposed to be and were trying to get back into the top 6. Mansell nearly made a catastrophic blunder when overtaking Verstappen on lap 19 as he almost forgot where to brake into Dunlop and only Morbidelli’s awareness prevented a collision. Two laps later however, the blunder finally happened when Mansell tapped the back of Frentzen, spun round, and Morbidelli didn’t seem to try to avoid the collision, damaging both front wings in the process. The following Verstappen and Jean Alesi must’ve wondered what was going on, while Irvine’s engine had the same thought process when it blew up. Further up the order, Hill made his first stop on lap 22 and rejoined in 4th ahead of Barrichello. Salo therefore assumed 2nd but was no match for the flying Schumacher who by the time of his second stop on lap 32, had built up a lead of nearly 50 seconds. A few laps earlier, Verstappen built up a case of strange driving when the wrong line into the Castrol S led to a spin.

Trying to salvage what was left of a wretched race, Mansell managed to overtake Frentzen properly into the Castrol S on lap 32, while Barrichello had been stuck behind Hill for many laps and both were all locked up at one point. This had further wrecked Barrichello’s three-stop strategy and he fell behind Hakkinen after his second stop on lap 34. His mood was tempered a lap later after Blundell got the jump on him, so he decided to make a hash of things on lap 38 by shunting into the Tornado at Dunlop. The Brazilian dropped behind Coulthard and Larini while Blundell fell to 12th. Moments later, Morbidelli pulled over with gearbox problems, while Taki Inoue had a spin at Ford but rejoined.

On lap 44, Hill made his second pitstop and rejoined 4th behind the two Finns with Hakkinen having a belter of a race from 17th on the grid to challenge for a place on the podium. Barrichello’s race had been far from stellar and he was still at it, colliding with 6th-placed Larini on lap 45 after an optimistic around the outside attempt at Veedol and then going a lap down on Schumacher much to his chagrin. Hakkinen then made his final stop which opened the door for Salo. After a series of strong laps before his final stop on lap 52, the Willows was able to jump the Monolith and looked on course for his second podium finish of the season. Barrichello was also able to make use of some good inlaps to rejoin 6th ahead of the scrapping Mansell and Larini, but Mansell’s incident had messed up his strategy and ended up making four pitstops. On new tyres, Barrichello quickly caught 5th-placed Coulthard but took some time overtaking him, eventually performing a brave manoeuvre into Ford.

At the front, Schumacher was having a blast in front of his home crowd as he made up for his disappointment of Hockenheim by taking his seventh win of the season. He hadn’t just dominated, he had made a statement as he won by more than a minute from Hill, who was the only other driver on the lead lap. Salo held off Hakkinen in the closing stages to finish 3rd, while Barrichello and Coulthard completed the top six. The result meant that the drivers championship was now being contested by just Schumacher and Hill, while the teams championship was more open with FJR and Willows Racing the main contenders.

Pacific Grand Prix

The first race of a Japanese double header took place at the tiny TI Aida circuit in the middle of nowhere, and it seemed as if both championships were being contested by FJR and Willows Racing, but Damon Hill’s task of winning the drivers championship would be a tough one due to Gojira AutoSport fitting themselves nicely as the role of disruptors. In qualifying, they once again took pole position, but it was Roberto Moreno who took his maiden pole position thanks to a rapid opening gambit. He was joined on the front row by Rubens Barrichello, whose fastest lap came towards the end of the session, while the two championship contenders were on row three with Michael Schumacher ahead of Hill.

At the start, neither Gojira driver led into the first corner as Nigel Mansell had a stunning getaway from 3rd on the grid and immediately tried to bolt into the distance with a light fuel load. At the end of the first lap, he led by 2.5 seconds from Moreno with Barrichello 3rd, both Gojira drivers having taken on relatively heavy fuel loads for a two-stop race. Further back, Nicola Larini overtook Jos Verstappen into the first corner for 9th. Both Mitchell drivers had qualified in the top 10 but their Ford engine in race trim couldn’t match the Ferrari in the back of the Andrew Racing. Heading into the hairpin, the Gojira drivers swapped places with Barrichello moving up to 2nd, and then Moreno lost another place on the following lap to Schumacher.

The twistiness of Aida meant that overtaking was virtually limited to one place, the hairpin, but it didn’t quite go to plan for local hero Taki Inoue on lap 6 when he squeezed Johnny Herbert a bit too much at the exit leading to contact and time lost for the pair. On the next lap, Hill showed everyone how it was supposed be done as he outbraked Moreno for 4th, but even on a lighter fuel load, he couldn’t catch up to Schumacher, who himself was putting the pressure on Barrichello, although the Brazilian started to pull away as it became clear that he had made a minor mistake on lap 8. Further back, Larini had overtaken Mark Blundell for 8th and was closing in on Olivier Panis.

Just as Mansell lapped Inoue, the first round of pitstops began with Alessandro Zanardi coming in on lap 18 for the first of three stops, followed by Hill on the next lap. The Willows driver rejoined 10th behind the two-stopping Mika Hakkinen, while Larini also made a pitstop and rejoined just in front of the battling Mika Salo and Jean Alesi, the Frenchman optimistically thinking he could overtake the Finn on track with his little engine compared to the mighty Peugeot. On lap 20, Mansell made his first stop and rejoined 3rd just ahead of Moreno. On new tyres, he began catching Barrichello and Schumacher at around a second a lap, but on lap 26, he pushed too hard and crashed out at the first corner, much to the dismay of Tornado team principal Tobias Wolff.

Mansell’s accident ensured that the race win was definitely being contested by Barrichello and Schumacher with both on equal strategies. Schumacher was the first to pit on lap 28 with Barrichello heading in on the next lap and maintaining the lead with Schumacher getting stuck behind compatriot Heinz-Harald Frentzen on his outlap, but Barrichello had traffic problems of his own on his outlap as he was baulked by Eddie Irvine at Piper. The other Gojira made his first stop on lap 30 and fell to 4th behind the three-stopping Hill but was still looking good for a podium finish, but a faulty valve deflated his tyre and he was forced to retire. Thus, Hill moved up to 3rd ahead of Panis and David Coulthard. The two CBA Racing drivers were on different strategies with Panis on the same three-stop strategy as Hill and Coulthard planning to stop just twice in the race, and the odds favoured the Scot for a podium finish as he was only 10 seconds behind Hill and lapping quicker. Also on a two-stop strategy was Blundell, and he was only 2.5 seconds behind Larini, who had two more stops to make compared to Blundell’s one.

Traffic was continuing to play its part as on lap 36, Schumacher lost two seconds trying to lap Gianni Morbidelli round the outside at Williams, although he gained some of that back when Barrichello was delayed by Martin Brundle. The Gojira then lost more time lapping the other Pedersen three laps later and the gap was back down to two seconds. Shortly afterwards, the second round of pitstops began with Panis the first to blink on lap 41 and Hill and Larini pitting on the following lap. Unlike his first stop, Hill rejoined ahead of Hakkinen for a net 5th place. As long as Schumacher remained 2nd, then Hill still had a mathematical chance of the championship going into the final two races, and the gap between Barrichello and Schumacher had extended to 4.3 seconds by the time the German came in for his second stop on lap 55.

Barrichello’s second stop came two laps later, but he had a terrible inlap thanks to Blundell and only a great stop from his mechanics prevented him from losing the lead with the gap having been more than halved. Barrichello seemed more hesitant with the traffic as on lap 61, he bided his time behind Irvine which allowed Schumacher to eat into what was left of his lead, and then a slight lock up into the first corner on the next lap gave Schumacher the incentive to take the lead going into the hairpin. With Hill now a net 4th having jumped Blundell but remaining behind Coulthard, that would’ve been enough for Schumacher to become the new drivers champion, but Barrichello didn’t give up and pressured Schumacher into a small error exiting the hairpin on lap 67 and retook the lead. Further back, Morbidelli’s difficult race continued when he was spun round by Coulthard at the hairpin, and then his Ferrari engine allowed him to leave early.

Despite more traffic causing the lead gap to fluctuate, Barrichello held on to take his second win of the season in a renaissance period for Gojira, less than two seconds ahead of Schumacher, who was urged to “think long term” by FJR team principal Tiago Ladrillos after losing the lead. Coulthard took a well-deserved first podium of the season after his two-stop strategy paid off with Hill’s 4th place keeping his championship alive, albeit barely. The top six were completed by Blundell and Hakkinen, proving that two stops was the correct strategy to go for.

Paddock News

As the European season approached its conclusion, tensions in the paddock were starting to boil over with multiple teams clashing on a couple of occasions. The zenith occurred after the Italian Grand Prix after a particularly ill-tempered race between the drivers led to various levels of venom being thrown around. One onlooker claimed to witness a stuffed teddy bear belonging to Gojira AutoSport being eviscerated by Willows Racing mechanics, possibly as a result of Rubens Barrichello nudging Mika Salo into the gravel trap at Rettifilo, while Michael Schumacher had his race winner’s trophy stolen by the Tifosi with the crowd not too pleased with the German colliding with Gianni Morbidelli, race leader at the time, at Ascari just before the Italian came in for his pitstop. Even Goodyear came under fire after four drivers had their races ended by punctures, with Damon Hill the most vociferous critic having lost another potential win.

Mostly as a result of these shemozzles, three teams immediately announced their defection to GPMB at the Portuguese Grand Prix; Willows Racing, Andrew Racing, and Tildesley GP. Willows and Andrew were able to use the collisions as leverage for their departure with Willows team principal José Salgueiro quick to castigate Barrichello for his collision with Salo and Andrew team principal Andrea Precedente referring to FJR’s team principal as “Il cocco dell’insegnante” after multiple moments with Schumacher, but Tildesley’s departure was met with confusion from the paddock as they had been enjoying a better season compared to 1993 and 1994 with three points finishes. This was a significant body blow to the AFIA and FF1M who were now down to at most five teams for 1996, and then it became four just before the European Grand Prix when Monolith Racing System announced that they would be dissolving all operations entirely after the end of the 1995 season, with their frank team principal Bernie Ifans stating that they “didn’t join FF1M or GPMB or whatever to get involved in all this political shite. We just wanted to race.”

With only two guaranteed entries for 1996, FF1M was in serious trouble and all attention shifted onto the two teams yet to declare their intentions; FJR and CBA Racing. In particular, FJR were in a very difficult position as their team boss Tiago Ladrillos was good friends with Darkfire’s Jaakko Valkoinen and Shake ‘n’ Bake’s Corey Cassidy and also had a personal connection with CBA, but didn’t want to risk their position in FF1M for the future, referring to William Cramlington’s “powerful words.” To try and address the dwindling numbers, the AFIA have hurriedly launched a recruitment campaign to try and attract potential teams for the 1996 season, although the uncertainty hasn’t stopped the two confirmed teams from planning forward with the soon to be renamed Gui Racing keeping Rubens Barrichello for 1996 and Pedersen going local by signing Jan Magnussen.