Much has been written about the state of Autosport in recent times. So much so that there’s now a popular Twitter account sharing clippings from old issues of the magazine. I’ve never been a huge Autosport customer – I’ve got a small collection of issues that I consider special for various reasons. I also have a few from my childhood, one of which is the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix review issue.
The race that had everything:
Name me a more memorable F1 race from the 1990s. The 1998 Belgian Grand Prix had it all:
– Very wet conditions
– Massive first lap carnage
– Title rivals tripping over each other
– A popular winner
– And it was all at the incredible Spa circuit
If you haven’t seen it, why not?! The highlights are in the video at the bottom.
Damon on top of the world
I didn’t watch the race on TV at the time. I was in a car, being driven through Wales, with my parents, sisters and grandma. We were probably on the way back from visiting relatives. Not wanting to miss out on the F1 action, we listened to the race in the car on BBC Radio 5 Live. It was a warm day, and we stopped in a quiet lay-by, listening to the race unfold through the car’s open windows while sat on a grassy bank. A bit of a contrast to the conditions in Belgium.
Being a Damon Hill fan, I was delighted with the result. The 1-2 for Jordan was a good news story for the sport, a fact which the Autosport magazine’s race report drew attention to. It displayed a pie chart of the race-winning teams from the previous 10 years. Aside from Ligier’s 1996 Monaco win with Olivier Panis, the chart had just four entries: Williams, Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren. Formula 1 doesn’t change as much as some might have you think!
Good results for Damon were becoming rather rare by that time. The Jordan team hadn’t even scored a point until the British GP in 1998 while his stint at Arrows the previous year didn’t bring many positives. So I predictably begged my Mum to get the Belgian GP review issue of Autosport while she was out shopping.
The F1 rumour mill was in full swing
As usual in Autosport, there was plenty of other news being reported in the motorsport world. Within F1, there were plenty of rumours about plans for 1999. For instance, Tora Takagi switching from Tyrrell to Sauber to replace Johnny Herbert, Juan Pablo Montoya being signed by Stewart, and Ford expanding its engine supply to a second team. Of course, none of these stories came to pass!
Other news in this Autosport issue
However, it wasn’t just Formula 1 with the stories. Although the magazine cover was all about the F1, there were big features on F3000, BTCC while in its Super Touring pomp, and British F3.
The touring cars in particular offered a great story after Rickard Rydell’s altercation with Anthony Reid at Brands Hatch and a horror show for Nigel Mansell in the Ford. It’s easy to look back on the Super Touring era as the best period for the BTCC, but despite the nostalgia, the racing often wasn’t that great. I still have a soft spot for it though.
Uruguayan driver Gonzalo Rodriguez won his first F3000 race at Spa, the support race to the F1 Belgian GP. It would be the first of three wins for him in F3000, before a move Stateside and a terrible and untimely death at Laguna Seca almost exactly one year later.
In British F3, Enrique Bernoldi clinched his sixth win of the season at Donington Park. His form would ultimately leave him second overall in the championship, but well down on champion and fellow Brazilian Mario Haberfeld. Bernoldi would go on to F3000 with unspectacular results as a Red Bull Junior driver, before a year and a half with Arrows in F1.
But really, it was all about that crazy Belgian Grand Prix. One that’ll live long in the memory!
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