The 1997 European Grand Prix produced one of F1's most exciting championship deciders, with the destiny of the title coming down to a controversial collision between Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher. Karun Chandhok and Jonathan Williams join Glenn Freeman to revisit a memorable weekend in F1 history, where drama and controversy were never far away. We look back at Villeneuve racing under appeal in the previous race in Japan, and Williams's decision to drop that appeal against his...
The 1997 European Grand Prix produced one of F1's most exciting championship deciders, with the destiny of the title coming down to a controversial collision between Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher.
Karun Chandhok and Jonathan Williams join Glenn Freeman to revisit a memorable weekend in F1 history, where drama and controversy were never far away. We look back at Villeneuve racing under appeal in the previous race in Japan, and Williams's decision to drop that appeal against his one-race ban. Then there was Villeneuve's plan to repeatedly mention his fear of being taken out by Schumacher ahead of the race, and his fallout with Eddie Irvine in the pits during practice. We look back at the three-way dead heat in qualifying, and ask if Damon Hill's Arrows should have taken pole that day.
The race is revisited in great detail, from Villeneuve's bad start, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's team play for Williams, Norberto Fontana's eventual confession about holding Villeneuve up, and where an agreement between Williams and McLaren fit into how the race played out. We then take an in-depth look at the collision and Schumacher's failed attempt to take Villeneuve out, and Jonathan tells a hilarious story of how Frentzen reacted on the radio when he saw the accident take place ahead of him.
From there, we get Patrick Head's side of the story on the agreement between McLaren and Williams, as well as finding out why Jonathan was collared by Ron Dennis early in the race, the arguments that were taking place on the radio between McLaren and David Coulthard over letting Mika Hakkinen through to take his first win, the backlash Schumacher faced from inside Ferrari and Italy, and if the FIA made the right decisions with its punishment of the Ferrari driver and deciding not to take action against Williams and McLaren.
There's also a bonus story about Jordan and Nigel Mansell from the previous winter, the revelation of McLaren's mystery extra brake pedal, and Gerhard Berger's decision to retire from F1 after a fractious year that involved Flavio Briatore trying to prevent him returning after missing races in the middle of the year.
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