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1996 FIA Formula One World Championship - Round 6 54e Grand Prix de Monaco Monte Carlo |
Another Grand Prix over, and what a Grand Prix it was. Perhaps it will not be remembered for great racing (there didn't seem to be much) but it is certainly one that will live on in my mind for a long time as one of the more eventful races of the 1990's.
Before the race
As I'm sure everyone knows, the qualifying and practice sessions were all dry even if the sky was overcast, but just after lunch on Sunday, the low cloud broke and the track was thoroughly soaked. The FIA Sporting Regulations state that in the event of dry practice and qualifying and a wet race, a further 15 minutes track time is allowed to get teams and drivers acclimatized to the conditions. The session ran, for the most part without incident until the last 3 minutes. At 13 minutes, Mika Hakkinen spun his McLaren-Mercedes MP4/11 B into the barriers at the Tabac corner, doing serious damage to it and making it necessary to start the race in the spare car. At 14 minutes, Andrea Montermini managed to put his Forti-Ford FG03 into the barriers at the Nouvelle Chicane (coming out of the tunnel) and unfortunately for him, damaged the car too badly for him to take the start (Forti do not have a spare car at this time). A final, less important detail of note was that David Coulthard who was having problems with his helmet visor misting up in the wet conditions asked Michael Schumacher for one of his helmets and ran the race in this rather than his own.
The Race
The race was started in the wet, but the rain had stopped falling by the time for the warm-up lap. All teams had their cars on wet tyres, but I'm sure that had the rain continued, the monsoon tyre would have been needed. The race was scheduled for 78 laps, but before the start it looked like it would only run to 2 hours (as many laps as possible in that time) as the slower lap times in the wet would make the race too long.
As the lights went out, Schumacher made a good start but was beaten into St. Devote by a lightening quick Damon Hill. Behind this, David Coulthard dropped from 5th to 8th, loosing places to Barrichello, Irvine and Frentzen. In most Monaco Grands Prix some cars fail to make it round the first corner and this year was no exception. Jos Verstappen (TWR Arrows-Hart), Giancarlo Fisichella (Minardi-Ford) and Pedro Lamy (Minardi-Ford) all managed to hit the barriers and end their respective weekends in the worst possible manner.
These should have been the only retirements on the first lap as everyone else made it through OK. Michael Schumacher, however, obviously had different plans for his Ferrari F310. Much improved as it is, the car is still suffering from handling problems and as the German entered the corner after the Loews hairpin, his car decided to snap into oversteer (the back end slid out too much). After correcting the oversteer the car seemed to understeer (the front end not turning far enough) and managed to put itself into the Armco at the side of the track. 4 down, 17 to go. Rubens Barrichello (Jordan-Peugeot) also decided that the barrier was the place to be and neatly spun his car into the wall and retirement coming into the Rascasse (perhaps he was dazzled by the new gold livery on his car).
All of this aside, at the end of the first lap, Damon Hill appeared to be making the race his own, having pulled a 4.3 second lead over Jean Alesi (Benetton-Renault) who was, in turn, 2.2 seconds ahead of his team-mate Gerhard Berger. The next 3 positions were held by Irvine, Frentzen (Sauber-Ford) and Coulthard, with the Sauber already swarming all over the back of the Irishman's Ferrari. Lap two started and finished without incident for the leaders (although Katayama crashed his Tyrrell-Yamaha at Tabac, continuing his poor 1996 form), and Hill stretched his lead to 6.1 seconds. The Williams-Renault is, without a doubt, the class of the field at this point, and in the wet, Damon Hill has managed to make the car the fastest on the grid.
Eddie Irvine seemed to be having more problems in the Ferrari than he would have liked and a 4.7 second gap between him and Berger had opened up. To add to his problems, the improved Sauber and McLaren were breathing down his neck, threatening to pounce if he made a mistake. Monaco has never been a circuit where passing is easy and even though the cars behind were clearly faster, they could do nothing to get past the red car. One of my colleagues said, last year, that he doesn't think that the Monaco Grand Prix has any place in a modern season and I'm afraid I have to agree with him. The FIA is making all of these changes to cars to make racing better and yet they allow tracks like this to stay on the calendar. Anyway, enough of that, and back to the race.
Lap 3 saw the unlucky 1995 F3000 runner-up, Ricardo Rosset, put his car into the barrier at Rascasse backwards, saving the team one of their increasingly rare nose-cones but loosing the rear-wing and mountings. The TWR-run team seem to have lost some pace since the new management took over, and Ligier have got better since TWR left them. Makes you wonder doesn't it? Lap 3 also saw my least favourite driver of 1996, Pedro Diniz, drive his car into the pits, eventually retiring on lap 5. Quite what this bloke thinks he's up to here is beyond me, he is so slow it's not funny anymore. Admittedly I am a bit harsh with him, but when most of the other teams (even Forti and Minardi) have managed to pick drivers who have talent, I think it's a shame that Ligier had to have him.
So, by the start of lap 6 the race was down to 13 runners and Damon Hill had dragged his Williams to an apparently unassailable 14 second lead, with Alesi leading Berger by 3.5 seconds, and Berger leading the 4th place battle (Irvine, Frentzen and Coulthard in that order) by 18 seconds. Frentzen was clearly becoming impatient by this point, trying to force the nose of his Sauber past the Ferrari at every corner. If anyone is wondering what happened to Jacques Villeneuve up to this point, let me enlighten you. The Canadian driver, who to be honest failed to make any impression whatsoever in his first F1 appearance at Monaco, was wandering along in 7th place, a good distance behind 6th. Jacques clearly had made some massive error in setting up his car during the weekend and never looked like repeating his Nurburgring performance.
On lap 9, Gerhard Berger pulled into the pits for an unscheduled stop, and a mechanic rushed out with a laptop PC to change something in the gearbox or engine management. 20 seconds later, the mechanic leaned into the cockpit, said something to the Austrian driver and moved over to let him out of the car. Race over for Gerhard (officially on lap 11) with a gearbox problem. The second Benetton, driven by Jean Alesi (rumoured to be close to being replaced by Vincenzo Sospiri), although not matching the pace of the Williams-Renault, was pulling steadily away from the close race for 4th, so that on lap 16, he was 33 seconds ahead (but 19.4 behind Hill).
As lap 17 started, Frentzen decided that this was the time to make his move. In a classic slipstreaming manouvre he pushed his nose level with the rear wheel of Eddie Irvine's Ferrari and tried to outbrake him into St. Devote. Sadly for Frentzen, the Sauber team and everyone watching the race (and this was the most exciting part of the race so far), the Goodyear tyre touched the wing and broke it. As the cars streamed up to Casino square, Coulthard was past Frentzen and as the German reached Loews, Villeneuve, Salo and Panis drove past. The race looked to be over for Heinz-Harald, but the Sauber team replaced the damaged bodywork in 14 seconds in record time. Dispite this speed Frentzen rejoined, albeit last and a lap down on the leaders.
Immediately, Frentzen was lapping faster than anyone else on the circuit, indicating that Irvine had been holding him up to the tune of at least a second a lap. The top 6 were now Hill, Alesi, Irvine, Coulthard, Villeneuve and Salo. As the track dried, the fastest lap times fell and Hill and Alesi were making the best of the conditions, trading faster lap times each time they crossed the line. The top 6 was fixed from lap 18 to lap 28 when Hill came in for his first stop. The Williams team have seemed changed this year in terms of pit strategy and got Hill out quickly on a new set of slick tyres, although Alesi managed to get in front by 7 or 8 seconds. Irvine also chose this lap to change his tyres and fill up, taking just 7.7 seconds to have the four slick tyres fitted and the fuel added. Another driver to visit the pitlane on this lap was Frentzen, who was still in last position, behind the Forti of Luca Badoer.
Once again, Frentzen set fastest lap, and it appeared that slick tyres were the thing to have on the car at this point. Damon Hill proved this beyond doubt when, within the space of a lap, he had caught the slower car of Jean Alesi and passed him without trouble on the run up top Casino square. This was also a testament to the new found calm within Alesi, who gave up the place without difficulty as he knew that his pitstop was coming soon. Indeed, the very next lap, Alesi and Coulthard both pitted for their fresh tyres. Brundle was also in on this lap for his new tyres and fuel and made an uncharacteristic mistake, spinning into the barriers at Casino. Although this was a combination of cold tyres and driving on a wet track on slicks, it looked like a driver error and shouldn't have been made.
Lap 31 saw the start of the funny stuff. Olivier Panis set the fastest lap of the race so far. The Ligier driver had been fastest in his Mugen-Honda powered car in the morning session but this was widely dismissed as a French team trying to look good at "home" by running an underweight car. I have no idea when the French driver pitted, but he must have at some point and he had managed to sandwich himself between Irvine and Coulthard. The next lap saw another drop in Panis' lap time and the remaining Ferrari appeared in front of the Ligier. Lap 33 and Panis was 2.3 seconds behind Irvine and closing fast. Coulthard was keeping station a few seconds behind the Frenchman but couldn't seem to close the distance.
At the start of lap 35, Panis appeared to be tied to the gearbox of the Ferrari, he was so close. Loews hairpin is not the ideal place to overtake, but it was here that Oliver Panis decided that enough was enough and tried to take 3rd place from Irvine. The Ligier dived for the inside line into the corner, forcing Eddie to swerve close to the barriers and stall the car. The Ligier was past and disappearing into the distance but there were problems for Irvine. As he had stalled his car he decided to unbuckle his belts to get out. The marshals on the other hand, had different ideas. They decided that he should carry on round the corner and use the next slip road to park the car on. As Eddie rolled down the hill towards the slip road, he managed to start the engine and drive off, obviously fastening his 6-point harness as he went. This necessitated a trip to the pits for a the mechanics to tighten the belts for him (a driver can't do his own tight enough), and he rejoined in 10th place (second to last behind Frentzen and in front of Badoer).
So, on lap 36, the top 6 was Hill, Alesi, Panis, Coulthard, Herbert and Villeneuve, with Panis around 20 seconds behind the leaders. Panis set fastest lap for the next 3 consecutive laps, proving that his pace in the morning warm-up was not luck, but the product of a good car/driver/setup combination. On lap 40, the only thing that could have stopped Hill winning his 4th Grand Prix of the season happened, his engine broke coming through the tunnel. The Renault engine is a paragon of reliability, yet when it does happen, it seems to happen at the worst possible time. As Hill climbed from his car, by now surrounded by firemen, he held his head in his hands was visibly upset. Another almost certain win snatched away, this time through no fault of his own, but these things happen in motorsports and he seemed to have recovered when he reached the pits. Damon apparently believed the race to be in the bag as he was planning no further stops and they were sure that Alesi would need to make another.
This left Jean Alesi in a position to win his second Grand Prix of his career, and move him into a real position to challenge for the Championship. Alesi led from Panis by over 30 seconds, who in turn led from Coulthard, Herbert, Villeneuve and Salo and the field was down to 10 cars (Hakkinen, Frentzen, Irvine and Badoer completed the field).
For the next 14 laps, very little happened, the gaps stayed much the same between all of the cars, with the exception of Salo and Hakkinen closing the gap to the slightly slower Williams of Jacques Villeneuve. Lap 54, saw Alesi make his second stop, coming out on slicks 14 seconds ahead of his compatriot Oliver Panis. For all the speed of Panis, Coulthard was doggedly staying on his tail, a more or less steady 5 seconds behind, but never closing.
Lap 59 saw Alesi pitting for the third time, yet this was clearly not scheduled although they changed the tyres and no fuel was put in. The mechanics were checking the rear suspension and from the way they looked at the rear left tyre they thought it was punctured. Alesi rejoined in 7th, only to return to the pits the following lap to retire. It seems that every time he gets into the lead, something breaks on his car and puts him out. Flavio Briatore (team manager) seemed to be as mystified about the problem as his driver and could only be wondering if the jinx that Alesi had at Ferrari wasn't a Ferrari problem but a jinx on Jean Alesi.
This left Oliver Panis leading a Grand Prix for the first time (correct me if he led at Hockenheim in 1994) by around 6 seconds with around 17 minutes left to run. At this point it seemed as if the remaining 9 cars would finish in their current order as there was no way for any car to pass another on the road and all stops were finished. This order was: Panis (Liger), Coulthard (McLaren), Herbert (Sauber), Villeneuve (Williams), Salo (Tyrrell), Hakkinen (McLaren), Frentzen (Sauber), Irvine (Ferrari) and Badoer (Forti).
Fate conspired against the drivers however and when Herbert, Villeneuve, and following group, came up to lap Badoer's Forti, a stupid accident occurred. Badoer moved over in the run-up to Mirabeau and let Herbert through. As Villeneuve tried to follow, Badoer returned to his line and forced the Williams into the wall, breaking the suspension of both cars. Badoer has never been a driver famed for his mirror use (remember Imola 1995?), and Villeneuve should have considered this, but Badoer was certainly at fault in closing the door. Whatever the reason, this moved Frentzen into the points and left only 7 cars running.
Lap 69 and Irvine pitted for the second and final time for tyres returning to the track 2 laps behind the leader, and sandwiched (on the track) between Panis and Coulthard who were happily maintaining their gap at around 3 seconds and Johnny Herbert (followed by Salo and Hakkinen about 15 seconds behind). On lap 70 the rain started to fall again and this seemed to catch only one driver unawares, Eddie Irvine. Perhaps it was due to some inherent instability in the Ferrari chassis, but Irvine's Ferrari stepped out in the same manner as his team-leaders car, except Eddie didn't catch it and ended up facing the wrong way. One good thing was that the car was undamaged and the engine was running, so Eddie engaged first gear, put a lot of revs down and spun the car to face the right way... just as Salo and Hakkinen came around the corner. Left with nowhere to go (the yellow flags weren't waving as the cars entered Loews hairpin), both cars crashed, removing 3 more cars from the race. The annoyance was clear from both of the Finnish drivers and Mika Hakkinen left from his car, pushing aside the marshals to vent his anger at the Ferrari driver.
So with these three cars out and less than 3 minutes, it seemed like an easy run to the flag was all that was required. Although Coulthard tried his best to make up the ground, he dropped back on the last lap, clearly having been told to settle for 2nd place. With Herbert taking 3rd and his team-mate Frentzen taking 4th (a lap down on the leaders) that accounted for all the finishing positions of the remaining cars. Salo took 5th and Hakkinen 6th for being closest to finishing the race.
With the top 3 drivers failing to finish, the Championship is practically unchanged, with the newest winner in F1, Oliver Panis, joining Alesi in 4th place in the Drivers Championship.
Analysis