Fashioning the stuff from which legends are made, Formula One is witnessing the birth of a pride of new lions. Poised to take on the mantle of World Champion, these young pilots are talented, well-paid and — in the savage commercial world of today’s F1 — brave in an entirely new way.

Once again demonstrating that change is the essence of Formula One, today's F1 drivers are fashioning the stuff from which legends are made. From Villeneuve to Mika Hakkinen and former Irish bad boy Eddie Irvine (together with Giancarlo Fisichella, Ralf Schumacher and Alexander Wurz) these new lions were talented, well-paid and — in light of the savage commercialization of today's F1 — brave in an entirely new way as well.


Not that controversy and politics have been eliminated, however. They actually began in earnest again in 1994, where Michael Schumacher was stupidly shown the black flag at Silverstone for "overtaking" on the pre-race parade lap, and then slapped by FIA with a two-race suspension for allegedly ignoring the flag while Benetton's Flavio Briatore argued with the stewards. The shenanigans escalated at the Hungaroring that season, where Schumacher was disqualified on technical grounds after the wooden undertray plank on his Benetton was judged too thin under the regulations.

They peaked at Adelaide — the last gasp for a fun-filled Australian GP F1 venue — where Damon Hill, second in the race and the world championship, desperately dove for a small gap and Schumacher shut the door, breaking the Williams' front wishbone and securing the win and season title.
And controversy continued into 1995, where Hill, superficially appearing confident in the superior Williams FW17 of Patrick Head, collided into Schumacher at Silverstone, spun out while leading at Hockenheim, and made a general mess of things as Schumacher handily won his second title. (This included a fantastic victory in the 1995 European GP at a refurbished Nürburgring, where "Schumi" adroitly managed rain tyres and pit strategy to pass Jean Alesi with three laps to go to take the win, while Hill crashed once again attempting to catch the German.)

Follow up:

Emulating the fabled Senna-Prost duels of 1989-90, the 1996-98 F1 seasons featured an odd combination of tremendous on-track racing and sometimes unbelievable off-track wrangling. During the winter, Frank Williams had abruptly doffed Coulthard for the young Jacques Villeneuve, who immediately proved mature beyond his years by outpacing Hill in the season-opening 1996 Grand Prix at Melbourne's Albert Park, eventually succumbing to an oil leak that forced him to accept the second step on the podium. Damon won his championship, but in turn was fired by Williams, whence he moved to a Tom Walkinshaw managed TWR Arrows team that has still not managed to become competitive. Meanwhile, Villeneuve managed his own share of controversy in winning the 1997 World Championship. Driving the last of the Adrian Newy designed Williams cars (the FW19), Jacques bleached his hair blond and captured the pole in the season-opening GP, but was shunted into the gravel at the first corner by the Ferrari of Eddie Irvine. Thereafter, despite occasionally erratic driving, he posted some of the best statistics ever for a second-year F1 driver, with 10 poles, 7 wins, 3 fastest laps and 86 points in 16 races.



Villeneuve is a bundle of contradictions. Hugely talented, there are times when he seems to have cultivated the role of F1’s most conspicuous dissident, a blond-tinted, high-grunge enfant terrible who marches to his own beat, no matter whether it makes his team uneasy or leaves him vulnerable to sanctions from officialdom.





As is becoming typical, there was major controversy, as well, with Villeneuve being disqualified at Suzuka for failing to slow down under a waived yellow flag in practice (running the race under appeal). This followed a seesaw mid-season battle with Schumacher in which Michael put the Ferrari 14 points in the lead with consecutive victories at Montreal and Magny-Cours, while Jacques was reprimanded by FIA — and summoned to appear personally in Paris the Wednesday before his home Grand Prix — after criticizing proposals for 1998 rule changes (grooved tires, narrowed monocoques, etc.) again designed to slow the cars. The perhaps inevitable result was a first-lap Jacques shunt into the wall on the pit straight chicane while leading the race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The Canadian press responded that "by calling such an ill-timed meeting, FIA president Max Mosley emerges from the affair covered in infamy and looking for all the world like a petty tyrant on a power trip." For his part, maverick Villeneuve was nonplused, remarking that "I haven't been asked to change my views, just my language" (he reportedly called the new rules "shit").


The 1997 F1 season also saw the entry into Formula One of Jackie Stewart's new Stewart Racing team, backed by Ford, and a splendid second-place finish by Rubens Barrichello for Stewart in the rain at Monaco. Team Tyrrell introduced the ugly and controversial "X-Wings" — sidepod-mounted winglets — that would eventually be banned in 1998. But the big story of '97 was how changed rules led to changed tactics that fundamentally altered the sport. With refueling introduced as a measure to add drama, F1 enthusiasts complained that Grand Prix racing had become an overly esoteric technical exercise with overtaking on most circuits the product of pit stop strategies rather than passing cars on the track itself. Undoubtedly the master at this new craft was Schumacher, whose tactical genius at Benetton extended to Ferrari, using tremendously quick "in laps" that allowed him to pass faster cars in the pits.


Yet the end of the 1997 season would become a prelude to a splendid 1998 F1 championship. Moving into the penultimate race at Suzuka, Villeneuve held a nine-point advantage, but his DQ and Ferrari's timely win put Schumacher in the points lead by one. So it all came down to the European GP, this time returning to Spain's Jerez, where high drama was in order. Villeneuve qualified on pole with Schumacher alongside, posting the exact same time (and placed second only since his hot lap was later in the session). On lap 48, 20 tours from the finish, Villeneuve moved to overtake Schumacher for the lead, and Schumi turned in to the Williams' left-hand sidepod as the




Schumacher remains the most complete driver in F1 today. Apart from the dazzling car control, Michael rules his Italian team with a psychological rod of iron, taking as much responsibility for technical decisions as he does for capitalizing on them during the race. . . . Jackie Stewart believes that the man who eventually eclipses Schumacher is not yet even in F1. He could be right.