30 September 1998 Jerry Forsythe, owner of the homonymous CART team, will become partner and director of the BAR F1 team.
30 September 1998 Ecclestone is issuing bonds in view of floating F1 on the exchange market in two years time. The bonds are formulated so that it will be advantageous for him to float F1 in two years.
29 September 1998 Luca di Montezemolo said that he thinks there still are chances for M. Schumacher to win the Drivers Championship. He added that he believes the Constructors Championship is lost and that Irvine could have done more to stop Hakkinen.
27 September 1998 M. Schumacher, starting from pole position in the Luxembourg GP, was beaten to the lead by team mate Irvine, who was starting from the front row for the first time ever in his career. Title contender Hakkinen got third position with the second McLaren driver Coulthard managing to overtake Fisichella for fourth position. The other Benetton driver, Wurz, got sixth position. Before the end of the first lap, M. Schumacher had already taken advantage of an error by Irvine and had taken the lead, starting to build a gap between himself and the rest of the pack. At the end of the first lap Tuero pitted with problems and rejoined the race some nine laps later. On lap four Wurz bypassed the chicane, but as he did not get an advantage he was not penalised. By lap 11 Irvine was blocking the rest of the pack and allowing Coulthard to reach up with him and Hakkinen, who was looking for the good chance to pass the Ferrari. On lap 14 Hakkinen managed to pass Irvine, who had been locking his brakes several times, and set off in pursuit of M. Schumacher, who had a seven seconds advantage at this stage. Both Benetton had a bad first pit stop, with Fisichella apparently having problems with getting the first gear on lap 23 and with Wurz having a similar problem on lap 24. On lap 23 M. Schumacher stopped for the first pit stop, rejoining behind Hakkinen but in front of the rest of the pack lead by Irvine. On lap 25 Irvine pitted and rejoined behind R. Schumacher. On lap 28 Hakkinen pitted and managed to rejoin the race just as M. Schumacher was approaching. The Finn held his position and forced M. Schumacher to readjust his trajectory and stay behind the McLaren. On the following lap Coulthard on the second McLaren pitted too and re-emerged in front of Irvine. The pit stops, which had worked so well for M. Schumacher in the past, in Luxembourg allowed the two McLaren to move in front of the two Ferrari. After the end of the first round of pit stops, on lap 33, the first six positions were occupied by Hakkinen, M. Schumacher, Coulthard, Irvine, Frentzen and Fisichella. Fisichella kept on attacking Frentzen, aided also by team mate Wurz who was in seventh position. An interesting three-way battle developed, with Fisichella carrying out several attempts on Frentzen and Wurz trying to stay in his team mate line to take advantage of any mistake Frentzen would make and pass him as well. At the end Fisichella did manage to overtake Frentzen, but the German closed the door on Wurz. On lap 38 Rosset retired with a smoking engine and having left oil on the track. Fisichella was unlucky enough to be the first to be caught by Rosset's oil and lost the position he had so much fought for to Frentzen and ended up being overtaken by Wurz as well. On lap 42 Fisichella went for his second pit stop and on the following lap Salo, Frentzen and Wurz all pitted at exactly the same time. They also left the pits at the same time with Salo in front, then Frentzen, then Wurz. As soon as he passed the yellow lines in the pits, Frentzen accelerated and overtook Salo before he was even out of the pit exit. Since he had already passed the yellow line, he was officially back in the race and was not penalised. On lap 45 M. Schumacher went for the second pit stop, followed almost immediately by Hakkinen, who managed to retain the lead. From that point on, the only relevant event of the race was R. Schumacher taking a trip in the gravel trap, driving back to the pits and retiring. M. Schumacher found lots of traffic which did not allow him to even try to get close to Hakkinen, who won the race and greatly increased his chance to win the Drivers Championship. M. Schumacher was second, followed by Coulthard, Irvine, Frentzen and Fisichella.
With his win, Hakkinen finds himself in a much better position that he was after the Italian GP. Since the Finn has a larger number of second position finish than M. Schumacher, he would become the Champion even if M. Schumacher wins the last GP of the season and the McLaren driver finishes second. As for the Constructors Championship, McLaren failed to win it mathematically today, but it just needs to score one point in the next race to win it. The next GP, where both Championships will be decided, is scheduled for the 1st of November at Suzuka.
26 September 1998 M. Schumacher got the pole position for tomorrow's race. His team mate Eddie Irvine shares the front row with him, while title contender Hakkinen starts from the second row with Fisichella. Coulthard and R. Schumacher start from the third row.
Schumacher M. 1:18.561 Irvine E. 1:18.907 Hakkinen 1:18.940 Fisichella 1:19.048 Coulthard 1:19.169 Schumacher R. 1:19.455
24 September 1998 A spokesman for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has denied that an agreement has been reached for US to host a GP as early as September 2000.
24 September 1998 Rubens Barrichello said that he has no intention of moving to another team next season and he's quite happy to stay with Stewart.
24 September 1998 It appears that a US GP might take place in the 2000 F1 season. The GP would take place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway according to the Indianapolis Star. there has been no official confirmation of the news yet. The last US F1 GP took place in 1991.
22 September 1998 CART star Alex Zanardi will go back to F1 next year after a three year absence as R. Schumacher's team mate in the Williams team. The official announcement was given today.
18 September 1998 The Bandini Prize has been awarded to Alexander Wurz. The Benetton driver will be officially given the prize in a ceremony at the time of next San Marino GP. Other people who have been awarded the Bandini Prize in the past are Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Jacques Villeneuve, Giancarlo Fisichella, David Coulthard and Ivan Capelli.
18 September 1998 A box containing the exhaust fumes from M. Schumacher's Ferrari is to be auctioned for charity on Sunday at the Zeltweg race track in Austria. The money from the auction will be donated to Unesco, of which M. Schumacher is a permanent ambassador. The starting price is 28,000 German marks.
16 September 1998 The Monza race circuit has been given the ISO 14001 certification for environment management. The Monza race track is the first in the world to have applied for and obtained the ISO 14001 certification.
13 September 1998 Despite the weather forecast, the Italian GP was not marred by the expected rain downpours. Instead, the race was dry and benefited from a ground temperature of 28 degrees. M. Schumacher made a terrible start from pole position, with the two McLaren, Villeneuve, who had started from the front row too, and Eddie Irvine all easily managing to pass him. Hakkinen took the lead followed by team mate Coulthard, while M. Schumacher found himself in fifth position. By the end of the first lap the German had managed to pass Villeneuve and was fourth behind Irvine, while the two McLaren were steadily building a good lead over the rest of the field. On lap two M. Schumacher took third position from his team mate and started chasing Coulthard, who already had a four second lead at this stage. At the back of the field Damon Hill was doing a great job of gaining positions and on lap five had managed to move to eighth place having started from 14th. On lap six Coulthard took the lead from Hakkinen, for what appeared to be different pit stop strategies between the two team mates, and started running away. On lap 13 Johnny Herbert span out and retired, while Damon Hill had managed to work his way up to the points. It emerged later that the mechanics had left a spanner in Herbert's cockpit. On the same lap Nakano's car started pouring white smoke and the Japanese stopped in front of the fire marshals who put out the oil fire which had started engulfing the car. Damon Hill took his first pit stop and lost most of the positions he had gained, rejoining in 13th place. On lap 17 a dramatic reversal of fortune took place. Coulthard, who was leading the race, suffered a broken engine and had to retire. Hakkinen, who was second, slowed down because of the dense smoke pouring out of his team mate's car giving M. Schumacher the chance to overtake him and take the lead. On lap 20 Panis, who had already gone to the pits with problems, drove his car back to the Pits and retired. On lap 26 Trulli suffered problems during a pit stop and could only rejoin the race after well over one minute. Soon afterwards Wurz parked his Benetton by the Parabolica and retired. On lap 32 M. Schumacher went for his first pit stop (9.3 seconds) rejoining in second position behind Hakkinen. Immediately afterwards Irvine pitted too (8.3 seconds) rejoining in fourth position behind Villeneuve. Villeneuve had a good pit stop on lap 34 and managed to maintain third position in front of Irvine. On lap 35 Hakkinen, who had been trying to build a good gap over M. Schumacher, pitted (9.7 seconds), but lost the lead to the German Ferrari driver. Hakkinen rejoined behind lapped Barrichello who also caused him to lose precious time. On lap 38 Villeneuve went straight at the second Lesmo, hit a tyre barrier and retired. Towards the final stages of the race Hakkinen was constantly reducing the gap between himself and M. Schumacher when, on lap 46, lost control of the car, span, hit the gravel trap and started going backwards. With amazing ability he managed to control the car, kept the engine running, turned it to face the right direction, checked for coming traffic, then rejoined the race still in second position but having lost some 12 seconds. Unluckily for him his car had suffered some sort of mechanical problem on the gravel and started losing ground. The McLaren seemed to have lost some of its steering and braking and had become very low, causing sparks to come out from underneath. Irvine caught up with Hakkinen and on lap 50 (out of 53) overtook him for second position. Within the last three laps of the race the unlucky Finn also lost third position to R. Schumacher and had to settle for fourth position. Fifth was Jean Alesi and sixth Damon Hill.
The result of the Italian GP could well rewrite the 1998 F1 Championship, but it certainly gave lots of pleasure to the Ferrari fans who made up a large proportion of the crowd and who today witnessed a Ferrari one-two in their home GP. M. Schumacher's victory and Hakkinen's fourth position made the two drivers joint Drivers Championship leaders with 80 points, while Ferrari's 16 points narrowed the gap with Constructors Championship leader McLaren to 10 points, in a race where McLaren had hoped to close the Constructors Championship mathematically. To compound M. Schumacher's joy, he found his younger brother Ralf sharing the podium with him for the first time. Jordan appears to have found a stable form in the last few races, with the one-two in Belgium, followed by R. Schumacher's third position today and Hill's brilliant climb from 14th to sixth position. Jordan might well become the team to keep an eye on next year. Coulthard's retirement again highlighted the reliability problem with the Mercedes engine, which has let McLaren down more than once this season. There are only two races left this season and with the two competitors for the Drivers Championship on equal points, the last word will be said in the Japanese GP on the 1st of November. Before that, next race, the GP of Luxembourg, will take place in two week's time.
12 September 1998 Today's qualifying session at Monza was again characterised by heavy rain. M. Schumacher obtained his first pole position this season with 1'25.289, followed by Villeneuve. Hakkinen will be third on the grid, with team mate Coulthard starting from the second row as well. Irvine had the fifth time and R. Schumacher the sixth. The winner of the Belgian GP, Hill, only managed to get 14th position. Heavy rain is forecast for tomrrow as well.
11 September 1998 Today's free practice at Monza was hit by from heavy downpours which seem to have favoured Ferrari. Irvine clocekd the best time (1'24.987), followed by M. Schumacher. Coulthard, who suffered a spin due to the rain, was third, Villeneuve fourth, Hakkinen fifth and Frentzen sixth. Rain is forecast throughout the GP weekend.
11 September 1998 Minardi has announced to have reached an agreement with Ford for the supply of VJ engines in 1999.
11 September 1998 Cesare Fiorio today signed a contract to be Minardi's sport director next season.
11 September 1998 Gary Anderson has resigned from his job as Technical Director of Jordan Grand Prix. Anderson, who had been with Jordan since 1990 said that it is time for him to move. He is joining Arrows as new Technical Director, taking the place of Barnard who is moving to Prost.
10 September 1998 Coulthard and M. Schumacher have met in the Williams motorhome and had a freindly discussion on the accident happened during the Belgian GP. After the meeting, which lasted over one hour, the two drivers shook hands, but made no statements.
10 September 1998 Heinz Herald Frentzen will take the Jordan seat left vacant by R. Schumacher next year. The other Jordan driver for next year, Damon Hill, has already been confirmed.
9 September 1998 Ralf Shumacher will be allowed to leave Jordan to join another F1 team in 1999 following an agreement brokered by Bernie Ecclestone between Ralf Schumacher and Eddie Jordan. The terms of the agreement are to remain confidential.
8 September 1998 Some of the structures of the Monza race track, which had been placed uder distraint by a court order, have now been released. Seven of the stands are still seized by order of court, but special permission has been given for them to be used for the Italian GP scheduled on Sunday. The structures of the circuit had been put under distraint after allegations that the tests required to obtain permission to hold the GP had not been properly carried out. No reasons were given for the release of teh structures. The release of the structures dissipates the last fears that Sunday's GP might not take place.
8 September 1998M. Schumacher told German reporters that he is human and it is only natural to be overexcited when a lapping accident causes a driver to lose a victory. He added that he never meant to hit Coulthard. According to his spokeperson Heiner Buchinger, M. Schumacher might have a reconciliatory conversation with Coulthard about what happened at Spa.
7 September 1998 Fede's Formula 1 Page has moved to its new home at http://www.monza.demon.co.uk/fede/f1.html. The old site http://www.soton.ac.uk/~fanm/f1.html now contains a redirection and will cease to exist in July 1999. Please, update your bookmarks and your links.
7 September 1998 Herbert has signed with the Stewart team for the next two seasons.
5 September 1998 Max Mosley said he believes the collision between M. Schumacher and Coulthard was a normal racing accident and called for the two drivers to make peace.
3 September 1998 Eddie Irvine said that he does not believe that Coulthard tried to cause an accident. He is not the type of driver who would do something like that.
Last updated on 30 September 1998 by Federica Massagrande