Williams the Formula One favorite for 1997
By Chris Lambden
THE F1 field which lines up in Melbourne next month for the 1997 Grand Prix season opener contains substantial changes from that which completed 1996.
But despite the renewed vigor with which the challengers are attacking the 1997 season, the championship-winning Williams' team remains the one to beat.
With a refined version of its 1996 car and Renault engines, plus two talented young drivers, preseason testing has confirmed that the Williams' team will be the benchmark team yet again.
The 1996 Championship runner-up, Jacques Villeneuve, set a scorching pace the moment the new FW19 Williams-Renault first appeared, in the first week of February at Spain's Jerez circuit, breaking last year's pole time (set by Damon Hill) by well over a half a second, albeit in much cooler and thus slower conditions.
Villeneuve, who won four Grands Prix in his debut year, retains outright favoritism for the 1997 Drivers' Championship, although new teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen could also run strongly.
In testing, Frentzen has been half a second a lap slower than Villeneuve but could still claim to be playing himself in. The German hasn't crashed a Williams yet, which suggests the claim has some weight.
A month ago, the most likely challenger to Williams supremacy looked to be Ferrari, as it launched a revised, good-looking F310B -- but the preseason testing has been a disaster for the Italian team and its US$25 million per year star driver.
A series of engine failures and handling problems has left the team with a lot of work to do if Schumacher is to challenge from race one, in Melbourne, on March 9.
However, it is as well to remember that this is just testing. The team has the option of reverting to its proven 1996 engines if problems with the new one remain unsolved. Come race day, Schumacher will again most likely be Williams' most serious challenger ...
Schumacher's teammate, Irishman Eddie Irvine, has this year been allowed to partake in the testing program, which should put him on a stronger footing from race one.
The 1997 season sees Goodyear's monopoly on Formula One tire supply broken, with the Japanese Bridgestone company joining the fray.
Bridgestone has an enviable record in lesser motor sport categories and may be the ingredient which allows other teams to surprise.
Top among those must be Ligier, the French team with Mugen- Honda engines. Lead driver Olivier Panis stunned the F1 fraternity early in February when he lapped the Catalunya circuit half a second quicker than Villeneuve had six days earlier -- and a stunning four seconds faster than his best effort in the 1996 Ligier at last June's Spanish Grand Prix when the team was on Goodyears!
Other Bridgestone-contracted teams include the all-new Stewart-Ford team and Arrows, Tom Walkinshaw's much-revised team which now boasts 1996 World Champion Damon Hill as lead driver.
Unless either team can very much shortcut the technological development which is required to become an F1 front-runner, a top-three finish in any race will be an achievement.
Apart from Ferrari, the consistent threat to Williams will most likely come from the traditional sources -- Benetton, McLaren and Jordan.
Benetton appears to have made progress with its revised car for 1997 and is, of course, the only team apart from Williams to have the Renault engine.
It also has the stability which comes from retaining both its 1996 drivers, Alesi and Berger.
McLaren starts 1997 with an all-new look, a new car which has performed well in early testing, and its stable Coulthard/Hakkinen driver line-up.
The new look follows Marlboro's departure, after a record 23 years as major sponsor, and the arrival of German cigarette brand West.
For Jordan, it's a deliver-or-else year. Alain Prost's quest to buy Ligier and present an all-French team is gaining momentum and he wants French Peugeot engines. Jordan's Peugeot contract expires at the end of this year ...
Having failed in his bid to sign Hill after the World Champion's split with Williams, Jordan is relying on a pair of young bucks -- the nevertheless talented Giancarlo Fisichella and Michael Schumacher's younger brother Ralf. But with so much at stake, it is a gamble.
The one team without an obvious chink in its armory is Williams -- and what's more, Frank Williams has overcome a potential 1998 problem (the withdrawal of Renault from F1) by brokering a deal for French engineering company Mecachrome to take over Renault's stocks and prepare the engines for 1998 and 1999.
Whoever beats Williams, wins. It's been the tenet for the past five years and no less applicable in 1997.
Schumacher in a reliable Ferrari can; a McLaren-Mercedes with a well-behaved chassis can; Jean Alesi in a Benetton-Renault can. But not often enough.