Reflections On Suzuka: Hearts and Minds
	by Roger Horton, England

The atmosphere and tension of a title deciding race is always something rather special. All that has gone before can be wiped away, and so often only the last race will be remembered. Joyous memories for the winner, heartache and soul searching for the loser. As is always the case, the lead up to this Suzuka race was dominated as much by the psychological battle between the participants, as by the technical struggle for greater performance and reliability from the cars. The extra ingredient in this volatile mix this year was the almost constant speculation as to whether the title would be settled "cleanly" on the track. Memories of last year's title deciding race at Jerez and of Adelaide in 1994, were clearly on everyone's mind. This message, it seems, had reached the bosses of both the rival teams. Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo was quoted as stating "Of course, I want my drivers very tough,very strong and not giving any presents to anybody on the track. On the other hand, we must have a victory of credit, correct, fair and in our 50-year tradition. Ron Dennis weighed in with the reminder to all that "Formula One is not a contact sport". Put simply, Formula One desperately needed a result in Suzuka that was seen as fair, a victory that was seen as earned. Increasingly, Formula One is more and more business and less and less sport. The corporate backers of both teams needed a victory that didn't require any explanations, they wanted both a worthy winner and Champion. The handshake on the grid between Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher looked more like the ritual "touching of gloves" of two gladiatorial boxers, a brief moment of civility before the serious business of inflicting grievous bodily harm upon one's opponent. I am still undecided about whether to be pleased or sad that events were to conspire so that they were never running together on the track. The question of what would have transpired between them remains tantalizingly unanswered, and even their supporting cast in Eddie Irvine and David Coulthard were only briefly ever close to one another. In a way it was ironic that the issue was to be settled at the "start". This is the fourth time this year that the original start has had to be aborted, and on each previous occasion Schumacher benefited. At Suzuka his luck ran out. The race provided a snapshot of the entire season, neatly dovetailed into 51 laps around the interesting and challenging Suzuka track. Michael Schumacher again drove brilliantly, Mika Hakkinen again did just enough to win. The one piece of controversy that has emerged from the race was the direct criticism made by Ralf Schumacher about Damon Hill refusing to yield his position to his charging brother. Hill, who was being in turn somewhat held up by Jacques Villeneuve, was lapping some 1.5 seconds a lap slower than the leading McLaren. Now it is all well and good for the drivers who are clear back markers (and as such in no position to score points for their teams) to ease the path of a Championship chasing driver. But quite another to expect a driver such as Hill, whose Jordan team still had a chance of advancing from 5th to 3rd place in the Constructor's Championship, to meekly yield his position. Michael Schumacher himself did not voice any complaints against Hill, but I found myself musing the old racing adage of, "what goes around, comes around" as he struggled for lap after lap to pass these two ex World Champions. So once again it was an exploding tyre that settled the Championship issue, caused, it seems, from Schumacher running over debris from an earlier accident. For the third time in as many title deciding races he had been a participant in, we had the sight of Schumacher watching from the sidelines as the race continued. Unlike Adelaide in 1994, his points deficit coming into this race insured that there was to be no last minute reprieve. This time it was to be the McLaren mechanics turn to rejoice wildly at the misfortune of their only rival for the Championship, but unlike the similar performance of the Benetton team back in '94, the cause of their joy was down to a "racing" failure, and not due to a dubious maneuver causing car contact. Afterwards, there was to be another hand shake in the parc ferme, as Schumacher welcomed the new World Champion home. This was for Schumacher a new and unusual experience, playing the role of "good looser" to the hilt. He may have lost the title battle, but perhaps he won some hearts and minds. The Suzuka race brought the curtain down on an absorbing season of Formula One racing; the driving genius of Michael Schumacher, aided - it must be said - by the unreliability of the McLarens, was responsible for taking the title battle down to this last race. Schumacher's long quest for Ferrari's first title since 1979 - and the immortality that goes with it - continues.

Roger Horton	© 1998 Atlas Formula One Journal.
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