1997 Argentina Grand Prix

 1997 Argentina Grand Prix

Racing data
3rd of 17 races in the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	XX Gran Premio Marlboro de la Republica Argentina
Date:	April 13, 1997
Place:	Buenos Aires
Course:	Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez
Length:	306.648 km in 72 laps of 4.259 km
Weather:	dry, partly cloudy
Spectator:	~ 60,000
Pole position
Driver:	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Time:	1: 24.473 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Gerhard Berger	Benetton Renault
Time:	1: 27.981 min (lap 63)
Podium
First:	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault
Second:	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari
Third:	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot

The 1997 Argentine Grand Prix (officially XX Gran Premio Marlboro de la Republica Argentina ) took place on April 13 at the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez in Buenos Aires and was the third race of the 1997 Formula 1 World Championship . The winner is Jacques Villeneuve ahead of Eddie Irvine and Ralf Schumacher .

report

background

If you include the Indianapolis 500 between 1950 and 1960 , that was the 600th Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The topic of conversation this weekend were Eddie Irvine and Heinz-Harald Frentzen due to their poor performance so far. Even if Frentzen led the race in Australia for a long time and was only stopped by a brake defect, the first began to doubt his abilities. At Irvine the situation was even more precarious, as he had caused an accident in two previous races. As a result, even the Italian press demanded the dismissal of the controversial Northern Irish.

The two Williams pilots Jacques Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen arrived battered: Villeneuve contracted food poisoning and Frentzen was suffering from the flu.

Furthermore, the Lola team boss Eric Broadley was very confident that he would be able to compete in the next race in San Marino with a new main sponsor. However, it will be shown later that they will not make it anymore.

Williams used power steering again after 1996. Besides Williams, only the Benetton team used power steering for their cars.

training

Friday training

The first on Friday was Jacques Villeneuve with a time of 1: 25.755 ahead of Rubens Barrichello's Stewart , who was about a second behind Villeneuve. All drivers were within six seconds.

Saturday training

Heinz-Harald Frentzen won the session with one second ahead of his teammate Villeneuve. All drivers were within five seconds.

Qualifying

Qualifying was dominated by the Williams . Jacques Villeneuve was the only one who could set a time below 1:25. The Canadian was able to secure his sixth, 100th pole position for the Williams team and 125th pole position for engine manufacturer Renault . Surprisingly, Olivier Panis qualified third with his cheers .

Warm-up

Williams was able to prove their clear superiority again, Villeneuve was only 13 thousandths ahead of his German team mate in first place. Only Mika Salo in the Tyrrell was over 1:30. It is noteworthy that all drivers were within two and a half seconds.

run

After the start, Jacques Villeneuve was able to maintain his lead and began to pull away from the field of pursuers. But only shortly afterwards it turned out that his efforts were in vain, because Michael Schumacher , who was hampered by leaking oil from Heinz-Harald Frentzen's car, almost crashed into Olivier Panis . But this dodged and lost several places. Schumacher, however, caused an accident with Rubens Barrichello when the German drove into the stern of the Stewart , causing Barrichello to spin. The Brazilian was still able to continue the race, Schumacher had to retire. David Coulthard also had to give up in the chaos , as he also drove into the rear of another car, this time Ralf Schumacher's Jordan .

The safety car had to be deployed because of the two broken down cars. First, the red flag was waved, which later turned out to be a mistake. After the race, the FIA ​​fined the organizer $ 10,000 for unauthorized use of the red flag. After four laps Villeneuve was able to pull away again from the rest of the field. Panis was in second place and the team was now hoping for a podium finish. But on lap 18 the dream broke, because Panis retired with problems on the accelerator.

On lap 24, the two Jordans collided , as a result of which one of the two, Giancarlo Fisichella , had to give up. The reigning world champion Damon Hill retired again in the Arrows , the reason was an engine failure.

Although Eddie Irvine was rapidly approaching, Villeneuve was able to maintain his lead successfully to the end and thus won the race in Argentina. Michael's brother Ralf Schumacher followed in third place. When it crossed the finish line, a controversy arose as the Jordan team did not run to the pit wall to celebrate the finish line. The official reason given was not to appear on the pit wall since the race in Hungary in 1995 if a driver was in third place. In this race Rubens Barrichello , who was still driving for Jordan at the time, was third, but could not hold his place until the finish. It turned out that the team still celebrated when a driver was in third place. As a result, the rumors that there was no celebration due to the accident between Fisichella and Schumacher increased. Eddie Jordan later said that he was satisfied with the current driver line-up and that he did not want to swap the two for another duo. This race was also the 100th Grand Prix of the Jordan team.

With the sensational second place, the rumors about the planned dismissal of Irvines diluted. However, a small glitch on the podium caused a scandal when the Irish flag was waving instead of the British Union Jack . Irvine, who sees himself as Irish but holds a British passport as a Northern Irishman , has been labeled a traitor by British loyalists. Irvine himself asked the FIA whether a white flag with a shamrock on it could be used instead of the Union Jack at another podium ceremony . The FIA, however, insisted on the British flag.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Danka Arrows Yamaha	1	Damon Hill	Arrows A18	Yamaha 3.0 V10	B.
	2	Pedro Diniz
Rothmans Williams Renault	3	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams FW19	Renault 3.0 V10	G
	4th	Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	5	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari F310B	Ferrari 3.0 V10	G
	6th	Eddie Irvine
Mild Seven Benetton Renault	7th	Jean Alesi	Benetton B197	Renault 3.0 V10	G
	8th	Gerhard Berger
West McLaren Mercedes	9	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren MP4 / 12	Mercedes-Benz 3.0 V10	G
	10	David Coulthard
B&H Total Jordan Peugeot	11	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan 197	Peugeot 3.0 V10	G
	12	Giancarlo Fisichella
Cheers Gauloises Peugeot	14th	Olivier Panis	Cheers JS45	Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10	B.
	15th	Shinji Nakano
Red Bull Sauber Petronas	16	Johnny Herbert	Clean C16	Petronas 3.0 V10	G
	17th	Nicola Larini
Tyrrell	18th	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell 025	Ford ED4 3.0 V8	G
	19th	Mika Salo
Minardi team	20th	Ukyō Katayama	Minardi M197	Hard 3.0 V8	B.
	21st	Jarno Trulli
Stewart Ford	22nd	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart SF01	Ford Zetec-R 3.0 V10	B.
	23	Jan Magnussen

classification

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	time	begin
01	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	1: 24.473	01
02	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	1: 25.271	02
03	Olivier Panis	Cheers to Mugen Honda	1: 25.491	03
04th	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	1: 25.773	04th
05	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	1: 25.942	05
06th	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	1: 26.218	06th
07th	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	1: 26.327	07th
08th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	1: 26.564	08th
09	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	1: 26.619	09
10	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 26.799	10
11	Jean Alesi	Benetton Renault	1: 27.076	11
12	Gerhard Berger	Benetton Renault	1: 27.259	12
13	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	1: 27.281	13
14th	Nicola Larini	Clean Petronas	1: 27.690	14th
15th	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	1: 28.035	15th
16	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 28.094	16
17th	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 28.135	17th
18th	Jarno Trulli	Minardi-Hart	1: 28.160	18th
19th	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	1: 28.224	19th
20th	Shinji Nakano	Cheers to Mugen Honda	1: 28.366	20th
21st	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	1: 28.413	21st
22nd	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	1: 28.696	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 30.386 min (based on the best time of 1: 24.473 min)

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Jacques Villeneuve	Williams-Renault	72	3	1: 52: 01.715	01	1: 28.028
02	Eddie Irvine	Ferrari	72	2	+ 0.979	07th	1: 28.473
03	Ralf Schumacher	Jordan-Peugeot	72	1	+ 12,089	06th	1: 28.382
04th	Johnny Herbert	Clean Petronas	72	2	+ 29.919	08th	1: 29.296
05	Mika Hakkinen	McLaren-Mercedes	72	1	+ 30.351	17th	1: 29.076
06th	Gerhard Berger	Benetton Renault	72	1	+ 31.393	12	1: 27.981
07th	Jean Alesi	Benetton Renault	72	1	+ 46.359	11	1: 28.827
08th	Mika Salo	Tyrrell-Ford	71	2	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 29.931
09	Jarno Trulli	Minardi-Hart	71	1	+ 1 lap	18th	1: 30.593
10	Jan Magnussen	Stewart-Ford	66	3	+ 6 rounds	15th	1: 29.834
-	Nicola Larini	Clean Petronas	63	2	DNF	14th	1: 28.410
-	Pedro Diniz	Arrows-Yamaha	50	1	DNF	22nd	1: 31.111
-	Shinji Nakano	Cheers to Mugen Honda	49	2	DNF	20th	1: 29.865
-	Jos Verstappen	Tyrrell-Ford	43	1	DNF	16	1: 29.541
-	Ukyo Katayama	Minardi-Hart	37	-	DNF	21st	1: 31.869
-	Damon Hill	Arrows-Yamaha	33	-	DNF	13	1: 30.649
-	Giancarlo Fisichella	Jordan-Peugeot	24	-	DNF	09	1: 30.278
-	Rubens Barrichello	Stewart-Ford	24	-	DNF	05	1: 29.913
-	Olivier Panis	Cheers to Mugen Honda	18th	-	DNF	03	1: 29.090
-	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Williams-Renault	5	-	DNF	02	1: 31.832
-	Michael sSchumacher	Ferrari	0	-	DNF	04th	-
-	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	0	-	DNF	10	-

World Cup stands after the race

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Jacques Villeneuve Williams-Renault 20th 02  David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 10 02  Gerhard Berger Benetton Renault 10 04th  Mika Hakkinen McLaren-Mercedes 9 05  Michael sSchumacher Ferrari 8th 06th  Olivier Panis Cheers to Mugen Honda 6th 06th  Eddie Irvine Ferrari 6th 08th  Ralf Schumacher Jordan-Peugeot 4th 09  Johnny Herbert Clean Petronas 3 10  Nicola Larini Clean Petronas 1 10  Jean Alesi Benetton Renault 1 -  Shinji Nakano Cheers to Mugen Honda 0

Item driver constructor Points -  Mika Salo Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams-Renault 0 -  Jarno Trulli Minardi-Hart 0 -  Pedro Diniz Arrows-Yamaha 0 -  Rubens Barrichello Stewart-Ford 0 -  Jan Magnussen Stewart-Ford 0 -  Ukyō Katayama Minardi-Hart 0 -  Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan-Peugeot 0 -  Jos Verstappen Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Damon Hill Arrows-Yamaha 0 -  Vincenzo Sospiri Lola Ford 0 -  Ricardo Rosset Lola Ford 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Williams-Renault 20th 02  McLaren-Mercedes 19th 03  Ferrari 14th 04th  Benetton Renault 11 05  Cheers to Mugen Honda 6th 06th  Clean Petronas 4th

Item constructor Points 06th  Jordan-Peugeot 4th -  Minardi-Hart 0 -  Arrows-Yamaha 0 -  Stewart-Ford 0 -  Tyrrell-Ford 0 -  Lola Ford 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Overview Argentina 1997 ( Memento from June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} motorsportarchiv.de Statistics Argentina 1997 ( Memento from June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Heinz Prüller: Grand Prix Story 1997 , Orac, p. 46ff.
4. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Friday training Argentina 1997 ( Memento from June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Saturday training Argentina 1997 ( Memento from July 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Qualifying Argentina 1997 ( Memento from July 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Warm-Up Argentina 1997 ( Memento from July 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ motorsportarchiv.de Race Argentina 1997 ( Memento from June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )