Good Day race fans... I of all people do not like Damon Hill as a driver, but I do have to admit that he drove an exellent race in Montreal.
His cornering was superb; even my prefered drivers did not do as good a job as Mr. Hill did on each and every turn at the hair pin.
I will have to eat alot of crow the next few days, but it is worth it to see driving of that caliber.
Michel Berthiaume
msi.canada@sympatico.ca
Canada
After the death of Ayrton Senna, Formula One has lost some of its magic, but is well known that we have racers today that can, at least, support our hunger for top drivers, just like Schumi. But, I would like to talk about a great pilot; his name is Rubens Barrichello. All around the world, he was named as the sucessor of the great line of Brazilian pilots - just after Fittipaldi, Piquet, and Senna. But, his results at Jordan in 94 (except for the pole in Spa) and 95 just killed him. In Brazil, he was crucified by press, which was starved for victories.
In 1996, we all were expecting another period without good results in Formula One by Brazilians. Everybody were going to focus on Indycar where there were eight pilots with winning chances. But Barrichello seems to be a changed man. The second spot in the grid of Brazil`s race proves this. He is working hard, but the car doesn`t help. It is needed for him to change teams and bring back emotion to this limited season.
Luiz Pedro De Rossi Junior
e9503331@linf.unb.br
Brazil
My optimism for Ferrari two weeks ago was obviously inspired more by an absolutely incredible drive from Schumacher, than the reality of the situation. The Ferrari quite simply let Micheal Schumacher down this weekend. On the other hand, Damon Hill drove a flawless race, and Williams dominated the Canadian GP.
It is important to note that Damon was never pushed hard by anyone during the race. Like most of Damon's victories this season he dominated right from the start. All credit to Damon for being able to display that kind of domination, but watching this season it does bring to mind Nigel Mansell's quote from 1992 about a monkey being able to win in a Williams.
Rob Paterson
rpatersn@direct.ca
Canada
Say what you like about Villeneuve. Try to console him by saying that, "you're only a rookie and better things are on the horizon." But, that will have no effect on this young man today. He was beaten... he was beaten fair and square to use a tired and worn expression. To make matters worse it happened on his own turf. Only Villeneuve can express the disappointment he feels today.
That being said, something else took place this past weekend. And that was Hill's successful domination of Villeneuve at his home GP. Hill needed this win to crush any charge on his Championship lead. But if you watch carefully, Villeneuve, though mature, never congratulated Damon after his win. He chose his words carefully at the post race interview, and eye contact was never made between the teammates.
You may attribute this to young Jacques being a sore loser. But, nothing in his past would indicate he is anything of the sort. I think Hill did something else this weekend with Villeneuve that he may have picked up from last years nemesis Michael Schumacher. Of course I am bringing up the subtle mind games that so many teammates and rivals get involved with every year in F1.
Lately, a lot of Hill's comments towards his teammate are somewhat condencending and lack any true compliments on his skill level. Sometimes his comments border on nasty. Jacques meanwhile always plays the statesman. Only once did he utter negatives about another driver and they were very tame considering the circumstances surrounding he and Alesi in Monaco.
This brings me back to the Canadian GP. If you watch the replay of the start closely you will notice Damon immediately veer right to cut off Villeneuve. When Villeneuve swerved left to take the inside line, Hill moves over again - forcing Jacques to go to the outside of the first turn to attempt to pass. Well, what is wrong with that you may ask? Nothing, unless you view that manouvre in context. Hill knows Villeneuve is at his home GP. He also knows that Villeneuve would rather finish in the points than crash on the opening lap. He also knows that a win here would virtually give him the Championship, and demoralize his closest opponent. Congrats Damon you finally got your Championship.
As for Villeneuve, he was not impressed (I would have to say) due to Damon's starting manouvres. At the completion of the race when Hill was taking his victory lap, Villeneuve stayed behind Damon and did not pull along side to offer congrats as is the custom. In fact, he was driving so slow that a McLaren passed him! When they pulled into the garage, Villeneuve patiently waited in his car as Hill got out and went into the weigh station. The post race interview was particularly frosty, bringing back memories of the Senna/Prost fueds. And Damon Hill's constant waving to the spectators around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was in my humble opinion and in-your-face taunting meant to irk Villeneuve fans and Jacques himself!
Damon Hill has ripped a page out of Schumacher's and Senna's handbook on "How to Win the Championship While Crushing Those Around You."
It will be very interesting to see how Villeneuve will respond in the next race.
Ferenc Gogos
fgogos@voyager.newcomm.net
Canada
After some exciting races, Canadian Grand Prix was a bit of boring. Once again both Williams were much more superior than others cars.
Hill knew how to administrate the race and on the last laps reduced the speed in order to save his machine.
The 27 points of lead that he has over Schumacher makes the situation quite confortable for him. There are still 80 points to compete for and it seems clear that it will be quite hard for Schumacher to beat the English. Of course, there is always Villeneuve... but I don't believe that Hill will lose this championship.
A very important aspect of this championship is the fact that there are many drivers adding points. If you look you can see Hill, Villeneuve, Shumacher, Alesi, Coulthard, Hakkinen, ... above 10 points. The difference among them is not so wide as it used to be. That means that more drivers are arriving in the points zone more often. And today Mclaren, Jordan and Ligier are all in good cars, achieving better results than in the last seasons.
We already had 4 drivers win this year and that makes this championship the best in recent times. It means the changes that were made in the beggining of the year and the development that Peugeot, Mercedes and Honda have done has payed off. One can expect more next year with the Ford/Stewart and Yamaha. I believe will achieve a higher degree of power and confidence too.
Marko Petek
petek@voyager.com.br
Brazil
The Canadian Grand Prix has always been a great "Quiet" race to attend. This year, with Villeneuve, it was terrific to see the fans turn out in huge numbers to support their man. I was disapointed to read and hear that Jaques refused any connection to the track named for his father and his Canadian roots. The atomosphere this year reminded me of my first race in Spa, were the crowds go crazy despite the outcome of the race. I look forward to future Grand Prixs at Canada with more favourable outcomes for Jaques. Maybe he will realize the great love that all Canadians have for him.
Mark Sturges
gmsturges@earthlink.net
USA
Just a quick note on the comment made by Ferenc Gogos about Villeneuve and Hill. First, for you to say that Hill dominated Villeneuve through the weekend is rubbish - Jacques was fastest in the Saturday practice and was only 0.02s off pole! In anyone's mind, including Hill who said there "wasn't a cigarette paper" between himself and Jacques all weekend, this gap is academic and comes down to luck as to who ends up ahead. As for the race, Jacques gambled with a one-stop strategy - to make it work, he had to get ahead of Hill at the start (which, given some of Damon's poor starts this year, was a 50/50 chance) but the odds were stacked against him being in a heavier car.
Second, I agree that he was beaten fair and square - that's F1 - and Hill should pay Villeneuve no favors simply because it was Jacques' home GP. I am reminded of when Nigel Mansell relinquished his lead of the '92 Italian GP to Ricardo Patrese after Nige' had built up a massive lead - there could be nothing more humiliating for a driver than for the guy ahead to slow down by 10s a lap to let you by.
Third, as far as I know, the Williams drivers have a good working relationship - but they are competitors and it is unrealistic to think that they could be bosom buddies. There is nothing yet to suggest any bad feelings within the team - certainly not to the level of Prost and Senna. F1 is a sport about psychology as well as good driving, but I certainly haven't heard Hill be anything but complimentary towards Jacques and vice-versa.
The Canadian GP was a great race between the two teammates (if not the rest of the field) and, in my opinion, Villeneuve proved that he can be as fast and faster than Hill - it is a shame that he was not on the same pit-stop strategy as Hill, otherwise we would have seen a great wheel-to-wheel race.
Jason Cooke
jcooke@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
Canada
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