Edward Asprey will never forget it as, by chance, nearly all of the Asprey hierarchy were at the race. ‘It was a simply staggering drive by Schumacher, we were all stunned by the drama. We had never expected to witness such sheer talent and guts at such close quarters. It was indisputable proof of Schumacher’s greatness. He just left everyone else standing. It was as though the rain didn’t exist. We celebrated with a serious bottle of champagne on the way back.’
As Schumacher took the chequered flag, the Ferrari garage became the scene of a kind of rain dance as the team members celebrated their joy. For Ignazio Lunetta, there was the promise of a brand new Vespa from Ferrari Chairman, Luca di Montezemolo to celebrate the victory; for Giorgio Ascanelli there was the great satisfaction of knowing that the race strategy of two pit stops had worked to perfection.
Montezemolo was overjoyed, Todt relieved and happy. The media started to talk about World Championships. It was a good job no one could look into the future. Spain was a high that would be remembered fondly as the team’s fortunes took a dive in the next two months. There were still problems to sort out; a new higher nose for the Canadian Grand Prix; a clutch that wasn’t so difficult to use, and other small modifications to improve the aerodynamics.
On their own these were problems that could easily be sorted out, but combined they were about to become overwhelming and put the team under the kind of pressure that, in the past, had blown it apart.
‘Every time I wake up I struggle because we are not winning. But the important thing is to keep on trying…’
Giorgio Ascanelli
Ferrari Chief Engineer, talking after the French Grand Prix
Not even in their worst nightmares could any of the Ferrari team have imagined that the next two months would be as disastrous as they turned out to be. It all started on a fairly positive note, with the debut of the redesigned raised nose in Canada. This won the approval of both drivers. Schumacher said, ‘It’s worth between a tenth and two-tenths of a second, and more comfortable.’ Irvine added, ‘The car is more consistent between entry and exit of corners with the new nose.’ There were also some aerodynamic modifications carried out at Maranello, which made the car less sensitive. After qualifying, things continued to look hopeful. Schumacher took third spot on the grid behind the two Williams with Damon Hill on pole position. Irvine qualified a highly credible fifth.
The atmosphere within the team was calm and relaxed. Everyone expected the cars to show progress, although no one was in any doubt that the win in Spain had been down to Schumacher’s brilliance rather than the car. As Nigel Stepney says, ‘The win in Spain doesn’t reflect our true position. That was down to Schumacher. He was brilliant to watch. He overcomes a lot of problems and is in the same league as Senna. Drivers like that are few and far between.’
However, neither Ferrari driver finished the race. Stepney explains, ‘We didn’t look good on full tanks during the Sunday morning warm-up. There was a problem with the brake balance and the starter motor broke on Schumacher’s car only 30 seconds before the grid was due to form.’
In fact, Schumacher was forced to start from the back of the grid, and even though he was up to seventh by the time of his pit stop on lap 41, his driveshaft broke as he got to the end of the pit lane, forcing his retirement from the race. Post-race analysis diagnosed clutch problems that had effectively overstressed the driveshaft.
Eddie Irvine lasted a mere two laps before an unidentified flying object hit his car and the push rod broke, forcing him to retire from the race. Stepney comments dryly, ‘When Irvine’s push rod went, he came into the pits smelling like a barbecue. This was due to the fact that there is a plank of wood underneath the car and this was quietly roasting!’
Ascanelli was as disappointed as anyone. ‘Canada was a race to forget,’ he said afterwards, the disappointment still etched on his face as he went on to say, ‘Canada should have been one of our best circuits, but we had four or five silly problems which, quite frankly, were all foreseeable. We have to improve our reliability. Schumacher deserves better. However, there are only 24 hours in a day and we will keep on with the learning curve. I have to say that overall I’m happier with the car and happier in general with the team. We still lack confidence and tend to panic, which is what we did when we had the problem with Irvine’s car. The most likely explanation for the broken push rod was impact with a foreign object, but we still tended to go into panic. We haven’t got it together yet.’
NEVER SAY NEVERS!
THE FRENCH GP DIDN’T HAVE THE MOST AUSPICIOUS START
The French Grand Prix is held at Magny-Cours, just outside a small town called Nevers, an appropriate name for the coming weekend, which didn’t have the most auspicious of starts. Giorgio Ascanelli looked as if he had been three rounds with Mike Tyson. He had in fact been washed off a rock and hit his chin and face during the recent violent floods that had hit Italy.
Ascanelli’s mood matched his physical state. The pressure was on and there hadn’t been time to assemble the cars before leaving for the circuit. This was something that would cost the team dearly when Irvine’s front turning vanes were found to be illegal after qualifying. It was all very much a case of wait and see, caused in some part by the lateness of the car.
Effectively, Ferrari was being forced to try out various important new modifications either at tests just before the races or at the races. It was causing huge reliability problems. As Ascanelli says, ‘Problems occur when you are trying to do something different and you push your luck. First you have to fix the 300 kilometre problem, then the 500 and then the 800, then the thousands. Everything is new this year and so we are bound to have teething problems.’
The good news was that John Barnard and his team had already started to design the 1997 car, and that would mean valuable extra testing time. It was difficult to be specific about what was wrong with the 1996 car, but lessons had been learnt. As John Barnard says, ‘We did something with the aerodynamics that, when the car was in the wind tunnel, indicated its improved efficiency. We had a double floor area underneath the forward part of the side pod. The aerodynamics maps, which measure how sensitive the car is, appeared to be very similar to the 1995 car, which was driveable and comfortable. But on the track it gave the symptoms of being much more sensitive. The floor gave us aerodynamic problems which I am not going to go into, as it is useful information that we found out the hard way.
‘By the time you discover this type of problem during the season, you are already behind. Naturally you try and fix the problem, which means forward development is difficult. Add to that the pressure of being a part of Ferrari and if you don’t stay cool things can get out of hand.’
Eddie Irvine, as is his wont, managed to produce a few lighter moments. The Friday Five at Five press conference, when the gathered media are unleashed on five nominated team members, was a little less ‘dry’ than normal. The big discussion was whether nose plasters, as seen on rugby and football players, improved breathing. It was suggested that they could be useful in motor racing. Olivier Panis, winner of the Monaco Grand Prix, confessed to having tried them and found they did improve his breathing if not his speed, at which point Irvine turned towards him and said with understatement, ‘But they just make you look like a dick.’
Things turned serious when qualifying for the French GP got underway on the Saturday. It was an electrifying session; Schumacher claimed pole position after Hill, with only a few minutes left, tried