1997 race that hill ALMOST won in a crappy car.....
i remember the year after hill won the world chapionship he ended up at a crappy "bottom of the grid" team just to stay in F1. it was sad really. but there was ONE race that he miraculously led until he had a mechanical failure. i think villeneuve took the win from him.
Hurgaroring, and he was driving for Arrows. It was a 10p seal that broke somewhere, causing hydraulic pressure loss. Jacques caught and passed him on the last lap (or penultimate lap, I forget).
It was the last lap and Villeneuve put his 2 left wheels off the track when he made the pass. And Murray Walker's pants were on fire during the whole thing! (at least that's what his tone of voice conveyed...)
For the sake of mentioning boring number facts and unrealistic suppositions, if Hill's car hadnt've crapped out Villeneuve would have gotten 4 less points. He would've then been -5pts to Schumacher going into the final race and his 3rd place finish there would have left him 1pt behind Schumacher which would have made Schumacher the '97 Champ until the FIA took away his points.
At least this way Villeneuve won the Championship outright without needing to have it be 'awarded' to him by the FIA after the fact.
but you also have to consider that villeneuve handed first and second to the mclarens. he would have easily taken first. it was heard on the radio that villeneuve's engineers said, "remember juaques, the mclarens have been helpful" (exact words if i remember) refering to the mclarens helping to slow down schumi during part of the race and for juaques to honour the pitlane deal. WHAT A RACE!
You are right though that Villeneuve wouldn't have yielded to the McLarens in that case.
I have that race and watched it a while back and noticed that it was very close at the end. I believe the top 6 were all on the finish straight at the checkered flag and Gerhard Berger very nearly nabbed 3rd place from Villeneuve with the 5th and 6th place runners only a few carlengths back so Villeneuve's plan was very close to blowing up in his face if something had gone wrong.
at the time i was a huge hill fan, so seeing him lose out in that way was terrible.
seeing him pass scumacher was brilliant!
i was glad to see JV take the title that year. i cant deny scumachers driving skill, but his "win at all cost's, including driving others off the track" attitude makes my blood boil.
[quote=mr gradyi cant deny scumachers driving skill, but his "win at all cost's, including driving others off the track" attitude makes my blood boil.[/quote]
Well now hes got people in the grid like montoya (mainly) who will push back so all good like (cant remember which race) the race when schumacher got tapped and got his rear wheels stuck in the gravel and the marshals pushed him out.
whilst i was glad to see hill win that it has to be said in ralfs defence that he was closing rapidly on hill and was ordered to keep station
team orders are fair enough but from his point of view imagine what it must have felt like, you were the fastest car left on the track and can see your first gp win coming with one pass and are told that youre not allowed to go for it
dont think i ever wanted Hill to win being a Schumey fan an all but that race with him in the Arrows was the only time i was ever gunning for him....
i have managed to get hold of some racing videos of f1 in 1994, 1995 and 1996 and those races back then were so action packed... a pleasure to watch...... exp that race in 1995 in spa
i agree, but you have to allow for the political nature of team management. Ralph was leaving the team, and at the time damon was the teams future (laughs!) so i can understand EJ not wanting RS having all the glory.
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