The 1997 Season

Sato san · 1 Nov 2003, 17:09 (Ref:770199)

Thought i'd start a thread about the 1997 season ...Ive been watching the whole season recently and it has brought so many thoughts with it ....

The 1997 season had a bit of everything in it ....

Current WDC Damon Hill driving for Arrows who could hardly even get the car on the grid in Australia

JV wins the title in a Williams even though the Williams team struggled to get both car in the points at many races thorugh out the year...

The highly rated Fretnzen looked very nervous and clumsy in the other car , and Frank and Patrick must have wondered if thy had made the wrong choice in replacing Damon .

Ferrari were right up there with the Williams cars all season and the lead of the championship see-sawed thoughout the year....

Hakkinen got his 1st pole and his 1st win in his career ..

Arrows were awesome in the way they turned the season around for themselfs and deserved to win in Hungary with the mega drive from Damon....Damon drove like a star , but dropped his game at times , like when he let Michael by at Austria for 6th position and came a way with 0 points...much to the anger of T Walkinshaw ...

JV got a one race ban at Suzuka for not backing off for the yellow flags in qualifying , which ended up with him losing the 2 points he scored at Japan and with Michael winning the race ( thanks to the help of Irvine ) the title went down to the wire as they were practically equal on pionts....

Then the classic Jerez race when Michael deliberatly tried to damage Jacques car when he knew Villeneuve had nearly made the move on him that would have lost him his first WDC for Ferrari ..

and the funnist moment of the year goes to .....Jos Verstappen at the Nurburgring , when in qualifying the team rigged up the cartoon network tv channel to his timing screen that he was watching while he was sitting in the car in the pits, and he sat in his car watching cartoons while the other cars were out on their qualifying laps....that was so funny , Jos was laughing his head off

after that , there was so much controversy in the press after the final race had finished.....Schumacher admitted he hit Jacques on purpose , but said it wasnt a pre planned manouver ....

Schumacher then got disqualified from his 2nd position in the championship ..

and it was probally the last year that DC actually looked like he could win a WDC at some point in his career..He won 2 races but after 1997 , he just got steadily beaten by Mika

WOW ...what a fantastic year of action ....

anything , ive missed ?..what did you think about the penaltys awarded to Villeneuve and Schumacher at the last 2 races ?..

MrBluesman1 · 1 Nov 2003, 17:18 (Ref:770205)

you mean Hakkinen was given his fist win

I remember talking about how Hakkinen was going to end his carrer without win under his belt. Well DC sure changed that.
Was good to see DC win WEST's first GP and McLarens first race since Senna in Adelaide 93.
Bad luck with Panis in Canada when he crashed and broke his legs. Prost never looked better after that season. They also looked really good in Spain as well.
I am sure there is loads of other stuff that happened but can't really remember it all just now

Sato san · 1 Nov 2003, 17:28 (Ref:770211)

yer....Hakk given his first win ...but he did lose the lead at Silverstone , Austria and Nurburgring ( i think ) all with engine faliures..

Forgot about Panis ....ouch !

Knowlesy · 1 Nov 2003, 17:33 (Ref:770213)

And of course the last year with slicks and wide track cars. And JV actually looked quite good back then.

1997 was one of the epic years. Which gets me thinking, sato............

EERO · 1 Nov 2003, 17:34 (Ref:770216)

Yeah poor Olivier was third in the WDC when he crashed. Wasn't this the year that trulli, promoted from Minardi into Panis' seat led a goodly portion onf the Austrian GP? It wasa pretty seasoned drive by a youngster that hinted at things yet to come.

Sato san · 1 Nov 2003, 17:40 (Ref:770219)

Quote:

Originally posted by knowlesy
1997 was one of the epic years. Which gets me thinking, sato............

yer...your right Knowlesy ...it was a epic one.......it had real excitement all the way through....much more than some other years...

EERO ...Trulli was running 3rd at one race i think .....i think it may have been Austria but then his Mugen Honda engine let go !. How things changed for Alain Prost .

MrBluesman1 · 1 Nov 2003, 17:47 (Ref:770222)

yeah Trulli led the Austrian GP filling in for Panis and then he later retired from that race with a blown engine. IIRC he was in 3rd but don't sue me if I am wrong

ElScOrChO · 1 Nov 2003, 18:15 (Ref:770240)

Panis did wonders in that Prost!
Regularly in the top 3 during the races up to the Canadian GP

x_dt · 1 Nov 2003, 18:15 (Ref:770241)

Trulli led the Austrian GP after Hakkinen retired from the lead at the end of lap 1. He was overhauled by Villeneuve during the pitstops and was 2nd, just ahead of Coulthard, when his engine blew.

1997 was one of the best seasons in recent years. 4 teams won races - could have been 7 teams winning if things had gone differently as Prost, Jordan and Arrows came close on at least 1 occasion.

Pity about what happened to Panis

. Where may he have finished up in the championship but for that crash? He may have won Argentina but for a mechanical problem and what about Spain where many of the Goodyear runners had acute tyre wear?

Knowlesy · 1 Nov 2003, 18:25 (Ref:770246)

And if Panis hadn't crashed at Canada, he maybe would have got better drives in years to come. He was awesome, but after that he wasn't too good. He lacked confidence with pins in his legs, which was odd considering his late 1997 form.

Matthopps · 1 Nov 2003, 18:33 (Ref:770249)

1997 was also the first year of ITV coverage - although whether that was a good or a bad thing I dont know!?

Knowlesy · 1 Nov 2003, 18:35 (Ref:770250)

It is debatable!!!

They had that virtual lap thingy at the start, where they showed you the track using a computer game with rather shabby graphics.

Nowhere near as good as the onboard laps we get today!

Jordi · 1 Nov 2003, 18:39 (Ref:770253)

Jacques' penalty was way too harsh, and the rule was changed, only after Jacques got his one race ban.

Panis really drove the wheels off that Prost. He did not win in Spain because he was blocked by Irvine and because Villeneuve drove a savvy race.

x_dt · 1 Nov 2003, 18:39 (Ref:770254)

Quote:

Originally posted by Matthopps
1997 was also the first year of ITV coverage...

and the first year on UK TV of ad breaks. IIRC Damon Hill took the lead in Hungary during a commercial break. Same when Hakkinen retired from the lead at the Nurburgring.

MrBluesman1 · 1 Nov 2003, 18:45 (Ref:770256)

yeah X DT it was but to us Aussies it really didn't make much of a difference with adverts, but ITV did miss a lot of action

esorniloc · 1 Nov 2003, 23:13 (Ref:770403)

The Nurburgring race was the race where they mist all the action.

ITV went for a break with Hakkinen leading DC then JV in 3rd, come back and JV leads with both Merc engines up in smoke.

It wasn't actually the first year of ITV coverage of F1 though, I think I remember reading somewhere that the last race they showed (before 97) was the South African GP in 78.

MrBluesman1 · 1 Nov 2003, 23:18 (Ref:770412)

Merc engines did that a lot in 97

**Peter Mallett** · 2 Nov 2003, 00:26 (Ref:770459)

Anybody remember three cars all on exactly the same time?

MrBluesman1 · 2 Nov 2003, 00:29 (Ref:770462)

yeah Villenueve, Frentzen and MS. IIRC in France but not 100% on that though

Wrex · 2 Nov 2003, 00:40 (Ref:770467)

Quote:

Originally posted by MrBluesman1
yeah Villenueve, Frentzen and MS. IIRC in France but not 100% on that though

I think it was Jerez.

MichaelH · 2 Nov 2003, 00:55 (Ref:770472)

It was Jerez. Great year from start to finish.

I remember Berger comming back from his lay-off and winning at Hockenheim, then Alesi all but winning at Monza, then.....nothing. The decline of the team can, IMO, be traced back to the truck of a car they had through most of 1997. Renault and strategy (low d/f at Monza and Hockenheim) kept them up there. Jordan looked like winners too, Fisi at Argentina (damn you, Ralf) and Hockenheim. McLaren looked like the form team late in the year and Stewart were generally ****.

Good year, though.

MrBluesman1 · 2 Nov 2003, 00:57 (Ref:770473)

ok I stand corrected it was Jerez. Like I said I wasn't 100% on France

racer69 · 2 Nov 2003, 12:05 (Ref:770680)

1997 was the last year, really prior to this year, that there were quite a few cars capable of victory at various points in the year (Williams, Ferrari, McLaren, Benetton, Jordan, Prost, Arrows).

It was amazing that the chief championship contenders, Williams and Ferrari, could be so dominent at places like Silverstone or Magny Cour, yet left for dead at Hockenheim, Monza and the Nurburgring.

Even Johnny Herbert managed a few podiums in his Sauber.

Monza Bambino · 2 Nov 2003, 12:21 (Ref:770696)

EDIT:
Monza Bambino, I think it best that we keep you points to onw thread only. Otherwise the discussion will get disjointed.

Copy and pasted duplicate post deleted.

That post can be found here: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...5&pagenumber=3

Knowlesy · 2 Nov 2003, 12:23 (Ref:770698)

The mistakes Villeneuve made that year never cease to amaze me either. Hockenheim, Montreal etc....were embarrassing.

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