When the Schumachers went to war

Few races within the final 25 years of Formulation 1 can attest to offering the identical form of drama the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix supplied.

From the massive start-line pile-up to the shock 1-2 for Jordan, there are a lot of, many moments that make the race stand out.

But it surely was additionally the day the Schumacher brothers would each go to struggle, left aggrieved after feeling that they had every been denied a possible victory.

Michael Schumacher arrived at Spa hoping to take one other chew out of McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen’s lead, having lower the hole to simply seven factors with victory in Hungary two weeks earlier.

Hakkinen hit again in qualifying by taking pole place by one-tenth of a second, locking out the entrance row for McLaren forward of teammate David Coulthard. Schumacher might solely handle P4, as Damon Hill grabbed third on the grid for Jordan.

Torrential rain on race day pressured the sector to suit full moist tyres and brace for a potential race of attrition by the Ardennes forest. The title contenders knew there was loads to lose within the tough circumstances – however Hill sensed an enormous alternative. Earlier than the race, he ordered a crew huddle along with his crew, a crowd of yellow our bodies bunching collectively because the rain continued to hammer down.

Eddie Jordan informed Hill it was “essentially the most important factor that I bear in mind you doing for me” in The Unlikely Lads mini-documentary. “You mentioned ‘hear, the forecast is admittedly poor, we have now a fantastic probability right here’. You gave us the inspiration, the idea, you made us consider that we might if we obtained the whole lot proper, made no errors, we might win this race.

“I shall always remember that, as a result of it turned out to be precisely proper.”

Mika Hakkinen, McLaren MP4/13, was hit by Johnny Herbert, Sauber C17 on the exit of La Supply

Photograph by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Photographs

Hill was sluggish to tug away within the damp circumstances, slipping all the way down to seventh on the brief run to La Supply. However he crucially managed to keep away from the chaos that rapidly unfolded after Coulthard hit a steel drain cowl, inflicting his McLaren to spear throughout the monitor and into the wall on the downhill dash in the direction of Eau Rouge. It triggered one of many largest accidents in F1 historical past that concerned greater than half the sector, prompting the race to rapidly be pink flagged.

The foundations on the time meant the beginning was voided, permitting the drivers concerned within the accident to rejoin the race and use their spare automobiles if required as soon as the monitor had been cleared. After greater than an hour’s wait, the race restarted, the rain nonetheless falling. Hill sat out the wait in his automobile, not wishing to interrupt his focus.

The second begin was cleaner, however not with out incident. Hill made a sluggish preliminary transfer from his grid slot earlier than discovering the grip to put his Jordan alongside pole-sitter Hakkinen, earlier than swinging across the outdoors to maneuver into the lead at La Supply.

Hakkinen was tentative beneath braking, permitting Schumacher to strive an identical transfer on exit. Whereas making an attempt to pressure his title rival broad, Hakkinen spun his automobile earlier than being hit by the unsighted Johnny Herbert, ending the Finn’s race instantly.

To make issues worse for McLaren, a tangle with Alexander Wurz had left Coulthard within the gravel on the opening lap, however the Scot was in a position to haul his automobile again onto the monitor. He remained within the race, albeit now working far down the order.

The security automobile was quickly referred to as to permit Hakkinen’s stricken McLaren to be retrieved, giving Hill the possibility to settle his nerves on the head of the pack. It was the primary time he had led a race since his near-miss for Arrows in Hungary one 12 months earlier, and had two pink Ferraris filling his mirrors by the spray.

When the race resumed, Hill knew it was a matter of time earlier than Schumacher made his transfer, ultimately shedding the lead on lap eight. Schumacher was then in a position to put over a second per lap on Hill as he waltzed by the spray, placing him 37 seconds clear with 20 laps to go. Victory and, importantly, the championship lead had been his for the taking.

However then got here Coulthard’s unintentional intervention. The McLaren driver was hobbling round in ninth after being handed by Arrows’ Pedro Diniz, struggling to remain on-track. “I could not see a factor, and I radioed to my crew to let me know when Michael was proper behind me in order that I might transfer over,” Coulthard wrote in his autobiography, It Is What It Is.

Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F300, with lacking entrance wheel and wing, and David Coulthard, McLaren MP4-13 Mercedes, with lacking rear wing, within the pitlane

Photograph by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch

As Schumacher neared, Coulthard moved to the appropriate and lifted off to permit him previous on the downhill run to Pouhon – just for Schumacher to slam into the rear of the McLaren. Coulthard later revealed the impression had been 137 mph, sufficient to tear the nostril and front-right wheel off Schumacher’s Ferrari, in addition to leaving Coulthard and not using a rear wing.

Each automobiles made it round the remainder of the lap earlier than coming into the pits nostril to tail. The McLaren mechanics set about repairing Coulthard’s automobile, however quickly discovered themselves joined within the storage by their colleagues in pink, who had been making an attempt to restrain a fuming Schumacher.

“I nonetheless had my helmet on by my parked McLaren after I noticed Michael storming into our storage,” Coulthard wrote.

“He was clearly furious and was shouting: ‘You tried to fucking kill me!’ I could not actually say something again as a result of my helmet was on, however he just about needed to be restrained by his personal race engineer. I came upon later he’d even pulled away from Ferrari crew members of their storage, so intent was he on confronting me.”

With a face like thunder, Schumacher was pulled again to the Ferrari storage, understanding his title hopes had been dealt an unlimited blow in seemingly cynical trend. Coulthard would really feel the brunt of that at Monza two weeks later.

“Each time I went out of the storage into the pit lane, [the Ferrari fans] booed and a few of them had an enormous sheet with the phrases ‘Killer Coulthard’ daubed on it,” he wrote. The drivers finally shook fingers over the incident, solely after Michael had made clear who was at fault. “At this level I mentioned: ‘However Michael, are you ever flawed?’ and if I recall appropriately he mentioned: ‘Properly, not that I bear in mind.'”

There was nonetheless hope of a Schumacher victory, although. Proving wet-weather abilities had been within the household enterprise, Ralf Schumacher had been rising by the sector to sit down third earlier than his brother’s downfall. He had quietly chipped away at Hill’s benefit, chopping it from 22 seconds to a bit of over 10 at one level, however was handed a lifeline when the protection automobile was referred to as following a crash between Giancarlo Fisichella and Shinji Nakano.

Shinji Nakano, Minardi M198 ploughs by the particles after colliding with Giancarlo Fisichella, B198

Photograph by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Photographs

It put the youthful Schumacher on the rear of Hill’s automobile for the restart with 12 laps to go, giving the crew a sniff of not simply victory, however a 1-2 end. Each could be firsts within the historical past of the crew, coming in a season the place it had completed a race no increased than fourth. It couldn’t afford to throw it away.

Schumacher rapidly discovered a superb rhythm on the restart, piling stress on Hill forward with the encouragement of race engineer Sam Michael. “You possibly can catch him, simply push like hell!” Michael mentioned. “You possibly can catch him, you may win.”

Hill was beginning to really feel the stress because the race entered its closing phases, the rain nonetheless pouring down. He then hit the radio button and made his standing as world champion clear.

“I’ll put one thing to you right here, and I believe you higher hearken to this,” Hill mentioned. “If we race, if we two race, we might find yourself with nothing, so it is as much as Eddie. You have to inform Eddie. If we do not race one another, we have a chance to get first and second. It is your alternative.”

“You spoke to me such as you’d by no means spoken to me earlier than,” Jordan later informed Hill. “It was a really sturdy [message], ‘I’m a world champion, I understand how to win’. It wasn’t an instruction to me, however it was sturdy recommendation.”

Jordan was sluggish to decide. “I used to be in the midst of a cope with Ralf, negotiating subsequent 12 months’s contract, however really that wasn’t actually in my thoughts,” he mentioned.

“What was in my thoughts and the rationale why I used to be a contact sluggish coming again, I checked with the crew the place [Jean] Alesi was. He was working third, and I could not actually [reply] till I knew the entire info.

“I did not wish to make a half-cock effort at supplying you with a reply. I wanted to make sure.”

Jordan determined to make use of crew orders, prompting Sam Michael to inform the quicker Schumacher to carry place in contradiction to his earlier calls to push.

“Ralf, you can’t overtake Damon, that may be a crew order,” Michael mentioned. No reply. Schumacher continued to push.

“You heard me earlier than, did not you Ralf, about overtaking Damon. You heard that, did not you?” Nonetheless no reply.

“Did you get that Ralf? Did you hear me?” Nothing.

“Ralf, acknowledge,” barked Michael, his fourth try lastly getting by to the German driver, who supplied a two-word reply: “Sure Sam.”

“It was in the very best pursuits of everyone,” Jordan later mirrored. “If it was the opposite manner round, I’d have gone with Ralf.”

Podium: Racewinner Damon Hill, Jordan, second place Ralf Schumacher, Jordan; third place Jean Alesi, Sauber

Photograph by: Motorsport Photographs

It relieved the stress on Hill, permitting him to spherical out the ultimate few laps earlier than taking his first victory for the reason that 1996 Japanese Grand Prix. It was Jordan’s first F1 win, taking a 1-2 end, sparking a now-famous jig from the crew proprietor within the paddock that made him look, within the phrases of Hill, “like a demented form of leprechaun”.

Because the crew celebrated its well-known victory, Schumacher’s face supplied an identical form of fury to that proven by his brother within the McLaren storage an hour or so earlier. He waved his cap and sprayed the champagne, however felt aggrieved after being denied a potential first win.

Michael Schumacher would even have his say on the incident, making a degree of discovering Jordan amid the post-race celebrations.

“He got here charging into the motorhome,” Jordan mentioned. “‘You’ve got screwed my brother! He won’t ever drive for you once more, overlook the administration contract.'”

“I mentioned: ‘Michael, it is quite simple. There’s a buy-out clause within the contract, pay the cash, adios.’ And he did. That is why he went to Williams.”

Ralf would decide up one closing podium for Jordan at Monza earlier than leaving the crew two races later, beginning a six-year stint at Williams. Michael would miss out on a 3rd world title, shedding to Hakkinen on the closing race. Victory at Spa might have given him a six-point lead for the title showdown at Suzuka as a substitute of a four-point deficit.

It might be remembered for Eddie’s dance and that start-line crash, however Spa ’98 was additionally an important race for the F1 fortunes of the Schumacher brothers.

This text is a reprint from 2020