Formula One: '99 Australian GP Results/ Brazil Preview
8 March 1999
FIVE WEEK GAP BEFORE BRAZILAfter all the drama in Melbourne the teams have a five-week wait before the second round of the Formula One World Championship at Interlagos in Brazil on Sunday 11 April. The big gap, caused by the cancellation of the Argentine Grand Prix, will allow the teams to asses the highs and lows of the first race and try and sort out their problems at a big test session at Barcelona in Spain.
The McLaren team in particular will be looking forward to the race after both world champion Mika Hkkinen and David Coulthard failed to score points in Melbourne while World IndyCar Champion Alex Zanardi will be looking to open his points scoring account for the Winfield WilliamsF1 team.
His new team-mate Ralf Schumacher scored an impressive third place in Melbourne behind Eddie Irvine and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The German driver will be looking for another podium finish and has great respect for the 4.292km (2.667 miles) circuit in the Interlagos area of the vast city of Sao Paolo.
"This is a very difficult and challenging track because it's very bumpy with an infield area that has slow corners while the rest of the circuit has fast corners and one long straight," explained Schumacher. "All this makes it very difficult to set up the car to find a good compromise between mechanical grip and aerodynamical downforce. Last year I was not so lucky as I slid into the gravel on the first lap and so I want to do a better job this year and see the chequered flag within the points."
Last year the race was dominated by the McLaren duo of Hkkinen and Coulthard with Michael Schumacher in third place. Schumacher won the race in 1994 and 1995 and will be desperate to score some vital points after finishing eighth in Melbourne, driving the Ferrari.
The Interlagos circuit was built in 1940 by private funding and today presents a real challenge for the drivers. It has been considerably re-shaped and won the annual contract to stage the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1990. The track is named after Brazilian Carlos Pace, whose only grand prix victory came in his home event in 1975, two years prior to a fatal air crash.
Sao Paolo has a special chapter in the history of grand prix racing. It was the home of two of Brazil's greatest world champions, Emerson Fittipaldi and the late Ayrton Senna.
The 72 lap, 309.024km (192.02 miles), race starts at 1300hrs local time.
IRVINE SECURES FIRST GRAND PRIX VICTORY
Thirty-three-year-old Eddie Irvine secured his first-ever grand prix victory in a truly amazing opening race of the Formula One World Championship at Melbourne in Australia this afternoon. Ulsterman Irvine, driving the Ferrari, drove a faultless 57 laps to fight off the combined German challenge of Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher, driving the Winfield WilliamsF1 FW21, who joined him on the victory rostrum. "After such a long time it's fantastic to at last win a Formula One Race," explained Irvine on his 82nd grand prix appearance. "All weekend my engineer and myself have been doing our own thing and it has paid off and I'd just like to thank everybody who has helped throughout my career."
It was a disastrous day for the McLaren duo of world champion Mika Hkkinen and David Coulthard, who had dominated qualifying but dropped out of the race which only commenced after a re-start and also saw the safety car in action on two separate occasions. Former world champion Michael Schumacher finally finished out of the points in eighth place.
Ralf Schumacher was equally delighted with his third place on his debut for the WilliamsF1 team. "I had to slow down towards the finish because I lost one of the barge boards from the car," he revealed, after finishing nearly six seconds behind Frentzen in second place. "We are all pretty happy with the result after the problems we had during practice on Friday and Saturday."
His new team-mate Italian Alex Zanardi completed a miserable weekend when he spun out of 13th place while driving the spare car after problems in the morning warm-up.
There was drama even before the start when world champion Mika Hkkinen had problems getting out of the McLaren garage when an air line and lighting rig snagged the rear of his car and he was forced to use the spare. The start was even more dramatic when both the Stewart cars struck major engine problems on the line. The spare Stewart car was given to Rubens Barrichello who'd qualified fourth and a frustrated Johnny Herbert was left to watch from the pits. Michael Schumacher stalled his Ferrari at the start of the formation lap for the re-start and for the second grand prix in succession had to start from the back of the grid.
Hkkinen led team-mate Coulthard from the start but Damon Hill, on his 100th grand prix appearance, and Jean Alesi spun out on the first lap. Coulthard was the first of the front runners to retire with an engine problem and he was quickly followed by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve who was lucky to escape injury when the rear wing on his BAR car flew off. The safety car came out for the first time on lap 15 while Villeneuve's car was cleared away. When the race resumed Irvine raced into the lead followed by Ralf Schumacher although Frentzen and Trulli pushed him back to fourth. Hkkinen was in trouble and after a long pit stop and a slow lap he joined Coulthard in the pits and Michael Schumacher was threatening in fourth.
On lap 20 Zanardi spun out and the safety car returned while his Williams was removed. Trulli pitted but when the race resumed he spun out trying to race back through the field. Michael Schumacher then slowed dramatically with a rear wheel puncture and a broken front spoiler. After a long pit stop he returned to the fray in last place but after another attempted pit stop in which he just raced through the pits he stopped a lap later to replace his steering wheel and tyres. Giancarlo Fisichella kept out of trouble to finish fourth in the Benetton with Barrichello a brilliant fifth. The Brazilian started from the back in the spare Stewart and also suffered a ten second stop and go penalty for overtaking under a yellow flag. Grand prix newcomer Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa was a surprise sixth, driving the Arrows.
QUOTES & STATISTICS
Ralf Schumacher. "Looking at Friday and Saturday practice sessions, I'm really pleased to have finished on the podium in my first race for the Winfield WilliamsF1 team. The car was well balanced and I was quite happy with its performance. I lost one of the barge boards towards the end of the race but this did not influence the handling of the car. We are really looking forward to our next test in Barcelona so that we can prepare well for Brazil."
Alex Zanardi. "At the start it was quite difficult to get round all those cars, but unfortunately when it cleared up and I was all by myself, I lost the car. don't know what happened. I was having quite a few problems, I was a few seconds off the pace, I just turned into the corner and lost the back. I'm very disappointed not to have done better, I certainly had more problems this weekend than I thought I would have have. All I can do is gather my thoughts in preparation for the next race."
Patrick Head, Winfield WilliamsF1 Technical Director. "A great drive from Ralf. He didn't put a foot wrong and we are very pleased to get points under our belt for the first race. Now we have to go back and sort out a few of the problems we have and find some performance. Alex said that he lost the car but basically he had a troubled weekend and I'm sure it will be a lot better in Brazil."
World Champion Mika Hkkinen. "Shortly before the safety car came out I felt that the car did not accelerate properly. We tried some adjustments during my pit stop but without success, so I had to retire five laps later."
Michael Schumacher, "First I must congratulate Eddie. Like the rest of the team I'm very happy he has won his first grand prix. He really deserves it after so many years of hard and good work. Naturally I'm not very happy with my race today, but at least we both finished. It is a better start than last year."
Pedro de la Rosa. "I'm completely happy about my result today and I felt very relaxed about the race. The car was good to drive and I managed to stay out of trouble. I was convinced throughout the weekend that the car had reliability to perform well in the race and I was proved right."
SATISTICS
Ferrari secured their 120th grand prix victory when Irvine was victorious in Melbourne
The eight finishers in the race was the lowest number in the four Melbourne Australian Grands Prix.
Mika Hkkinen secured the 11th pole position of his career.
Three drivers,Ricardo Zonta, Marc Gene and Pedro De La Rosa made their Formula One debuts.
The three previous winners of the Australian Grand prix in Melbourne, Damon Hill, David Coulthard and Mika Hkkinen were on the grid on Sunday.
Former world champion Damon Hill made his 100th grand prix appearance. He has an impressive record of 22 victories.
Adelaide staged the first World Championship Australian Grand Prix in 1985 which was won by Keke Rosberg driving the Williams FW10.
STOP PRESS
World champion Mika Hkkinen walked away uninjured from a high speed crash just ten minutes from the finish of the first day of practice in Melbourne. The Finnish driver hit the wall coming into the start and finish straight. He walked back to the pits but his team-mate David Coulthard pipped him for the fastest time of the day with just a couple of minutes remaining when the session was re-started. The performance of the Stewart team was the talking point of the first day with Rubens Barrichello third fastest and Johnny Herbert fifth. Sandwiched between them was German Heinz-Harald Frentzen making his Jordan debut. Hkkinen was in pole position for the race after leading Coulthard by nearly half a second on Saturday. Michael Schumacher and the impressive Rubens Barrichello shared the second row although Schumacher was 1.3 seconds behind pole-setting Hkkinen. It was a disappointing first qualifying session for the the Winfield WilliamsF1 team with Ralf Schumacher eighth and Alex Zanardi 15th. Spanish driver Marc Gene was lucky to make his Formula One debut for Minardi. He failed to qualify in the maximum time on Saturday but was allowed to start by the Stewards of the the Meeting because of exceptional circumstances, although what they were was not so clear............ Finnish driver Mika Salo finds himself out in the cold after Japanese driver Toranosuke Takagi replaced him in the Arrows team just days before the opening grand prix of the season. Arrows released Salo from his contract, which ran until the end of this season, last week and immediately replaced him with 25-year-old Takagi who drove for Tyrrell last season. The Japanese driver joins grand prix rookie, Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in the brand new Arrows line-up. Salo, who was regarded as one of the brightest Formula One prospects a couple of years ago, may become the test driver for the new Honda team which enters the world championship next season..........Former Tyrrell Japanese driver Shinji Nakano has been appointed the test driver for Jordan this season....The FIA technical team were on the look-out for flexible rear wings in Melbourne, after a number of teams had accidents during pre-season testing while trying out new rear wings .......Ten times the population of the world watched last year's Formula One world championship, according to figures released last week. They show that the TV viewing figures rose by eight per cent and that 55.3 billion watched Formula One racing. The figures are calculated by counting every time somebody sees Formula One footage on television and includes news coverage..... A record crowd of over 49,000 attended the first day on Thursday in Melbourne although no Formula One cars were in action. For the first day of Formula One practice on Friday the attendance was a staggering 74,600. The trend continued on Saturday when 104,000 were at Albert Park, which again was a record for the event......The new BAR team used their dual branding in Melbourne after getting the all clear from the Australian government, although they have still to appear before the FIA's World Council next week for daring to challenge their rule about running their cars in two separate liveries...... The Saturday morning practice was delayed ten minutes after Alexander Wurz crashed his Benetton into the wall.......Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve should have known better but was fined for speeding in pit lane while newcomer, Spaniard Marc Gene could be forgiven but still received a $1250 fine for a similar offence..... World IndyCar Champion Alex Zanardi had a disastrous Saturday practice session for his new Winfield WilliamsF1 team when he was only able to complete seven laps due to a hydraulic problem in the throttle management system.......Australian Sports Personality of the Year Michael Doohan, who is chasing his sixth consecutive World 500cc Motorcycle Championship this year, was a guest of the Winfield WilliamsF1 team on Saturday. Former World 500 Champion Wayne Gardner finished third in the PorscheSupercup race won by German driver Ralf Kalleners after taking the lead from Frenchman Stephane Ortelli on the last lap.....