The GSOH - Round One - 1960 vs 1998

[crmalcolm]

The next match of the GSOH bracket puts 1960 up against 1998.

Summaries from Wikipedia:

1960 - The last year of the 2.5 litre formula produced repeat victories for Jack Brabham and Cooper and saw Lotus, Porsche, and BRM campaigning rear-engined cars. Lance Reventlow's Scarabs, like the Aston Martins, were front-engined and outclassed. Stirling Moss' Rob Walker Lotus gave Colin Chapman his first Grand Prix win at Monaco and followed it with a victory in the USA. All other Grands Prix went to Cooper, except for the Italian, which was boycotted by the British constructors since the Italians were using Monza's banked circuit.

The points-scoring system was changed, with the point for the fastest lap being dropped and a point given for sixth place. The best six scores counted towards the championship increased from five from the previous season.

It was the last World Championship to include the Indianapolis 500 and the last season, which saw a victory for a front-engined car in a World Championship race.

Three drivers died in this season of Grand Prix racing. American Harry Schell in a non-championship race at Silverstone, and Britons Chris Bristow & Alan Stacey, both killed at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Stirling Moss was severely injured in a practice accident at this event and did not compete for most of the season.

Race 8: Portugal
With the German Grand Prix being cancelled after safety concerns and complaints about the general quality of the AVUS track in Berlin, there was a month between the British and Portuguese GPs. At the challenging and dangerous Boavista street circuit in Porto, Stirling Moss made his F1 comeback after being out of action since the disastrous Belgian GP in June. The only other change of note was that local hero Mario Cabral was found a drive in the second Scuderia Centro Sud Cooper-Maserati. In practice, Henry Taylor crashed his BRP Cooper heavily and injured his arm, while Jim Clark smashed up his Lotus in a rare crash. Despite the accident, pole position went to Team Lotus driver John Surtees, who edged out Dan Gurney's BRM by a few hundredths of a second. Jack Brabham was third quickest in his normally-dominant works Cooper. Moss put his Walker Lotus on the second row alongside Graham Hill's BRM. Brabham took the lead at the start, but Gurney quickly found a way ahead, and then Brabham went wide at one corner and dropped to sixth place. Moss emerged second, with Surtees and Phil Hill in his Ferrari fighting with him. After ten laps, Gurney dropped back with an oil leak, so Surtees took the lead with Moss in pursuit but had to stop because of spark plug problems and dropped to the back of the field. He was later disqualified for driving against the direction of the race while trying to get going after a spin. Brabham had a lively fight with Phil Hill until the American crashed, and this became the lead on lap 36 when Surtees went off because oil had leaked onto his pedals. Bruce McLaren came through to finish second to give Cooper another 1–2 result, with Clark finishing third in his cobbled-together Lotus. Brabham's victory meant he clinched the World Championship with two races remaining. But this was to be the last Portuguese Grand Prix for 24 years – the race would not return until 1984.

Race 9: Italy
With the World Championship settled in favour of Jack Brabham and the Italian authorities deciding that the Italian Grand Prix would be held on the combined road and oval course at the Monza Autodrome near Milan (making it the fastest circuit of the year), all the big British teams boycotted the event, citing the fragility, extreme roughness and poor construction of the concrete banking and the field consisted of the works Ferraris, the Coopers of Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti and Scuderia Centro Sud and a few privateers. To increase the size of the field, Formula 2 cars were allowed, with Porsche turning up with a pair of 718s for Hans Herrmann and Edgar Barth.

The powerful Ferraris dominated, with Phil Hill sharing the front row with fellow American Ritchie Ginther and Willy Mairesse with a couple of Coopers on the second row. In the race, Ginther and Hill led while Mairesse was slowed by team orders to help tow a fourth Ferrari – an F2 car driven by Wolfgang Von Trips – away from the two Porsches. This allowed Giulio Cabianca to run third in his Castellotti Cooper. Mairesse eventually returned to third place while Hill passed early leader Ginther to win the race. Ferrari finished 1–2–3, but it was an irrelevant result given the competition.

Race 10: USA
The final World Championship event of the year took place in the United States 10 weeks after the penultimate event. Ferrari did not travel to the Riverside circuit just east of Los Angeles, California, but Phil Hill found a ride in a fourth BRP Cooper at his home circuit, and Wolfgang Von Trips found a ride in a Cooper-Maserati run by Scuderia Centro Sud. In the sunny and pleasant southern California weather, Ron Flockhart turned up in the third factory Cooper and Jim Hall made his F1 debut in a private Lotus 18 and Chuck Daigh re-appeared in one of Lance Reventlow's Scarabs. Moss, by then recovered from his early season injuries, took pole by 0.6 seconds from World Champion Jack Brabham and Dan Gurney in his BRM. Jo Bonnier's BRM shared the second row with Jim Clark's Lotus. Brabham made the best start and led Moss for the first four laps, but then he heard an explosion at the car's back end and pitted. He made two stops to try to solve the problem, which was traced to overflow petrol hitting the hot exhausts of the Climax engine. Moss moved into the lead when Brabham pitted, and he stayed ahead all the way to the chequered flag. Early on, he was chased by Gurney, but he went out with plug problems, and Bonnier followed, retiring from second with engine trouble. This left Innes Ireland to finish second for Team Lotus, with the second factory Cooper of Bruce McLaren third. Brabham finished fourth, a lap behind at the finish. Jim Hall drove an excellent race to run fourth, but he dropped to seventh at the end when his transmission failed, and he had to push the car to the finish line. This was the only Grand Prix ever held at the Riverside circuit; 12 Hours of Sebring promoter Alec Ulmann had again broken even on this event, just as he had at the previous year's American Grand Prix at Sebring. The US Grand Prix was moved to the Watkins Glen circuit in upstate New York on the other side of the country.



1998 - When the season commenced, it was immediately clear that McLaren had adapted to the new rule changes best, with their drivers locking out the front row of the grid at the opening race of the season in Australia, both more than half a second clear of 1994–95 world champion Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. Mika Häkkinen went on to take victory in controversial circumstances after teammate David Coulthard moved over to allow him to pass in the closing laps, honouring a gentlemen's agreement that the driver leading at the first corner would win the race. Coulthard went on to finish second. This result was repeated in Brazil, although once again controversy was not far away, this time off the track: a protest was raised about a controversial braking system on the McLaren which was suggested to allow the drivers to brake front and rear wheels independently, contravening the rules. McLaren agreed not to run the system, but remained dominant in the race. With Goodyear making steps forward before Argentina, Schumacher was able to take his first win of the season, with teammate Eddie Irvine in third. Häkkinen finished a distant second, but Coulthard only managed sixth after he was tipped into a spin early in the race by Schumacher.

Coulthard bounced back in Imola by gaining pole position and winning the race, which would be his lone win of the season, ahead of Schumacher and Irvine. Häkkinen suffered his first retirement of the season due to a gearbox failure. The progress made by Goodyear enabled Ferrari to excel on these twisty circuits. In Spain, however, the fast corners favoured McLaren and again they raced away to another 1–2 finish led by Häkkinen. A further win for Häkkinen in Monaco gave him a seventeen-point lead over Coulthard with Schumacher a further five points behind.

Schumacher fought back to win the next three races, while mistakes and mechanical failures cost both Häkkinen and Coulthard points. After the British Grand Prix, Schumacher had closed the gap to Häkkinen to just two points, while Coulthard was 26 points behind his teammate and looking unlikely to be able to fight for the championship. Consecutive wins in Austria and Germany for Häkkinen proved that McLaren still had the strongest car, but a strategic master stroke in Hungary allowed Schumacher to take the win (with Häkkinen only managing sixth) and close the championship gap to just seven points.

The start of a typically rain-filled Belgian Grand Prix saw one of the worst accidents in Formula One history, with over half the cars on the grid crashing into each other after the first corner; four of those drivers were unable to take the restart almost an hour later due to lack of spare cars. An action-packed race saw Häkkinen spin out into retirement at the restart after colliding with the Sauber of Johnny Herbert. This allowed Schumacher to lead comfortably before crashing into Coulthard when trying to lap his McLaren. The path was then clear for 1996 world champion Damon Hill to take Jordan's first ever win, followed by teammate Ralf Schumacher in second.

Michael Schumacher bounced back to take a surprise victory in Italy, having initially outraced Häkkinen, who ended up finishing only fourth after brake problems sent him into two spins. The championship was now level with two races to go, with the result also bringing Ferrari back into contention for the World Constructors' Championship, being just ten points behind. For the next race at the Nürburgring, Häkkinen managed to beat Schumacher in a straight fight. The season concluded in Japan, where Häkkinen won easily without any challenge from Schumacher, who stalled on the grid and retired from a blown tyre later in the race. This gave Häkkinen his first world championship and McLaren their eighth Constructors' Championship. Williams, 1997 Constructors' Champion, had a disappointing season overall, with only two podium finishes for reigning Drivers' Champion Jacques Villeneuve and one for Heinz-Harald Frentzen. However, in Japan they managed to secure third in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of Jordan and Benetton.

[S griffin]

In terms of the title fight I will go for 1998. Despite the fact that was the year they brought in those horrible grooved tyres

[BTCC frog]

Hardest one so far. 1960 was not particularly memorable, apart from Jack Brabham winning five in a row, Graham Hill's remarkable race in Silverstone and Stirling Moss being disqualified in Portugal for stalling on a hill, turning around to restart while moving downhill and then turning back around and continuing. But 1998 had a very exciting championship battle between Hakkinen and Schumacher. I voted 1998.