Feb 27, 2008
There was a changing order in the world of Formula 1. With the dependence on cars increasing and more races being won in the pits, a strong and organised team was as important as a skilled driver. 1997 was one of the most hard fought seasons in recent memory. In what turned out to be a two-way race for the title, a third driver who was not even in contention played a large part in Michael Schumacher not winning his third world championship. The season had started well for David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher was close behind in the opening race raising hopes of a British World Champion again. But the next few races brought about a spate of retirements for Coulthard as Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian emerged as a strong contender for the title. Villeneuve, normally reserve and not as boisterous as some other F1 drivers was an unusual contender. He was consistent, a rarity in the days of frequent engine failures and best of all, he managed to steer clear of all controversy in a season that had a large amount of it. The season came down to the last two races in Japan and Jerez (European GP). In Japan, Villeneuve was disqualified for not slowing down under yellow flags. Although he raced under appeal, he could do no better than fifth. Michael Schumacher won the race and was by now, comfortably in the lead and sure to win the title. But in Jerez, he got into a nasty collision with Damon Hill towards the end of the race and had to retire. Jacques Villeneuve finished third, pipped Schumacher to the post by three points and won the title. But the German’s troubles were far from over. He was found guilty of causing an avoidable collision and subsequently disqualified from the season by the FIA. His records, however, stood in the official statistics. 1997 was also a year that saw a lot of churn within teams. There were three new teams to start with: Prost, Stewart and Lola. None of these teams would scale any heights of greatness. In fact, Lola raced in only one GP and were unable to convince their sponsors that they could indeed hold their own on the track. Ferrari, Benetton and McLaren were the only teams that did not engage in horse-trading. They retained their line-ups at a time when all others were looking for a change. The longevity that Ferrari introduced in their team line-ups would become a major factor in their extended rule over the world of F1. Damon Hill, the defending champion was surprisingly dropped by Williams in favour of German Heinz-Harald Frentzen. As a result, Hill had to move to Arrows, a backmarker team with all due respect. To his credit, he did make the podium once and scored seven points through the season. As for Frentzen, he did prove his worth but he was nowhere close to what Hill could have done for the team. Williams did win the Constructor’s and Driver’s titles with 8 wins, 15 podiums and 11 pole positions through the season. The biggest benefactor of Hill’s exit had to be Villeneuve. With Hill still in the team, Villeneuve would still have been number two in an age where team instructions mattered and counted.