MOTORRACING:Alan Henry
FERRARI’S Michael Schumacher was not sure what had happened to his younger brother, Ralf. All he knew was that the 21-year-old Jordan driver was running fourth in the opening stages of Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix, on the tail of the eventual winner, Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
“If Ralf had finished,” Schumacher said, “there might have been three of us up here on the rostrum. But it is only a matter of time.”
He was referring to the reawakening of Germany’s interest in top-class motorsport, on a day when German drivers finished first and second in a round of the Formula One world championship for the first time in its 47-year history.
With Frentzen joining the double world champion as a front-line F1 contender, Germany’s race fans are revelling in the investment of Mercedes-Benz in these two talented drivers’ early careers. Both were members of the celebrated Mercedes Junior team in the late 1980s, cutting their teeth in long distance sportscar events. In those days, most insiders thought Frentzen every bit as quick – if not quicker – than Schumacher.
But Frentzen’s career took an unprofitable detour into Formula 3000, while Schumacher aimed for a fast track graduation to F1. The Williams driver clearly regards Sunday’s win as proof that faith in his early promise was not misplaced.
Germany’s participation has been intermittent throughout the history of the world championship. Mercedes-Benz ran its own works F1 team in 1954 and 1955, but it was not until 1982, when BMW supplied engines to the Bernie Ecclestone-owned Brabham team, that the country’s interest in the sport showed signs of revival.
Nelson Piquet drove a Brabham-BMW turbo to victory in the 1983 world championship, but the company withdrew from F1 after another four seasons. Mercedes eventually returned in 1994 with the Sauber team, where Frentzen was finally given his grand prix chance.
In the quest for improved performance, Mercedes switched its engine supply contract to McLaren from the start of 1995 – when it fleetingly became involved in a disastrous partnership with Nigel Mansell – and was finally rewarded when David Coulthard won this year’s Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne.
On Sunday Coulthard was running fourth, chipping away at the leaders, when his engine overheated and he was forced to pull up. Yet Mercedes and McLaren remain confident they can raise their game sufficiently to become consistent winners.
However, they may have to look to their laurels over the next two seasons. With the withdrawal of Renault’s factory support from the Williams team at the end of this year, BMW is set to foot the reputed 13- million bill for the British team to continue using unbadged Renault engines in 1998 and 1999, in preparation for a full factory effort by the German company at the turn of the century.
BMW has looked enviously at the way Mercedes has raised its sporting image over the past three seasons, and has decided it must have its own slice of the massive global television coverage commanded by the F1 world championship.
The sight of Heinz-Harald Frentzen in a Williams-BMW may be a long shot with the German company’s first engine at least two years away from completion. But with Ralf Schumacher showing such promising form in only his fourth grand prix, a German driver winning the world championship in a car powered by a German engine – be it Mercedes or BMW – must now be regarded as a very realistic prospect.