The Unpredictability of Formula 1: A Season of Surprises

Andrea Barell was still going great guns in eighth place, but after an uncharacteristic mistake, he said a short word in Portuguese and announced that he would be able to spend more time with his sponsors. The manard driver Pedro Lami was in a race of his own, entertaining the crowd vastly as he now had the opportunity to spend more time with himself thanks to Bernie.

Shoemaker came storming out from his pit stop, flying Ferrari just managed to squeeze in front and Shumi was in a hurry to catch Damon. So he shaped up to overtake a lazy on the inside, that's when Damon lost his chance to hit Shumi. A lazy hit him instead, both cars were fatally damaged, a lazy came in to retire, maybe he had cared about Shoemaker's salary after all. As Shumacher came in to retire, the thought arose that next year he wouldn't need other cars to put him out of the race on his own, because Ferrari would be able to do that all by itself.

Further proof of this soon came shortly afterwards when once again his Primadonna Ferrari blew its top on a high note. All over the world, women's hearts went out to him like migrating birds. Sensationally Eddie Irvine was all set to come third at least after recent disappointments, but a Podium position for Jordan would do the team the world of good. But Eddie Jordan had seen something ominous in the readouts, I looked too and couldn't see anything in the Jordan garage, the engineers could see everything there was was a glitch in the air valve grommet or a grommet in the glitch.

Eddie Jordan knew the word you had to be a space scientist to fully understand but whatever was wrong Irvine had to come into the pits to have it fixed. Total panic ensued as the air bottle required to top up the glitch grommet declined to make itself available, it didn't matter, the glitch grommet was a goner anyway, it was one of those things that all have to go right or else the whole Enterprise comes unstuck. Irvine was out of the race, next year he would be able to conch out on a bigger budget because he was joining Ferrari as Shumacher's teammate for the Jordan team.

It was another cruel disappointment for Irvine and his fans. The valve system in the end is worked by air and there was a small leakage somewhere and they tried to top it up a couple of times, but obviously didn't work, yeah, um, it would have stayed going the first time it stayed going for two laps and when they topped it up the second time it was just about over after one lap, so there was just no way Johnny Herbert could take second spot in his grasp.

Irvine would have been second if he kept going with the race turning into a demolition derby behind him. Damon Hill fled on to the checked flag, it was a sweet fulfillment after a year of frustration with a bit of assistance from a friend at the right moment, Damon had well and truly shown Shumacher where to get off. Their own vast surprise Olivier Panis and Johnny Morbidelli were up there with him.

The season was over, but next season had already started well-prepared for his new position at Ferrari, Eddie Irvine told me he had already learned two Italian words: over steer and under steer. Shumacher was wondering whether he really needs that PR Boeing airliner he was planning to buy. The other drivers have been giving him a lot of stick about it, and really, he's not that arrogant, he just knows he's better than anybody else.

Andrea Barell was telling Kolad that when they got home to Monte Carlo, she would do the driving if it was all the same to him, he took it quite well. When a La was told he might be earning less at Beneton next year than he had at Ferrari, his bubbling high spirits showed he didn't care a bit. Berger was going to Beneton too; the girls might not find the car quite such an attractive color but it was still a steady job.

The best way to get rich is to grow old, Barell was talking to Brazilian radio down the phone telling them why he was staying at Jordan because next year's car was going to be good. Mr Jordan said so while Eddie Jordan went on hustling his team, packed up for the long flight home. The Grand Prix circus was folding its tents but for the people in the circus had never really stopped it just moves on to another town like any other circus.

It leaves a circle on the grass and small boys making plans to run away and follow it to the ends of the Earth; their heads full of dreams about being out there in the ring.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAdelaide one of Australia's greatest tourist attractions perhaps the most civilized elegant little city in the southern hemisphere a pretty gentle place on the human scale offering year round Peace Quiet refined wines and nothing noisier than a koala belching after an excess of gum tips but for one rockus weekend this tranquil Haven Falls prey to White Knuckle fever as the petrol heads flock towards it from all over the planet after touring the world through 16 other cities the Grand Prix Circus Comes to Town and stayed laidback Adelaide Sprouts the blatant funing of sponsorship at Colossal expense the city converts a whole Midtown area into a Grand Prix circuit as a sport Formula 1 attracts the biggest TV audience on Earth but it's also a multi-billion pound business most fans only ever see the action on the track even more drama goes on in the exclusive back backstage area called The Paddock where the corporate sponsors team managers drivers and Starry people in general schmoo pose wheel deal and spread rumors into this glamorous setting I came unglamorous striding it was Friday 2 days before the race on Sunday and already the air was an intoxicating cocktail of high octane petrol and premium price cosmetics and that was just the men as always the high revving High earning drivers had attracted glossy women the way a neon dollar sign attracts moths I Was Here by invitation and hoping to spot some of the faces I had mugged up from my who's who in Formula 1 book on the long flight over the media were here too and they seem to have already found their Quarry Ferrari star geart Berger he of the bedroom eyes women who know nothing about racing cars seem to know a lot about burger if the press didn't nail the drivers autograph hounds were lying in wait whenever they broke cover the brilliant Scottish newcomer David kard is still mastering the art of signing without stopping with more experience Cockney Sparrow Johnny Herbert can swerve out of danger at top speed you could be sure that any big medeor scrum had someone charismatic in the middle of it it was the other Ferrari star Jean ay celebrated for his shy charm and determination to go flat out even with his engine on fire and moving unobtrusively through the whole thing was the man who controls it Bernie eckleson built Formula 1 into a mega budget super high-tech Globe girdling circus just by having a word in all the right ears what Bernie says goes at 200 mph track side of the paddock the pit Lane is a whole street of garages like a London Muse redesigned by NASA high rent homes away from home for 12 different teams ranging from struggling to triumphant the Williams team is one of the Front Runners and here was their star Damon Hill Britain's hero and one of the two top contenders in Formula 1 today shy decent a wickedly quick driver of the quickest car there is whether he was discussing the car's handling characteristics or ordering a sandwich it didn't seem exactly the right time to engage him in conversation maybe later Hill might have been world champion this year except for a series of unfortunate collisions with a driver who annoyingly somehow manages to be slightly faster in a slightly slower car Germany's Michael shoem marker at the age of only 26 he already scored 19 victories and won the World Championship twice but his reputation for uncanny speed is matched by his reputation for arrogance so far this season he has come into high-speed contact with Damon three times and hasn't apologized once once whether Damon and shumi would hit each other again in Sunday's race was bound to be a big Topic in the two days leading up to it but for now it was time to check in with my hosts for the weekend the Jordan team who on half the budget of the Front Runners were getting tantalizingly close to the top their garage was an operating theater clinically clean not a drop of oil visible and everybody present looked as highly qualified as a brain surgeon they were all working hard to adapt the car to the track and to improve its performance and handling without further weakening its Achilles heel reliability one of the two Jordan drivers is Eddie Irvine from Northern Ireland a famously effervescent character Irvine has spent half the season barely bottling up his frustration at a car that frequently conks out with the victory Podium almost in sight his power is the problem matter of the par is good it's just the driveability yeah yeah you know it's coming out of the two corners you have nothing and then you have too much yeah is the big problem so the power's got to be in the right place it's got to be evenly spread last minute breakdowns have also dogged a Jordan's other driver Ruben barello from Brazil a temperamental car makes it hard for both drivers to compete against the Front Runners perhaps even more important against each other because the Rivalry between a team's two drivers is probably the most intense there is in charge of this and every other aspect of the team is the man with his name on it Irish Dynamo Eddie Jordan he very nicely pretended to understand what I was screaming in his ear when I thanked him for his Hospitality he told me the car was improving and when I asked him how the car was he said it was no trouble at all but as the cars were wheeled out for the first qualifying session you only had to look at them to realize why the whole world's techno nerds are crazy about Formula 1 the cars are so powerful and so light that they will go on accelerating until they melt they reach 200 mph on any straight longer than a few city blocks and not much less through any curve more open than a hair pin and from not to 100 and Back Again takes only a breath if you can breathe at all how do you drive one of those things as long as he didn't have to be there if I ever tried Eddie Irvine was ready to show me how how do you move your hands to change gears in such a confined SP you just you know just that's change up that's here all here oh yeah everything's there select first let the cut second third four six s 6th 5th fourth thir second so you can use your left hand for the clutch or the right hand depending on which way you're spinning that'll happen as fast as you like and go bang bang bang bang you can't jump change gear in I think 15,000 for the second or something well how much would there be and they say the accelerator how much travel 2 in 2 in for the for 200 mph yeah so you wouldn't want to get a trembly foot would you well that's because we've got a fly by wire throttle um where it's it's just a potentiometer down there there's no actually direct link between it and the engine it's just done by computer it's not a mechanical link so if you tremble the computer would sort of that sorry if you trembl the computer would sort that out we have we have a the computer has a a sort of a a filter in there so when you head pumps your foot does jump around so it just itens it out so a nervous man like me could drive one of these things yeah well we can sort the computer if I could get into to we probably have to reprogram it but if I could get into it the computer would help me drive it I wouldn't would it I wouldn't get you never know you never know I never would know that was my tragedy the rewards of a racing driver would never be mine but to hell with the rewards just driving a car like that would be reward enough what does it feel like if you can do it this weekend was my chance to ask the men who know it's like being strapped in a roller coaster and uh you just really are being thrown around battered and bruised and a lot of power there but more more than the power the thing that really gets you is the the braking forces it really is like someone taking a hammer to the back of your head when you hit the brakes you get a lot of battering physically it's it's tough um but the speed is the thing I think that that's that's the common thing I think you'll find with most drivers is they like to sit in a vehicle that can take off like a rocket and uh and corner at incredible speeds uh you know it's like if uh you go at Disneyland and you play with all the machine is so great it's so fabulous but uh you have to control everything because otherwise you can be quickly in the wall so uh actually it's it's a huge fun the huge fun got underway the cars were fired up and sent out to qualify they weren't really racing each other at this stage they were racing the clock trying to get a quick time that would place them high on the starting grid for Sunday's race they were still a sight fit to Rouse a petrol head to a frenzy of admiration and any environmentalist to a paroxysm of Anguish in the lightning bolt down the straight every car was carving deeply into the world's diminishing supply of fossil fuels the a car on the track through the corners it takes upside down wings and fat sticky tires that cost £600 a set and each car will go through seven sets in the weekend outlay on this scale is sometimes justified by its supposedly beneficial effects on the car you drive on the road but in fact there's only one real justification the huge fun all the onlookers including myself were filled with the romance of motor to racing until the McLaren driver M Hainan reminded us that Formula 1 is not only glamorous and sexy and fabulously exciting it is also dangerous proverbially quick in the twisty bits haenan was accelerating hard through a series of right angle Corners towards the final fourth gear 120 mph screamer into the long straight but when he got there it all went wrong everybody was watching the monitors and just waiting the sad news filtered through that there were fears for hackin and's life did you see what happened just lost the back end I think he hit the Curve the curbs here are very high when you just touch them F the far and it looks like he's hit the curb and lost the rear end and hit the curb on the other side which is Lun yeah stood into wall there haan's car was brought in ominously draped in Black hacken had already been spared to intensive care before qualifying resumed it resumed doed because in Formula 1 potential death is part of the equation whatever else was on the driver's Minds the necessity to qualify high was still uppermost the two Jordans went back to their familiar task of trying to find enough usable Speed without something going wrong on twice as big a budget A's Ferrari sounded like a garbage disposal unit that had Swallowed A J cloth but to the joy of all the women present Burger's Ferrari was running like fingertips on Silk the Jordans looked as if they might be getting somewhere but shoe markers beneton was strangely slow and wise Acres decided there must be something wrong with the car there is rarely anything wrong with shoe marker kard was comfortable quicker than the beneton and the Ferraris during the year he had generally been at least as fast as his more experienced teammate rival Hill but had sometimes spoiled things with a silly mistake Hill went out late to put in a final fast one like all the other drivers after hackin and's accident Hill had a heavy heart but he also had a heavy right foot ahead of kard berer and everybody else Damon finished the session with the fastest time and provisional pole position that meant he would start the race from the best spot unless somebody else qualified faster tomorrow with the session over out of the splendid isolation of the cockpit the drivers climbed and back into the real world I asked Eddie Irvine and how things had gone the engine's very pey it's onoff it's an onoff switch you can't drive smoothly out of the corner um cuz there there's no car initially and then there's too much as you're trying to come out of the car out of the corner you try to feed it in smoothly and this thing just sing on in the Uproar of engine noise I lost some of the technicalities but I caught his drift all the car needed to be a was false eyelashes and stiletto heels meanwhile the MK Mass media were waiting for solid news about hackin and's fate all the McLaren team's PR people had to offer was a handout that put him somewhere between life and death doesn't say as the team started the long process of preparing for next day everyone was thinking about the missing man and nobody was thinking harder than the other drivers but on the other side of town one of them very kindly agreed to talk to me I asked Damon Hill how much worth work he did between races sometimes I do 3 Days Grand Prix Friday Saturday Sunday have two days off and then I do 3 days testing so the two days off that's when I see my family you know have some sleep get home for a start um travel in other words and then I'm off again testing so this season's been very very tough and on top of that I have promotional things to do for sponsors froma you know occasionally not all the time and they got be dodged though oh well I try and keep them to a minimum but um the sponsors pay for the car to go around and they they pay my wages and so inevitably you you do uh as much as you can for is the money important to you yes it is because um I've invested my my life into getting to this point in my career and uh uh I'm not trained for anything else so when I stop I've got to have made as much money as I can how do how do you relax away from the track um well I have a family so um one of the best ways for me to relax is to spend some time at home and and be with uh my wife and the children and um there's some massive contrast to being at a Grand Prix when you get home and you've got uh you know four year olds and threey olds and crawling all over you and and asking you to help them out with their drawings or crayons or whatever they're doing yeah ladies and gentlemen it's my great pleasure to introduce you to both Mr Damon Hill and Mr David K that evening Hill and kard put in a compulsory appearance at their Chief sponsor cocktail party as befitted his position of the team's more illustrious driver Damon spoke first it'll set us up for next year and we certainly whatever happens here we'll be back next year in full force to win the championship and try and Achieve our goals that we didn't achieve this year as befitted his position of driving with plans to be more illustrious than he yet was kard spoke second yeah I'm actually pleasantly surprised because this morning I was uh find it quite tricky with the the car and also Lear on the track elsewhere at another sponsori Suare Eddie Irvine and Ruben's barello were having an equally thrilling time yes it's great to have you back here it's wonderful to be back great yes remember it's my pleasure to welcome you all here tonight now this thing started off as a cocktail party for our friends at Jordan a bit more of this mandatory jolity and the drivers were ready for bed everybody else including most of Australia's Jet Set turned up at the Grand Prix Ball tickets were 340 austral dollar each the dummy drivers would be the nearest thing to a real life racing hero that most of the glitterati would get to see that night but Bernie Eon was there all said to have a word in the right ears the word he had in my right here was can't talk now there's a bloke I have to look after there was too the Undisputed king of a smoothly functioning world and the third Prince down the line in a far less efficient organization they made an attractive couple everyone went into the ballroom where they would sit down to dinner and enjoy a show in the Australian manner both these things were soon happening simultaneously it was all too crowded and noisy for anyone to notice that the drivers weren't there they were asleep in their hotels trying not to dream some of them were trying not to dream about hitting each other others were trying not to dream about the car falling apart when they could almost taste the champagne Thoth and they were all trying not to dream about the man who would be lucky if he was dreaming at all tomorrow we would find out Saturday in Adelaide the final day of qualifying before the race on Sunday out at the track in the Jordan garage the drivers were the last to arrive for breakfast was you the engineers and mechanics had been working all all night still trying to enhance the car's overall grunt it's a long hard slog to the top and the man with his name on the car must find it hard to keep smiling but you would have thought that Eddie Jordan was still playing with his first maano set how much does it cost to run a team well it can vary in various different teams of various amounts of money and I think the major teams if you're talking about we say the the Williams and the Benetton team they're all in the region of between 50 and $70 million uh us um per year and um that doesn't include the engines cuz the engines are being supplied by manufacturers and that's the normal routine price for the major teams you're a a leading middle team what sort of money are we talking about here well our income level has increased a lot recently and over the last number of years we we're working on a budget of about $25 million us uh that doesn't include the engine because the engines are supplied To Us by Persia our new partner and quite honestly that's our future perso are potentially the biggest thing for Jordan and hopefully vice versa because that'll give us the the power and the income level to be able to attack the major team you think you could be the number one team I don't really think I could continue like this if I didn't think that uh I am pretty convinced in my mind that it will happen uh there will be problems on the way naturally enough and I'm prepared to uh withstand that problems and stress and pain but usually at the end of the pain if there the pleasure is there I'm happy and I think it will happen even as we talked the team had gone back to spending those millions of dollars to give their drivers a chance the car would have to be pushed to the Limit it wasn't the right time to think of what might lie beyond the limit it wasn't the right time but you couldn't blame people for being gripped by the subject outside the McLaren garage they were still waiting for news about haenan all they were getting so far was rumors he was still on life support he might never drive again but suppose he could would he want to how hard is it to get into a racing car again after a big accident when Gart begger lost his steering and RAM the wall Full Tilt only his flame suit saved him from the fire you know if I would have to dat the accident with the fire I'm not sure if I would be able to overcome it again and to go into again but I was younger and I was it was possible to do it but uh yeah it's big accidents are always points in your career what what makes you change or makes you think different or makes you do things different a horrendous crash meant two shattered legs and an interrupted career for shoe marker's teammate Johnny Herbert I always believed for some reason that I would get back into into Formula 1 I don't know why and when I when I did that my feet weren't even moving at all then uh but I just had this inner belief that I would get back into it so that really pushed me and helped me through everything still living with the embossed Hallmarks of the crash that should have killed him is the great world champion Nikki louder it is very difficult because basically you have to ask yourself is it worthwh doing and as long as the motivation is found that racing enjoyment is bigger than the bad side of it you keep on doing it one day you realize that enjoyment is not there anymore and you're you're left over with the bad side of it then you have to stop everybody remembers the danger but when the engines start up the drivers forget it Damon Hill really only has one thing on his mind to win this race and prove that shoe marker isn't Invincible shoe marker on the other hand would like to pile up yet further proof that he is Invincible but before he and Damon can achieve their respective aims they first have to qualify like everybody else late in the morning there was an hour of untime practice so that the teams could tweak their cars for the next qualifying session once again the drivers had to go right to the limit so that the car would reveal its problems some of the problems were revealed in spectacular ular fashion mik salo's TRL had a problem with one of the corners not even the great shoe marker was Problem free some of the problems could be picked up only by the instruments on the car that were reporting electronically all the time to the high-tech equipment in the garage it looks like Mission Control in there and costs about the same studying the readouts the Jordan and perso Engineers can tell what every component on the car is doing while ordinary Mortals might as well be watching Star Trek but finally there can be no substitute for what the driver says beused by all the bloops and bleeps I asked Eddie Irvine for a verbal update we made a modification to the engine there which has made it better um but it's just under steering so you can't get the car turned under steer means you turn the wheel and it doesn't yeah so it's over steer means you turn it and it turns too much all right yeah I never could sort those two out but then sorry I never could sort those two things out that's it explains complete Clarity it was the lunch break before final qualifying the hospitality Suites were open for business and the business depends on the drivers turning up to RAB it on as per contract I would say you know we had few problems but uh a comparative new boy Ruben's barello is still getting used to being nice to the sponsors at the very time when he'd like to be lying down somewhere quiet figuring out what to do about his over steer under steer overdraft and underwear and um hopefully we're going to be there for the last race would be great to be on the podium in Australia hey organizing the sponsor's money for the Williams team Richard West was refreshingly candid about the economics of a small company getting its name on a mobile billboard what would it cost me for the smallest thing you could sell me currently Clive I've got two packages which we're still negotiating so the little space on the front wi M plate which currently says Sega Fredo uh if that were in the marketplace you and I'd be sitting down at the moment talking about $2 million2 million $2 million show up on television uh it wouldn't be what we call television visible we'd have to sell you on a package of hospitality and rights issues and Driver appearances but you get great value for money I took a look at my $2 million television invisible display space I decided to Avail myself of the opportunity at some future time yes in today's Grand Prix World money is sexier than sex used to be but the bright-eyed young ladies went on turning up in steadily growing strength in cave dwelling times they wore mini loin cloths and headed undeviatingly towards the Formula 1 Hunter nowadays the drivers are the great hunters do the hunters get hunted no no no nothing to do with women I'm married have Childs nothing to do with women um from time to time you know but of course I ignore them the Japanese are the worst really yeah oh they when you go to the the Suzuka especially they're just completely mad and they're just all this screaming screaming Mayhem behind you they're quite they're very excitable well first first of I have my fian so I'm okay but uh it's a a kind of spot where everybody's uh exciting and of course some sometimes we have the possibility to meet nice girls but like I said I there are some ladies come around to the circuits and that's as a young guy that's always entertaining to watch but um there some of the other old old hand drivers you can watch them and Performing but I have a girlfriend so I behave myself cool thad's girlfriend Andrea Murray has a career of her own as an international model but she's here for the race why are all those other women here I don't know I mean some are working some are girlfriends or wives and others are of course the rupes but there's not so many so are you hooked on the sport or are you hooked on the guy I think I'm hooked on the guy I think there's no reason why i' come constantly to all the races if I didn't love the guy so no definitely I'm here for David and that's the main reason or the only reason how do you cope with the danger element well there's two ways of thinking about it you can think oh God it's a horrible Sport and they'll they'll fresh and die or you can think you know how many people in the world can suddenly crash and within 10 seconds have an ambulance and a couple doctors and you know head specialist you know within seconds and as well they're wearing seat belts a crash helmet um fireproof gear you know they're lot safer than a driver on the road comforted by the ready availability of high-grade medical facilities Andrea's boyfriend David was out on the track the decisive qualifying session had begun and he was going too fast to suit his teammate Damon but Damon was soon going even faster his car was running like a Swiss Train here was the ideal solution of the Formula 1 equation a piece of modern sculpture propelled by burning money meanwhile Schumaker was getting it together at last he was still a split second down on hill and kard but it looked as if he would start from third spot if only Jordans could find a bit more oomph they looked as if they were going like the clappers but they were still that crucial second perap down on the pace which in an laap race would leave them a whole 2 miles of drift that 15 other drivers were doing even worse was small consolation to either Irvine or barello every time they came into the pits the engineers and mechanics were working with them to push the car as close as possible to the line dividing top performance from total disaster disaster was what Damon almost had pushing it Beyond beond the limit he straddled exactly the same curb that launched hackin but he managed to hold things together the replay proved that racing drivers earn their money by reacting with cool hands at exactly the same moment when you and I would have them over our eyes at the end of the session Damon hadn't improved on his Friday time but since nobody else had either he was rewarded with pole position for Sunday how did that well it was very exciting I think it's the one way of describing it I went I went over a curb and went off in almost the same fashion that M went off yesterday but of course I uh uh didn't have a puncture which he had I believe so I managed to get back on the track quite quick Corner that isn't it fourth gear it's very quick I mean put it this way he didn't want to drive into war that speed I also took the risk of asking the frustrated Eddie Irvine how things had gone for him yeah we improved the car um hav improved position CU everyone else seems to have improved a bit more so bit disappointing I think I'm down to ninth of the minute and what are the prospects for the race starting from there not as good as those titing from fifth I suppose but that should be all right uh just keeping out of trouble is going to be the big thing you know ninth position you're sort of in the middle and uh first corner is a nightmare but up at the front when the green light sha tomorrow shumi would be breathing down Damon's neck for Damon it would be like having a nightmare through a mirror what is Schumaker is he a bird is he a plane is he a nude two tonic KN on a mission of Conquest I think he's an arrogant little bugger um but apart from that I think he's probably the best Formula One driver around at the moment this year he had not the best C he won the championship and he he did a great job Mike was ruthless you know he's dedicated he knows what he wants to do and he gets on and does it when he's at the Circle he's like totally focused and you know he is he's not the funniest sort of guys but you know he seems to lighten up quite a lot when he's had a few bevies Sho marker grants interviews with the frequency of a stone emitting blood but I got to Bernie Bernie promised to have a quiet word in shumi's hard-edged ear and in due course the champ fronted up to be probed why is physical fitness so important to a driver because it's very hard to to drive a race car in nearly two hours around the circuit like here in Adela you need to be fit for this mentally physically and to be through all the race on the on the limit and to achieve the best lap times or victories in the same way you need to to work out yourself and I I particularly like to work out myself I I get the very strong mental thing by being more than normally fit I need this I know you can control the car in almost any circumstances but sometimes the car goes out of control do you ever get frighten when that happens if I have an an off like an Imola earlier this year it's very important for me to understand why I had this and I have no problems to to tell myself okay I made a mistake because if I had done I have to know why I've done the mistake to learn out of it and to not do it again I know that we all human beings and we all do mistakes but you have to learn out of your mistakes and I always have done this I never have done mistakes twice and that's the point I always get fighting for the car I'm always looking after the car while I have an accident I hope that not too much damage is going on to the car but I never was frightened for myself what do you do to relax away from the track I go walking with my dogs my wife I enjoy nature very much uh it it gives me very much if I'm wake up in the morning and I see the sun rising or in the evening see the sun going down see stars at the sky it it gives me very much gives me much more than anything else I found him no more arrogant than William woodsworth being interviewed about a host of golden daffodils but then shumi had never shunted me off the track at 100 plus speaking of which there was great news about Hainan an official announcement said he would live and might even drive again this was backed up by a strong rumor that he had woken up and checked his private parts regarded in the gr PRI world as a sure sign of a man on the men it was a huge relief to the whole Formula One Circus the drivers started playing jokes on each other again geart Berger gave Irvine a piece of cake for his birthday Adelaide which had been faced with a funeral now had a clear conscience to spend the whole night celebrating but in the Jordan pit they would spend the whole night working tomorrow is the race and this time surely all their e eff would be rewarded race day and more than 200,000 ticket holders were soon in position the biggest crowd for any Grand Prix any time anywhere various diverence were laid on to keep them happy in Australia bag pipes count as entertainment instead of torture Pit Stop practice like every other team Jordan would have to bring their cars in at least twice for fuel and tires and the speed in and out of the pits could make all the difference a car stationary for 10 seconds gives away almost half a mile to a car that's moving so the pressure to keep the stop short is enormous and Jordans didn't want another Downer today they'd had too many in The Paddock behind the pits the experts had only one thing on their minds at exactly what point on the circuit would Hill and shoe marker expensively eliminate each other as a Prelude to the usual tight lip press statements and frosty glances Damon was trying hard to look as if he didn't care very much about shumi shumi was trying hard to look as if he didn't care very much about Damon but this same race last year was when they had started bumping into each other they had tried to share a corner when there was room for only one this season they had made a habit of it starting at the British Grand Prix where Damon had been perhaps a trifle optimistic about getting through on the inside after the Belgian Grand brii each of them said it was the other's fault when shumi was obliged to take an alternative route through France in the Italian Grand Prix they once again fell victim to Mutual road rage how much did they really hate each other I had to know not even Bernie thought it possible to get them together in the same room to talk it over but he promised to have a word in their respective ears whatever the word was it must have worked in German as well as English have you two ever managed to to laugh at anything together I think we did yeah but uh I don't don't remember it we are not best friends doing everything together but uh we respect each other and much more than newspapers and television sometimes tell Damon what do you really think of Michael I think he's a very fine racing driver in all honesty I mean I can't take anything away from what he does as a driver um and uh the the problems arise through um this kind of barrier we know I don't talk to Michael directly about what happens you know I get to hear about something that uh via the press and then they come and ask you what do you think of that and then it goes backwards and forwards you know that's how sometimes these things get out of hand Michael what do you really think of D I think we had fantastic uh racing this year and and the year before close racing and we entertained the public that's what the people looking for when they look at Formula 1 that's what I'm looking for when I race a car I want to fight with someone and that's what he done to me he made it difficult for me fortunately I was able to uh to be a hat after the fightings uh that's what makes makes yourself certainly more happy but I'm looking forward to to the Future to have some more battles with him so what about what about the race and for me I really want to go uh and win this last race go into the winter time with uh with victory that would be nice more victories yeah it would be nice to get one actually uh I've had um Baron patch if you like so the last race of the season does set you up nicely for the winter so it would be nice to win here well perhaps you'd like to wish each other good luck for the race I do good M that's what they said when they got into their cars we would see what they did outside the rasma Taz was peing to a climax this would be the last Australian Grand Prix held in Adelaide and the drivers were going to miss its relaxed spirit in most cities at this stage of race day they would rather lie down in their hotel rooms with a cold towel over their foreheads than go out on a parade lap so the paying public can see what they look like without their helmets in the group photo they exuded nothing but Mutual admiration ay obviously didn't mind a bit about shumi taking his place at Ferrari next season for triple the salary Damon didn't kick shumi's chair even once but behind their smiling faces the drivers had already begun to forget which country they were in their minds were on the race a country by itself in the pit Lane Prince Edward was trying to sign up Damon to Star opposite shoe marker in a situation comedy called men driving badly drawing a blank he went off to find Bernie and have a word in his ear in the back of the pits the drivers were at last free from the hooa a good result depends on tactics as much as on overall speed and at their pre-ra briefing the Jordan team were planning their strategy what do you reckon EDD on three kill the brakes no brakes left must there be braks left for three they were discussing the V question of how many pit stops to make the extra fuel is going to put it over the edge over the yeah nobody knew what the other teams would do but for Jordans the apparent Choice was between two and three stops and each option had potential problems asuk the decision was to go for three the race was only half an hour away all the cars were formed up on the grid here was a chance for the massed mass media and the privileged passholders to get out there and pose casually while thousands of petrol heads looked on in Envy Berger pretended not to hear the massed female size aimed at him from the grand stance Andrea was out there to remind kard what it was all for aayy was still assuring everyone that he didn't care at all about the $24 million plus luncheon vouchers that schum marker would be getting from Ferrari next season I was in the middle of giving Eddie Irvine some advice about that first Corner when he noticed that the beneton team had a joke going and shoe marker was so carried away with the Adelaide spirit that he forgot not to join in nobody except the team members is ever allowed to watch the race from the pit wall but I had a word in Bernie's ear and he said he'd see what he could do soon all the walk-on parts were written out leaving nobody on stage except the stars in the few seconds before the red light went green every driver had to hold down 800 horsepower with one foot Bai a total of 20,000 horses all heading for the stable door with the pestiferous cool thard getting the jump on Hill somewhere in the middle of it all Irvine had already moved up a place Hill did all that qualifying to get a clear run into Open Country and kard beat him to it with shoe marker not far behind the last last thing Hill needed was an extra test of his nerve sh marker had muffed his start and had to chase Burger's Ferrari but soon caught and passed him with daunting ease Irvine was doing all right at this stage so was barell Taki Ino famous for his offs had an off still running a slightly irritating second to kard Hill opted for an early pit stop a piece of clear-headed good tactics kard would also have to make a stop soon and then it would be Hill's turn to go flat out while his teammate was stationary so Hill might catch kvad on the road when kard came into the pits this thought might have been preying on his mind something was exit kard now he would be able to spend more time with with Andrea barell was still going great guns in eighth place but after an uncharacteristic mistake he said a short word in Portuguese now he would be able to spend more time with the sponsors the manard driver Pedro Lami was in a race of his own entertaining the crowd vastly now he would be able to spend more time with himself thanks to Bernie I had a ringside seat for the unfolding drama shoe marker came storming out from his pit stop a LA's flying Ferrari just managed to squeeze in front shumi was in a hurry to catch Damon so he shaped up to overtake a lazy on the inside that was when Damon lost his chance to hit shumi a lacy hit him instead both cars were fatally damaged a lazy came in to retire maybe he had cared about Sho marker's salary after all as sharker came in to retire the thought arose that next year he wouldn't need other cars to put him out of the race on pass form the Ferrari would be able to do that all by itself beer gave further proof of this shortly afterwards when once again his Primadonna Ferrari blew its top on a high note all over the world women's Hearts went out to him like migrating birds sensationally Eddie Irvine was all set to come third at least after recent disappointments a Podium position for Jordan would do the team the world of good but Eddie Jordan had seen something ominous in the readouts I looked too and couldn't see anything in the Jordan garage the engineers could see everything there was was a glitch in the air valve grommet or a grommet in the glitch Eddie Jordan knew the word you had to be a space scientist to fully understand but whatever was wrong Irvine had to come into the pits to have it fixed total panic ensued the air bottle required to top up the glitch grommet declined to make itself available it didn't matter the glitch grommet was a goner anyway it was one of those things one of those thousand little things that all have to go right or else the whole Enterprise comes unstuck Irvine was out of the race next year he would be able to conch out on a bigger budget because he was joining Ferrari as shoem marker's teammate for the Jordan team it was another cruel disappointment the valve system in the end is worked by air and there was a small leakage somewhere and we tried to top it up a couple of times and um obviously didn't work yeah um it would have stayed going the first time it stayed going for two laps and when we topped it up the second time it was just about over after one lap so there was just no way Johnny Herbert second spot in his grasp lasted to a broken engine so Irvine would have been second if he' kept going with the race turning into a demolition derby behind him Damon Hill fled on to the checked flag it was a sweet fulfillment after a year of frustration with a bit of assistance from aayy at the right moment Damon had well and truly shown shumi where to get off to their own vast surprise Olivier panis and johanny morbidelli were up there with him but 300 million viewers worldwide had their attention all on Damon next season he would be staying with Williams at a greatly increased salary and his chances of winning the World Championship would be excellent for now it was home to the kids and their crayons out front the season was over back here the next season had already started well prepared for his new position at Ferrari Eddie Irvine told me he had already learned Two Italian words over steer and under steer sharker was wondering whether he really needs that PR Boeing airliner he was planning to buy the other drivers have been giving him a lot of stick about it and really he's not that arrogant he just knows he's better than anybody else Andrea was telling kolad that when they got home to Monte Carlo she would do the driving if it was all the same to him he took it quite well when a la was told he might be earning less at beneton next year than he had at Ferrari his bubbling High Spirits showed he didn't care a bit Berger was going to beneton too the girls might not find the car quite such an attractive color but it was still a steady job the best way to get rich is to grow old barell was talking to Brazilian radio down the phone telling them why he was staying at Jordan because next year's car was going to be good Mr Jordan said so while Eddie Jordan went on hustling his team packed up for the long flight home the Grand Prix circus was folding its tents but for the people in the circus had never really stops it just moves on to another town like any other circus it leaves a circle on the grass and small boys making plans to run away and follow it to the ends of the Earth their heads full of dreams about being out there in the ring a\n"