1997 Australian Grand Prix

July 2022 F1 Australia Australian 1 17 1997 Albert_Lake_Park_Street_Circuit_in_Melbourne,_Australia.svg Qantas Australian Grand Prix 9 March Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne Temporary street circuit 3.295 5.302 58 191.110 307.516 Partly Cloudy, Dry Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:29.369 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:30.585 36 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes AUS 1996 Japanese Grand Prix 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1997 Australian Grand Prix (formally the Qantas Australian Grand Prix)https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/1997/races/654/australia/race-result.html Australia Formula1.com 9 October 2023 was a Formula One motor race held at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne on 9 March 1997. It was the first race of the 1997 Formula One World Championship, and the second Australian Grand Prix to be held in Melbourne. The 58-lap race was won by David Coulthard, driving a McLaren-Mercedes, after he started from fourth position. It was Coulthard's second F1 victory, and the first for the McLaren team since the 1993 Australian Grand Prix. German Michael Schumacher finished second in a Ferrari, with Coulthard's Finnish teammate Mika Häkkinen third. Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took pole position in his Williams-Renault but retired after a first-lap collision, while reigning World Champion Damon Hill, in his first race for the Arrows team, suffered a throttle failure on the formation lap and did not start. This race marked the debuts of Ralf Schumacher, Jarno Trulli and Shinji Nakano; the entry of Bridgestone as a tyre supplier to compete with Goodyear; and the only appearance of the MasterCard Lola team, whose cars were over 11 seconds off Villeneuve's pole time and thus did not qualify.Bring Back V10s Podcast: Lola's disastrous 1997 F1 team https://the-race.com/formula-1/bring-back-v10s-podcast-lolas-disastrous-1997-f1-team/ The Race 11 February 2021 The Race Media 11 February 2021 This was the first race weekend to have 24 pre-event entries since the 1995 Australian Grand Prix and the last until the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. It was also the first Formula One race to be broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom, with commentary from Murray Walker, Martin Brundle and James Allen. Report Background Two new teams came into Formula One in 1997: Stewart and Lola. This was Lola's first F1 race weekend involvement in F1 since the 1993 Portuguese Grand Prix where they had been car supplier for the defunct BMS Scuderia Italia team and the first time they had entered their own team. Footwork reverted to their old name of Arrows and acquired Yamaha engines, while Ligier were bought by Alain Prost and changed their name to Prost Grand Prix. Tyrrell acquired Ford engines. The change that dominated the drivers line up was Damon Hill's surprise sacking from Williams having just won the World Championship. He joined Tom Walkinshaw and the newly purchased Arrows team. In the week up to the race, there were rumours, which proved to be unfounded, of Hill having left Arrows due to the poor performance of the car. Rosenthal, Jim 8 March 1997 F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live Television production ITV London, England 11:25–11:40 Pedro Diniz brought significant sponsorship backing, and was hired as Hill's teammate. Williams retained Jacques Villeneuve and replaced Hill with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Villeneuve was the bookmaker's favourite heading into the new season. He said that being the favourite put "extra pressure, but it's good pressure [on me]". Goodman, Louise 8 March 1997 F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live Television production ITV London, England 03:10–03:20 Goodman, Louise 8 March 1997 F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live Television production ITV London, England 15:04–16:04 Ferrari retained Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, Benetton kept Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger and McLaren retained Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard. The Jordan team had two new drivers in Giancarlo Fisichella, previously at Minardi, and Ralf Schumacher, brother of Michael. The new Prost Grand Prix team kept Olivier Panis and signed Japanese rookie driver Shinji Nakano. Sauber kept Johnny Herbert and the loss of Frentzen saw Peter Sauber sign Ferrari test driver Nicola Larini. Tyrrell retained Mika Salo for a third year and added Jos Verstappen to the team from Arrows. Minardi with V8 Hart engines signed Ukyo Katayama and Italian driver Jarno Trulli. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Olivier Panis were both making their 50th race entry, and Johnny Herbert was making his 100th race entry. The new Stewart Grand Prix team had signed Rubens Barrichello and Danish driver Jan Magnussen. Lola recruited ex-Footwork Arrows driver Ricardo Rosset and former Benetton test driver Vincenzo Sospiri. Bridgestone also made their first official appearance in Formula 1, breaking Goodyear's reign as a sole tyre supplier which began in 1992. They provided tyres for Minardi, Arrows, Prost, Stewart and Lola. Previously, the company had produced Formula One tyres at the 1976 and 1977 Japanese Grand Prix for Japanese entrants such as Kazuyoshi Hoshino's Heros Racing and Kojima. The British television coverage switched to ITV for the 1997 season and beyond, after 18 years of regular coverage for the BBC. Former driver Martin Brundle joined Murray Walker in the commentary box. In the build-up to the weekend, Michael Schumacher said that the circuit "wasn't particularly special", resulting in some criticism from locals. Rosenthal, Jim 8 March 1997 F1: Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Live Television production ITV London, England 09:30–11:15 There were also protests in the lead-up to the race, with protestors pouring diesel on to the track the week before the race. A strike also meant that there was no tram shuttle service running, with spectators forced to catch buses to the track. Jeff Kennett, the Premier of Victoria, labelling them "bloody minded" and that they will have to "incur the wrath of the community". Practice and qualifying Canadian Jacques Villeneuve took his fourth career pole position with a lap of 1:29.369, while Heinz-Harald Frentzen could only manage a 1:31.121 to fill the remaining spot on the front row. Villeneuve had gone even faster in the second practice session recording a lap of 1:28.594 and is recognized as an extraordinarily fast lap beating his pole time under almost identical conditions by 0.775. Only six drivers managed to qualify within 3 seconds of the pole position time. The session was red flagged with just over two minutes remaining after a collision between Gerhard Berger and Nicola Larini on the straight between turns 10 and 11. This resulted in many of the cars effectively having to complete a one-lap sprint to post a lap time before the end of the session. Damon Hill struggled during the session, only just qualifying inside of the 107% limit due to an oil leak which hampered the lap times. Both of the Lola cars failed to make the qualifying limit and were over ten seconds slower than Villeneuve in their first and only F1 qualifying session, as the team had to withdraw from the next race due to a lack of funds. Pedro Diniz was also outside of the 107% time, but he was permitted to race as he had set a time in practice within the 107% time. Race On the parade lap, Damon Hill's throttle jammed, leaving him stranded on the track and causing him to retire from the race. At the first corner, Eddie Irvine misjudged his braking, hitting both Villeneuve and Herbert - all three retired from the race. Williams adopted a two-stop strategy, while most other teams were going for one-stop races. Jos Verstappen spun off on lap two while attempting to overtake Ukyo Katayama. Frentzen quickly built up a lead: 2.7secs on the first lap, 3.7s on the second, 5.3s on the third and 7.2s on the fourth. Both of the Jordan cars soon retired from the race, Ralf Schumacher suffering a gearbox problem and Fisichella spinning off the track while passing Barrichello. By lap 12, however, Frentzen eased off, and for the next six laps the gap between first and second stayed at 17-18s. Frentzen pitted on lap 18 and rejoined third. Jean Alesi retired from the race after running out of fuel, to the fury of his Benetton team, who had been trying to call him into the pits for 5 laps, an incident met with amusement from the ITV commentators. In the laps that followed Frentzen was able to close up on Coulthard and Schumacher. He lost time in traffic, struggling with his brakes. Coulthard and Schumacher pitted in mid-race and so Frentzen moved ahead again and ran very quickly for a few laps before he began to fade again. On lap 40 he came in for his second stop. The gap to Coulthard was only 23secs, and with the time in the pitlane being around 22-24secs it was unclear whether he could emerge ahead. In the end, his pit stop was delayed for several seconds by a right rear tire problem, allowing Coulthard and Schumacher to move ahead. At the front David Coulthard continued to keep away from these incidents to lead the race, followed by Michael Schumacher and Frentzen. Frentzen closed up on Coulthard and Schumacher who were by then running together but Schumacher had to make an unscheduled fuel stop towards the end of the race, promoting Frentzen to second. Large quantities of dust had been coming from Frentzen's brakes for some time and with three laps to go a brake disc failed, sending him into the gravel trap at the end of the start/finish straight. Coulthard went on to take his second career win. It was McLaren's first win since Ayrton Senna won the 1993 Australian Grand Prix. It was also their first win with Mercedes as an engine supplier, and Mercedes' first victory as an engine manufacturer since the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Classification Qualifying Pos. No. Driver Constructor Time Gap Grid Final grid position 1 3 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 1:29.369 — 1 2 4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 1:31.123 +1.754 2 3 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:31.472 +2.103 3 4 10 United Kingdom David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.531 +2.162 4 5 6 United Kingdom Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:31.881 +2.512 5 6 9 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes 1:31.971 +2.602 6 7 16 United Kingdom Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas 1:32.287 +2.918 7 8 7 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault 1:32.593 +3.224 8 9 14 France Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:32.842 +3.473 9 10 8 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault 1:32.870 +3.501 10 11 22 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 1:33.075 +3.706 11 12 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 1:33.130 +3.761 12 13 17 Italy Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas 1:33.327 +3.958 13 14 12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 1:33.552 +4.183 14 15 20 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart 1:33.798 +4.429 15 16 15 Japan 1947 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda 1:33.989 +4.620 16 17 21 Italy Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 1:34.120 +4.751 17 18 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.229 +4.860 18 19 23 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 1:34.623 +5.254 19 20 1 United Kingdom Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 1:34.806 +5.437 20 21 18 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 1:34.943 +5.574 21107% time: 1:35.625 22 2 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 1:35.972 +6.603 221 1 DNQ Did not qualify 24 Italy Vincenzo Sospiri Lola-Ford 1:40.972 +11.603 DNQ Did not qualify 25 Brazil Ricardo Rosset Lola-Ford 1:42.086 +12.717Sources:1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Chicane F1 http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=qual 2 August 2007 29 September 2007 https://web.archive.org/web/20070929104442/http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=qual dead 1997 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Grand Prix Racing http://www.gpracing.net192.com/races/qualify/598.cfm 2 August 2007 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20061125215221/http://www.gpracing.net192.com/races/qualify/598.cfm 25 November 2006 1 1 - Diniz set a lap time outside the 107% limit, but he was allowed to start at the back of the grid. Race Pos. No. Driver Constructor Tyre Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 10 UK David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes Goodyear 58 1:30:28.718 4 10 2 5 Germany Michael Schumacher Ferrari Goodyear 58 +20.046 3 6 3 9 Finland Mika Häkkinen McLaren-Mercedes Goodyear 58 +22.177 6 4 4 8 Austria Gerhard Berger Benetton-Renault Goodyear 58 +22.841 10 3 5 14 France Olivier Panis Prost-Mugen-Honda Bridgestone 58 +1:00.308 9 2 6 17 Italy Nicola Larini Sauber-Petronas Goodyear 58 +1:36.040 13 1 7 15 Japan 1947 Shinji Nakano Prost-Mugen-Honda Bridgestone 56 +2 Laps 16   8 4 Germany Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault Goodyear 55 Brakes 2   9 21 Italy Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart Bridgestone 55 +3 Laps 17   10 2 Brazil Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha Bridgestone 54 +4 Laps 22   Ret Retired 22 Brazil Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford Bridgestone 49 Engine 11   Ret Retired 19 Finland Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 42 Engine 18   Ret Retired 23 Denmark Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford Bridgestone 36 Suspension 19   Ret Retired 7 France Jean Alesi Benetton-Renault Goodyear 34 Out of Fuel 8   Ret Retired 20 Japan 1947 Ukyo Katayama Minardi-Hart Bridgestone 32 Electrical 15   Ret Retired 12 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot Goodyear 14 Spun Off 14   Ret Retired 18 Netherlands Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear 2 Spun Off 21   Ret Retired 11 Germany Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot Goodyear 1 Gearbox 12   Ret Retired 3 Canada Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault Goodyear 0 Collision 1   Ret Retired 6 UK Eddie Irvine Ferrari Goodyear 0 Collision 5   Ret Retired 16 UK Johnny Herbert Sauber-Petronas Goodyear 0 Collision 7   DNS Did not start 1 UK Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha Bridgestone 0 Throttle 20  Source:http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1997/147/ 1997 Australian Grand Prix formula1.com https://web.archive.org/web/20141029035950/http://www.formula1.com/results/season/1997/147/ 29 October 2014 24 December 20151997 Australian Grand Prix Chicane F1 http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=res 2 August 2007 29 September 2007 https://web.archive.org/web/20070929095649/http://www.chicanef1.com/race.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP&type=res dead https://gparchive.com/formula-1/1997-australian-grand-prix/ 1997 Australian Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive GPArchive.com 9 March 1997 5 May 2022 Championship standings after the race Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 UK David Coulthard 10 2 Germany Michael Schumacher 6 3 Finland Mika Häkkinen 4 4 Austria Gerhard Berger 3 5 France Olivier Panis 2Source:https://www.statsf1.com/en/1997/australie/championnat.aspx Australia 1997 - Championship • STATS F1 www.statsf1.com 6 March 2019 Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 UK McLaren-Mercedes 14 2 Italy Ferrari 6 3 Italy Benetton-Renault 3 4 France Prost-Mugen-Honda 2 5 Switzerland Sauber-Petronas 1Source: Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. References Race Details: 1997 Australian Grand Prix Chicane F1 http://www.chicanef1.com/racetit.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP 2 August 2007 29 September 2007 https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083643/http://www.chicanef1.com/racetit.pl?year=1997&gp=Australian%20GP dead Australian Grand Prix 1997 1996 Japanese Grand Prix 1997 Brazilian Grand Prix 1996 Australian Grand Prix 1998 Australian Grand Prix 1996 Australian Grand Prix 1998 San Marino Grand Prix Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix Category:Australian Grand Prix Australian Grand Prix Category:Motorsport at Albert Park