The GSOH - Round Three - 1997 vs 1986

[crmalcolm]

The next match of the GSOH bracket puts 1997 up against 1986.

Summaries from Wikipedia:

1997 - The season started in Australia, with Canadian Jacques Villeneuve taking the first pole position of the season. The moment was short-lived, however, as Villeneuve was out of the race at the first corner after colliding with Johnny Herbert. McLaren's David Coulthard went on to win the race, the second of his career, with Michael Schumacher finishing second and Mika Häkkinen finishing in third place.

Villeneuve once again took pole position in Brazil, and once again he was off at the first corner. Luckily for him the race was restarted, and the Canadian took the lead on lap 49 from Gerhard Berger. The Austrian finished second and Olivier Panis continued his impressive form from 1996 with third place.

For the third time in a row, Jacques Villeneuve was again on pole position for Argentina. However, he was spared another first corner collision, and instead it was Michael Schumacher who collided with Rubens Barrichello. With Schumacher out, Eddie Irvine went on to challenge Villeneuve for the lead, and he made several attempts to pass the Canadian's Williams but failed on all his attempts and had to settle for second. Ralf Schumacher, in his first full season, managed to get onto the podium after he finished third.

Villeneuve continued his run of consecutive pole positions in San Marino. Villeneuve's German teammate, Frentzen, won his first and only Grand Prix for Williams after he finished just over a second ahead of Michael Schumacher, with Eddie Irvine coming third.

Frentzen managed to end Villeneuve's run of pole positions in Monaco. For the second time in successive seasons, the Monaco Grand Prix was raced under very wet conditions. Michael Schumacher won his first race of the season with his future Ferrari teammate, Rubens Barrichello finishing in second and earning Stewart not only their first podium finish, but their first points finish and their first finish of any kind. Irvine took the final step on the podium for the second time in a row.

In Spain, Williams continued to dominate the qualifying session, as Villeneuve, for the fifth time this season, took pole and Frentzen made sure Williams occupied both slots on the front row. Villeneuve went on to win the Grand Prix, with fellow French-speaking drivers, Olivier Panis and Jean Alesi, coming second and third respectively.

Williams's run of consecutive pole positions was broken in Canada where Michael Schumacher took pole; Rubens Barrichello's Stewart split the two Williams in third place. Schumacher went on to win the Grand Prix, with ex-Ferrari driver Jean Alesi finishing second and Giancarlo Fisichella coming in third. Schumacher earned his second pole of the season in France; he was accompanied by Frentzen on the front row. The two would stay in their respective positions at the end of the race, with Eddie Irvine in third.

Villeneuve earned his sixth pole of the season in Britain, with teammate Frentzen partnering him on the front row. After Häkkinen retired from the lead, Villeneuve went on to win the race with Alesi and young Alexander Wurz coming third to make it an all Renault-powered podium. Michael Schumacher failed to complete the race after he retired with a wheel bearing problem.

Gerhard Berger, who had not competed at the previous Grand Prix because of the illness and the death of his father, managed to get pole position for the German Grand Prix. Fastest lap and race victory followed, which would ultimately be Berger's and Benetton's final win. Michael Schumacher came second and Mika Häkkinen came third.

The next race, in Hungary, was one of the most memorable races in the 1997 season. Michael Schumacher took pole with Villeneuve partnering him on the front row. Damon Hill, in an Arrows which had not qualified as high as ninth before the Hungarian Grand Prix, qualified up in third place. The start of the race saw Hill overtake Villeneuve's Williams and on lap ten, the Brit overtook Schumacher to take the lead. Hill kept the lead for the final rounds of pit stops, but coming into the finale of the race, Hill reported that his Arrows was having problems, and in the end, Jacques Villeneuve took the lead on the final lap of the race and went on to win the race, achieving the milestone 100th Grand Prix victory for Williams.

After two very exciting Grands Prix, fans were hoping that Belgium would prove to be an exciting one as well. Villeneuve took pole position with Alesi's Benetton completing the front row. The race was wet and Villeneuve dropped down to fifth place, while his championship rival, Michael Schumacher, won the race by starting on intermediate tyres (as opposed to full wet). Fisichella came second, followed by Frentzen in third.

Alesi got his first, and only, pole position of the season in Italy with Frentzen coming second. David Coulthard won the race, his second of the season; pole sitter Alesi came second and Frentzen came third.

In Austria, Villeneuve managed to get his seventh pole position of the 1997 season; the Canadian was partnered on the front row by Finnish driver Mika Häkkinen. Villeneuve went on to win the Grand Prix with Coulthard and Frentzen joining him on the podium in second and third respectively. Michael Schumacher finished 6th after receiving a 10-second stop/go penalty for overtaking under yellow flag conditions.

The next race was the so-called "Luxembourg Grand Prix", actually staged at the Nürburgring in Germany. Mika Häkkinen, who had qualified second at the previous Grand Prix, managed to earn pole. McLaren looked set for a 1–2 finish until both cars broke down in quick succession. Villeneuve was therefore gifted a win, which would end up being his last in F1, while title rival Michael Schumacher was taken out at the first corner. Alesi and Frentzen completed the podium, making it, for the second time in the 1997 season, an all Renault-powered podium.

Japan saw Villeneuve, for the eighth time that season, take pole position. Villeneuve was disqualified from the race, after failing to slow down under yellow flags during qualifying. He raced under appeal, but finished only fifth. Michael Schumacher won the race, while Frentzen came second and Irvine came third. Villeneuve's Williams team dropped his appeal after the race, leaving Schumacher one point ahead of Villeneuve in the Drivers' Championship, meaning that the title would be decided at the season finale in Jerez.

At Jerez, the qualifying session was noteworthy, as three drivers, Villeneuve, Schumacher, and Frentzen, all registered the same fastest qualifying time. Villeneuve was awarded pole position since he had set the time first, and this would be the final pole of his F1 career. At the start of the race, Schumacher had a good start, overtaking Villeneuve to take the lead. By lap 48 Villeneuve was catching up to Schumacher and attempted to overtake. Braking later than the German at the Dry Sac corner, Villeneuve had the inside line and was slightly ahead when Schumacher turned into him, his front right wheel connecting with the sidepod of the Williams car. Schumacher retired on the spot and Villeneuve went to take third place and earn four points, enough to take the 1997 title. Schumacher was later punished by the FIA for causing an avoidable accident and was disqualified from the championship, although his race results (grid position, finishing position, points) still counted towards his official statistics. In the race itself, Mika Häkkinen went on to take his first ever career victory.



1986 - The 1986 championship culminated in a battle between Williams drivers Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet and McLaren driver Alain Prost at the final race, the Australian Grand Prix. Mansell's tyre exploded and Piquet was brought in for a precautionary pit stop for tyres as a result, leaving Prost to win the race and his second consecutive Drivers' Championship. Mansell, Piquet and Prost, along with Lotus' Ayrton Senna, dominated throughout the season and formed what was dubbed as the "Gang of Four".

For the first time, turbocharged engines were compulsory due to a ban on naturally aspirated engines. This ban would be rescinded in 1987, in preparation for turbos themselves being banned from 1989.

The Formula One cars of 1986 are the most powerful Grand Prix cars in history. There were still no limits on engine power, and some engines, including the powerful but rather unreliable BMW M12/13 1.5 litre single turbocharged straight-4 engine used by the Benetton, Brabham and Arrows teams, could throw out 1,350+ hp at 5.5 bar boost (79.7 psi) during qualifying; this would happen when the engineers took the boost restrictors off the engine. The power of the turbocharged engines was so great that it could not even be accurately measured until years later, when the dynamometer technology was advanced enough. Purpose-built drivetrains had to be fitted to the chassis of each car for specific sessions – there were qualifying engines (as described above) that had unrestricted boost pressure, and qualifying gearboxes, designed to withstand the engine's extra power; these components were pushed to their absolute structural limits and would only last about 3–4 minutes (2–3 laps) during use (hence the nickname "grenades"), and if pushed for too long, they would simply break. These drivetrain units were then taken out and then replaced with the boost-restricted engines and specifically prepared gearboxes for races, which had to be just powerful enough to last a race distance. One common sight of these cars going around the track was flames being quickly spit out of their exhausts during gear changes or when the driver lifted off the throttle.

When these turbocharged engines were fitted to the cars, the whole package weighed about 540 kg (1,190 lb). For qualifying, the power to weight ratios were about 2,500 hp/ton+ for the Benetton-BMW and 1,850 hp/ton for the Benetton's race trim; compared to about 1,175 hp/ton for a modern F1 car – and all Formula 1 cars had manual stick-shift gearboxes then. A consistent problem for these new turbo engines that was somewhat smoothed over (particularly by Ford and Honda) over the years was the turbo lag. In the engines, which were mechanically turbocharged, the power would only come on all at once 2–3 seconds after the driver put his foot down; it would usually measure out from 100 to 300 hp for the first 2–3 seconds then the engine would go immediately to the top of the power range (usually 900–1000 hp). The nature of these engines made them very difficult to drive; drivers had to anticipate when the power would come on, so they would floor the gas pedal much earlier than usual to get the power on at the right moment. This was similar to what had gone on in American IndyCar racing in the early 1970s.

The boost of the engines would often be restricted to the point where they would only be producing around 900–1,000 hp during the race. The major automotive manufacturers participating in F1 at the time, with their superior money and resources ran at the front of the turbocharged engine development race. The Honda twin-turbocharged V6 exclusively supplied to the Williams team were second to BMW in overall power and had slightly less power than the German engines; the Ferrari, TAG/Porsche, and Renault twin-turbocharged V6 engines were not as powerful and as efficient as the Honda and BMW engines, producing about 25–40 less horsepower than the Japanese and German powerplants. The new Ford-Cosworth turbocharged V6 (a successor to the ubiquitous DFV V8) was made in a rush and was therefore underpowered and underdeveloped; it apparently had 150–200 less horsepower than the front-running European and Honda engines; but continued development meant that this engine got considerably better in 1987. The underfunded and very unreliable Alfa Romeo, Motori Moderni, Zakspeed and Hart engines were considerably less powerful than any of the others and kept their users down the order frequently. The power in engines from 1980 to 1986 doubled. In 1980, the most powerful engine was the Renault twin-turbo V6 engine, which produced between 550 and 600 horsepower; most teams were using naturally-aspirated Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 engines in 1980 that produced about 480–510 hp; although some of the turbo engine's power was negated by its heavier weight.

At many races, particularly at high speed circuits such as Imola, Spa-Francorchamps, Hockenheim, the Österreichring and Monza, fuel consumption was always a concern, as the FIA lessened the amount of allowable fuel from 220 litres in 1984 and 1985 to 195 litres for 1986. As a result, fuel consumption became a problem for most teams since the engines were slightly more powerful than before. There were many races where a number of drivers ran out of fuel, including Alain Prost at Hockenheim, who very nearly finished third but ran out of fuel less than 500 meters from the finishing line. He tried to push his stricken car across the finish line, ultimately never making it and finishing sixth. The Honda engines (second in power to the BMW engines) had the edge on fuel consumption and reliability, but the TAG/Porsche, Renault and BMW engineers were able to gain some ground later in the season.

The end of the 1986 season saw the retirements of two former World Champions, 1980 champion Alan Jones and 1982 champion Keke Rosberg, as well as Patrick Tambay. The careers of Jacques Laffite and Marc Surer also ended during 1986, both through serious injury: Laffite at the British Grand Prix, and Surer in a rally crash in Germany following the Belgian Grand Prix. This was the only F1 season for both Johnny Dumfries and Allen Berg; Huub Rothengatter also dropped out of F1 at season's end. Elio de Angelis was killed in a testing accident at the Circuit Paul Ricard following the Monaco Grand Prix; he remained the last driver to die in F1 until Roland Ratzenberger at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

The 1986 Formula One calendar featured the brand-new Hungarian Grand Prix, as well as the return of both the Mexican Grand Prix (last held in 1970) and the Spanish Grand Prix (last held in 1981). Exiting the calendar were the Dutch and South African Grands Prix, as well as the infrequently-run European Grand Prix.

[S griffin]

I liked 97, it was ultra competitive helped by the tyre war. However it did end controversially, even if justice happened to Schumi. 1986 will always be seen as a classic from start to finish. Great battle for the title, with the champion winning in spite of not being in the best car. And what a title finale it was too. Plus the racing was exciting too.