My favourite race: Spa 1998 - 15 years on

By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

Formula One has been on a much welcome summer break and it has been a refreshing pause in a championship that has failed to live up to its promised potential.

Next weekend, the paddock gathers at what is the favourite circuit with many of the drivers, and that is the daunting Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.

It is my favourite track and favourite event too of the entire season.  You can forget your Monte Carlo, Silverstone and Monza spectaculars, Spa beats them all and a part of the sport is missing when the fraternity doesn’t travel there, like it did in 2003 and 2006.

The Belgian Grand Prix always produces drama and great quality, and none more so than 15 years ago on 30 August. 

The 1998 Belgian GP was one of the most dramatic, controversial and action-packed afternoons ever seen in the 53-year history of the world championship.  And it is my favourite Grand Prix of all-time.

It wasn’t an easy pick for me.  The overtaking fests of Suzuka 2005 and Shanghai 2011 were strong contenders, along with the gripping title deciders in Jerez 1997, and Interlagos 2008 and 2012.  However the Spa event of 1998 tops the list as it was sheer entertainment throughout.  It was a wet, filthy day in the Ardennes forest and it had a winner for Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

Eddie Jordan is sprayed with champagne by winning driver Damon Hill

After eight years of fruitless success, Eddie Jordan (pictured being sprayed in champagne) finally achieved his ambition of becoming a Grand Prix winner.  The colourful team principal saw his cars, driven by Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher finish an amazing 1-2, in a day where cars were destroyed, drivers walked away from massive shunts and Michael Schumacher tried a boxing career which was halted by some feisty mechanics from McLaren.  Yep, Spa 1998 had it all.

Background to the event

The 1998 season was turning into a grandstand finish.  McLaren started the campaign with a massive car advantage.  They lapped the entire field in Australia, and Mika Hakkinen won four of the first six races to build up a healthy championship advantage.

Ferrari, chasing their first drivers’ championship crown in 19 years, and a constructors’ prize for the first time since 1983 fought back.  Michael Schumacher won three races in a row in brilliant fashion during mid-season, and had just produced a storming performance to outfox McLaren on strategy and sheer speed to win the Hungarian Grand Prix.  The momentum was with the German, who was trailing Hakkinen by seven points with just four races to go in the campaign.

McLaren were expected to set the pace in Spa, and did in qualifying with Hakkinen on pole position from team-mate David Coulthard.  Schumacher had to settle for fourth, behind an inspired Damon Hill in his Jordan Mugen Honda.  Meanwhile, reigning world champion Jacques Villeneuve did well to drag his horrible Williams machinery to sixth, considering he’d walked away from a scary 185mph bite with the Eau Rouge barriers during Friday practice.

Total carnage

Spa’s micro-climate has caused plenty of drama before, and it did so again on raceday, but this time, it was clearly going to be a wet race.  For Schumacher and Ferrari, this was good news as it negated McLaren’s car performance advantage around the longest circuit in Grand Prix racing.  Despite difficult visibility conditions, the race started under normal circumstances, only for the biggest multiple pile-up in the championship’s history to happen seconds into the race.

Hakkinen converted pole position into an instant lead, and Villeneuve made an unbelievable start to rocket into second place.  Schumacher was tardy away and slipped to sixth; whilst Hill bogged down badly and was passed by five cars before turn one.  

Spa 1998 witnessed one of the biggest first lap pile-ups ever seen

Accelerating away from the tricky La Source hairpin, Coulthard hit a slippery drain cover and lost control of his McLaren, smashing hard into the concrete wall.  The Scot was powerless to control his vehicle, as Schumacher, Hill and Heinz-Harald Frentzen slipped past.  The other Ferrari of Eddie Irvine wasn’t so lucky, as he was collected by Coulthard’s car, forcing Ralf Schumacher into the wall to take evasive action.  Alexander Wurz’s Benetton spun and was hit by the Prost of Jarno Trulli, while an errant wheel span Johnny Herbert’s Sauber down the road.  The back of the field had no chance, as with cars and debris all over the place, Arrows, Stewart and Tyrrell cars ploughed into the mayhem, making the track more look like a destructive derby.  Legendary commentator Murray Walker said: “This is the worst start to a Grand Prix I have ever seen in the whole of my life.”

When the accident stopped, Schumacher got his Jordan back to the pits, but no fewer than 13 of the 22 cars were terminally wounded.  Drivers started climbing out of their wrecked machinery, checking that their rivals were unhurt and started the climb back to the pits to jump into spare cars.  Amazingly despite the carnage, no drivers, marshals, photographers or spectators were injured, though a sore elbow did force Rubens Barrichello out of the restart.  With two badly mangled Arrows, Prost and Tyrrell cars caught up, Mika Salo, Olivier Panis and Ricardo Rosset were also forced to become bystanders for the rest of the afternoon.

Clashes between the rivals

It took a full hour for the track to be cleared before a fresh start could take place.  On the second start, Hill made a beautiful getaway and squeezed past Hakkinen to take the lead into La Source.  Schumacher went around the outside and made gentle contact with his championship rival, spinning Hakkinen around into the pack.  He was then hit by an out-of-control Herbert and it took both drivers out of the race.  The Safety Car was deployed to clear away the stranded McLaren.

Hill led the two Ferrari cars of Schumacher and Irvine, but only until lap eight when the German comfortably eased past the Jordan at the aptly titled Bus Stop chicane to take the lead of the event.  In typical Schumi style in these conditions, he started going several seconds quicker than the remaining runners.

Irvine disappeared from third place after damaging his front wing across the grass, and later spun off whilst recovering back up the order.  Villeneuve was another casualty, spinning off while on worn intermediate tyres.  The conditions had got worse as the afternoon progressed and Schumacher, with an advantage of some 45 seconds over Hill, came up to lap a struggling Coulthard.

DC had been hit by Wurz on the first lap of the new race and was clearly not comfortable with the handling of his car.  As TV viewers were told Jean Todt had requested McLaren’s permission for an easy pass to lap Coulthard, Schumacher was blinded by the dreadful visibility.

He ploughed straight into the back of the Scot, almost inexplicably, ripping off his front suspension and the McLaren’s rear wing.  It cost him victory and the chance of taking the world championship lead for the first time in 1998.  Absolutely furious and believing his safety was at risk, Schumacher threw his steering wheel out of his car in the garage, and charged down to the McLaren garage looking absolutely incensed.  What happened next has been debated by many since that day, but it is believed Schumacher remonstrated with Coulthard, accused him of trying to ‘####ing kill him’ and attempted to land a punch on Coulthard’s chin.  The McLaren mechanics and Todt managed to prevent this with some force, and dragged Schumacher away.  He looked furious, possibly regretting the thought that millions of TV viewers had seen him cracking under the pressure of the title battle.

Five years later, Coulthard admitted he was to blame for the unfortunate shunt.  He said at the 2003 French Grand Prix: “When Michael ran into the back of me, his reaction was that I’d brake tested him or tried to kill him.  The stewards looked at the data and I hadn’t braked, so it was just all brushed under the carpet.  The reality is that I lifted to let him pass me, but I lifted in heavy spray on the racing line.  You should never do that.  The minute I knew he was there, and I was told by the team that he was and was trying to allow him to pass me, I should have made a smarter decision.”

Fisichella’s torpedo

There was another dramatic incident moments later as Giancarlo Fisichella’s Benetton crashed heavily on the entry to the pitlane, smacking cones all over the place and spilling oil from his crushed Playlife engine onto the track.  Replays later showed an even worse impact than the one between Schumacher and Coulthard.

Totally unsighted by the trees and the glum lack of sight, the Italian ploughed his car straight into the back of innocent backmarker Shinji Nakano, driving a Minardi.  Once again, the driver was so lucky to escape injury as his car more looked like a torpedo after battle.

The Safety Car came out again and closed up the field.  Schumacher’s demise had gifted Hill the lead again, though he was being caught by his faster team-mate Ralf Schumacher.  Schumacher was widely believed to be leaving Jordan at the end of the season for Williams, and discussions began over how the Irish team should deal with this tricky situation.

Hill insisted over the team radio that the decision was upto to his team boss.  He said as revealed in a 1999 TV documentary: “I’m going to put something to you here, and I think you’d better listen to this.  If we race, if we two race, we could end up with nothing, so it’s up to Eddie.  If we don’t race each other, we’ve got an opportunity to get a first and second, it’s your choice.”

Call off the fight and a historic 1-2 was on the cards, but battle for the position and it could all go disastrously wrong.  EJ reluctantly agreed with his supposed number one driver and issued a controversial team order which destroyed Ralf, as he believed he could win.  Race engineer Sam Michael was forced to give his driver the bad news, and Ralf reluctantly accepted the instruction, but he clearly was not amused.  They had to keep pushing though, as rainmaster Jean Alesi was driving an absolute stormer for Sauber and heading for a shock podium.

With the instruction in place, Hill reeled off the remaining laps to take the chequered flag for the 22^nd and final time in his career.  It was his first Grand Prix victory since being dumped by Williams after his world championship success two years earlier.  Schumacher was second, ahead of Alesi, a very quiet Frentzen, Pedro Diniz’s Arrows and the Prost of Trulli.  Only six cars finished the race properly, though both Coulthard and Nakano also crossed the line after extensive repairs in the pits following their incidents.

Celebrations and aftermath

It was a day of celebration for the Jordan team who had battled so hard through the past seven years, and achieved only meagre results, yet had a lot of fun along the way.  It was the final glory day for Hill, who drifted into retirement a year later after a disappointing 1999 campaign.  

Sadly, Jordan went the same way after running into financial trouble as the major manufacturers such as BMW, Honda and Renault came into the sport and pushed EJ’s team down the grid.

Eddie sold up to Russian group Midland F1 in February 2005, and the team formerly known as Jordan is still going today under the guidance of Vijay Mallya and Force India.

Schumacher and Coulthard made their peace at the next event at Monza.  Despite winning the Italian race, he came up 14 points short in the 1998 title battle, as Hakkinen drove brilliantly to win the Luxembourg Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany!  At Suzuka five weeks later, Schumacher stalled on the grid and another Hakkinen win wrapped up the first of his two world championships.  The Flying Finn walked away from the sport in 2001 and despite being briefly tempted to return at the end of 2004, wisely stayed away to keep his legendary status intact. 

The 1998 Belgian Grand Prix had it all when staying on track was a notable achievement.  It was a day where the fun and loving underdog conquered all and the 1998 event is still remembered as one of the most iconic events in Grand Prix racing’s proud history.  It is my favourite race of all-time, and I have the privilege of having the event on my laptop if I ever want to reminisce and watch it again. 

Fingers crossed that 15 years on, the 2013 event reminds everyone why Spa is such a great circuit and why Formula One isn’t all about dominant German racing drivers!

Categories: 1998, Belgium, Damon Hill, Jordan, Michael Schumacher