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The1997 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 51st season ofFIAFormula One motor racing. It featured the 1997 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1997 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a seventeen-race series that commenced on 9 March and ended on 26 October.
WhileWilliams-Renault had beatenFerrari to claim theConstructors' Championship, the Drivers' Championship however was won byJacques Villeneuve under controversial circumstances: championship leaderMichael Schumacher deliberately rammed him whilst trying to defend his race lead in the final race.[1] Schumacher came to a halt in the gravel while Villeneuve finished third, giving him enough points to secure thedrivers' championship. Schumacher was later deemed at fault for the accident by the FIA. He kept his five race wins, but was stripped of his 2nd place in the championship, promoting Villeneuve'sWilliams teammateHeinz-Harald Frentzen to second in the championship.
As of 2025, this is the last championship for a non-European driver, the last Constructors' and Drivers' championships forWilliams, and the last championship won onGoodyear tyres who having been sole supplier for the previous five seasons, faced new competition in the form of Japanese tyre makerBridgestone, who competed in their first full season of F1. It was also the last championship for aRenault-powered driver, untilFernando Alonso's championship in2005. Engine supplier Renault ended its official involvement in the sport at the end of the 1997 season, its engines having won six consecutive World Constructors' titles from1992 to 1997 and won five of the six F1 drivers' titles over the same period. Renault would subsequently return to F1 in an official capacity once more2001, although its engines would continue to be used from1998 to2000 being maintained and prepared by bothMecachrome andSupertec for that intervening three-season period. This season was the last seasonfor 12 years in which the cars would race on fully slick dry weather tyres.
The followingteams anddrivers competed in the 1997 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The biggest news at the beginning of the 1997 season wasDamon Hill,1996 champion, being dropped byWilliams in favour ofHeinz-Harald Frentzen. Hill was partnered at his new team, Arrows, withBrazilianPedro Diniz, who was signed fromLigier. This was the only time in Arrows' history that the team had the number 1 on their car after signing the reigning World Champion.
Arrows' former driversJos Verstappen andRicardo Rosset joined theTyrrell andLola team, respectively. Rosset was joined byBenetton'stest driverVincenzo Sospiri.
Reliant on theirJapanese engine partnersMugen-Honda, Japanese driverShinji Nakano joinedProst besidesOlivier Panis, who was retained from1996.
Thanks in part to the technical deal betweenSauber andFerrari, Ferrari test driverNicola Larini signed with Sauber. Larini replaced Frentzen, who had moved to Williams.
Jordan signed debutantRalf Schumacher, Michael's younger brother. He was rumoured to be partnered withNigel Mansell, but the1992 champion rejected the offer. So the team went forGiancarlo Fisichella, who drove his first races forMinardi in1996.
Jordan's former driverRubens Barrichello moved to newcomerStewart Grand Prix, with his 1996 ex-teammateMartin Brundle unable to find a seat for 1997 and reluctantly leaving the sport as a driver. Stewart also signedJan Magnussen, who had filled in atMcLaren for an unwellMika Häkkinen in1995 and had raced in theCART series in1996.
Verstappen, moving from Arrows to Tyrrell, replacedUkyo Katayama, who found a place at Minardi. Katayama replacedPedro Lamy, who moved into theFIA GT Championship. Alongside him,Italian rising starJarno Trulli filled the final seat in the 1997 championship.
The Italian teamForti ceased to exist midway through1996, and neither of their drivers,Luca Badoer andAndrea Montermini, were able to find a Formula One racing seat for 1997. Badoer moved into FIA GT, while Montermini became a test driver for Lola. Badoer would eventually return to F1 in1999 with Minardi.
The following seventeen Grands Prix took place in 1997.[5]
Except for a more detailed description of the impact absorbing structures at the front and rear of the car, there were no changes for the 1997 season.[12]
A revisedConcorde agreement, laying out the rules for the 1997 to2001 seasons, was signed by theFIA and eight of the eleven F1 teams that participated in the1996 season.[13] These were some of the changes made to the sporting regulations:
From this season on, the regulations gave room for starts behind theSafety Car if the track was wet.[15][16]
The season started inAustralia, withCanadianJacques Villeneuve taking the firstpole position of the season. The moment was short-lived, however, as Villeneuve was out of the race at the first corner, when he collided withJohnny Herbert.McLaren'sDavid Coulthard went on to win the race, the second of his career, withMichael Schumacher finishing second andMika Häkkinen finishing in third place.
Villeneuve once again took pole position inBrazil, and once again he was off at the first corner. Luckily for him, the race was restarted, and the Canadian took the lead on lap 49 fromGerhard Berger. TheAustrian finished second andOlivier Panis continued his impressive form from1996 with third place.
For the third time in a row, Jacques Villeneuve took pole position inArgentina. This time, it was Michael Schumacher who was out at the first turn, when he collided withRubens Barrichello. Schumacher's teammateEddie Irvine went on to challenge Villeneuve for the lead and he made several attempts to pass, but failed and had to settle for second. DebutantRalf Schumacher managed to get onto the podium in third place.
Villeneuve continued his run of consecutive pole positions inSan Marino, but it was hisGerman teammateFrentzen that won his first and only Grand Prix for Williams. After Villeneuve retired with a gearbox failure, Frentzen was joined on the podium by theFerraris of Schumacher and Irvine.
At this point, Villeneuve was on top of the standings with 20 points. He was followed by Schumacher with 14 and five drivers in a shared third place, all with 10 points.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen managed to endJacques Villeneuve's run ofpole positions at theMonaco Grand Prix. For the second time in successive seasons, the race was run in very wet conditions.Michael Schumacher won his first race of the season.Rubens Barrichello came home in second and gaveStewart not only their first podium finish, but their first points finish and their first finish of any kind. Schumacher's teammateEddie Irvine took the final step on the podium for the second time in a row.
InSpain,Williams was back on top inqualifying: Villeneuve took his fifth pole and Frentzen joined him on the front row. Villeneuve went on to win the race, with fellow French-speaking drivers,Olivier Panis andJean Alesi, coming second and third respectively. Panis was actually closing on the leader with rapid pace, but got held up by Irvine, which got him served astop-go penalty.
In a slight shift of power, Michael Schumacher took pole position and the race win in the next two Grands Prix. InCanada, he was joined on the podium byBenetton's Jean Alesi andJordan'sGiancarlo Fisichella. InFrance, he saw Frentzen in the Williams and teammate Irvine next to him.
Villeneuve earned his sixth pole position of the season inBritain, with teammate Frentzen partnering him on the front row. Villeneuve sawMika Häkkinen take the lead when he was stuck in thepit lane for half a minute. Häkkinen, however, retired with a blown engine and Villeneuve went on to win the race, with Alesi in second andAlexander Wurz, filling in forGerhard Berger, coming third. It was an all-Renault-powered podium. Schumacher failed to complete the race after he retired with awheel bearing problem.
In the championship, Schumacher had the lead with 47 points, closely followed by Villeneuve with 43. Third place was being contested by Alesi (21 points), Frentzen (19) and Irvine (18).
On his return,Gerhard Berger managed to get pole for theGerman Grand Prix. Fastest lap and race victory followed, which would ultimately be Berger's andBenetton's final win. It was also Benetton's only win as anItalian-licensed team, making Benetton the only team to have won races under more than one nationality. Championship leaderMichael Schumacher came second andMika Häkkinen came third.
The next race, inHungary, was one of the most memorable races in the 1997 season. Schumacher took pole, withVilleneuve partnering him on the front row.1996 championDamon Hill in theArrows had only qualified as high as ninth this season, but got up to third place on theHungaroring. The start of the race saw Hill overtake theWilliams ahead of him, and on lap ten, theBrit overtook the leadingScuderia Ferrari. Hill kept the lead until the last part of the race, when he reported that he had problems with his car. On the final lap, Jacques Villeneuve took the lead, achieving a milestone 100th Grand Prix victory for Williams.
After two very exciting Grands Prix, the fans' hopes were high forBelgium. Villeneuve took pole position, with Alesi in the Benetton behind him and his championship rival, Michael Schumacher, in third. Villeneuve had dominated the morning warm-up, held in hot, dry weather. But when heavy rain fell with half an hour to go before the race start, his championship rival, Michael Schumacher, decided to run his spare car, which was set up for wet conditions. The front two started the race onfull-wet tyres, while the rest of the grid used theintermediates. This turned out to be the right call. After the firstsafety car start in Formula One history, Schumacher overtook Alesi and Villeneuve within two laps and by lap 12, his lead had stretched to over a minute. Villeneuve dropped down to 16th place and only recovered to fifth. Schumacher won and sawGiancarlo Fisichella andHeinz-Harald Frentzen next to him on the podium.
Alesi scored his first and only pole position of the season inItaly, with Frentzen starting second. Villeneuve and Schumacher took off in fourth and ninth, respectively. Coulthard, who started in sixth, got up to third position at the start and moved into the lead during thepit stops. He scored his second win of the season, ahead of Alesi and Frentzen. This was the only race in the year without Villeneuve and Schumacher on the podium.
InAustria, Villeneuve managed to get his seventh pole position of the season. TheCanadian was partnered on the front row byFinnish driverMika Häkkinen. Häkkinen actually took the lead but, like it happened atSilverstone, had to retire with a blown engine. Schumacher had again started in ninth, but recovered to third during the race. However, he was handed astop-go penalty for overtaking underyellow flags and fell down to sixth at the finish. Villeneuve went on to win the Grand Prix, with Coulthard and Frentzen joining him on the podium.
The gap between the championship rivals had now closed up to just one point. Frentzen (31 points) was fighting Coulthard (30) and Alesi (28) over third place.
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At theLuxembourg Grand Prix, held at theNürburgring inGermany,Mika Häkkinen managed to earn pole. It was his first career pole,McLaren's first pole since1993 andMercedes's first since their return to Formula One in1994.Ferrari'sMichael Schumacher started in fifth, but was taken out at the first corner. Häkkinen's teammateDavid Coulthard shot up the order and McLaren looked set for a 1–2 finish, until both cars broke down in quick succession.Williams'Jacques Villeneuve was therefore gifted a win (which would end up to be the last of his career). For the first time sinceSpain, Villeneuve now had the lead in the championship.Jean Alesi andHeinz-Harald Frentzen completed the podium, making it, for the second time in the 1997 season, an all-Renault-powered podium.
Villeneuve continued his strong form by taking his eighth pole position in the year inJapan. However, duringqualifying, he was deemed to have ignored the yellow flags. A disqualification hang over him and with his appeal being judged, he started the race and finished fifth. Michael Schumacher won the race, ahead ofWilliams' Frentzen andFerrari teammateEddie Irvine. Williams dropped their appeal after the race, leaving Japan with no points for Villeneuve and seeing Schumacher again one point ahead in the Drivers' Championship.
TheEuropean Grand Prix atJerez saw a noteworthy qualifying session in which three drivers (Villeneuve, Schumacher, and Frentzen) all set the same fastest time. Villeneuve was awarded pole position, since he had set the time first, and this would be the final pole of his F1 career. At the start of the race, Schumacher got away well, overtaking Villeneuve to take the lead. By lap 48, Villeneuve was catching up and attempted to overtake. Braking later than theGerman at theDry Sac corner, he had the inside line and was slightly ahead. Schumacher then turned into him and the Ferrari's front right wheel connected with the sidepod of the Williams. Schumacher retired on the spot. Villeneuve dropped to third, but it earned him four points, enough to take the 1997 Drivers' Championship. Mika Häkkinen went on to take his first ever career victory and with Coulthard finishing second, McLaren scored the only 1-2 finish by a team during the 1997 season.
After the race, Schumacher was deemed by theFIA to have caused an avoidableaccident and was disqualified from the championship, although his race results (grid positions, finishing positions, points) were held up. This meant no damage to Ferrari's constructor points, but Williams still won the 1997 Constructors' Championship with a difference of 21 points. In the Drivers' Championship, Frentzen moved up to second, six points ahead of both Coulthard and Alesi.
Points were awarded to the top six finishers in each race as follows:[18]
| Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 10 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
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Notes:
| Pos. | Constructor | No. | AUS | BRA | ARG | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | AUT | LUX | JPN | EUR | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Williams-Renault | 3 | RetP | 1PF | 1P | RetP | Ret | 1P | Ret | 4 | 1P | Ret | 1 | 5PF | 5 | 1PF | 1 | DSQP | 3P | 123 |
| 4 | 8F† | 9 | Ret | 1F | RetP | 8 | 4 | 2 | Ret | Ret | RetF | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3F | 2F | 6F | |||
| 2 | Ferrari | 5 | 2 | 5 | Ret | 2 | 1F | 4 | 1P | 1PF | RetF | 2 | 4P | 1 | 6 | 6 | Ret | 1 | Ret | 102 |
| 6 | Ret | 16 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 | Ret | 3 | Ret | Ret | 9† | 10† | 8 | Ret | Ret | 3 | 5 | |||
| 3 | Benetton-Renault | 7 | Ret | 6 | 7 | 5 | Ret | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 8 | 2P | Ret | 2 | 5 | 13 | 67 |
| 8 | 4 | 2 | 6F | Ret | 9 | 10 | Ret | Ret | 3 | 1PF | 8 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 4 | |||
| 4 | McLaren-Mercedes | 9 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Ret | 7 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 3 | Ret | DSQ | 9F | Ret | RetP | 4 | 1 | 63 |
| 10 | 1 | 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 | 7F | 7† | 4 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 1 | 2 | Ret | 10† | 2 | |||
| 5 |  Jordan-Peugeot | 11 | Ret | Ret | 3 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Ret | Ret | 5 | Ret | 9 | Ret | 33 |
| 12 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 4 | 6 | 9F | 3 | 9 | 7 | 11† | Ret | 2 | 4 | 4 | Ret | 7 | 11 | |||
| 6 | Prost-Mugen-Honda | 14 | 5 | 3 | Ret | 8 | 4 | 2 | 11† | 10 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 10 | Ret | 6 | Ret | 7 | 21 |
| 15 | 7 | 14 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 | Ret | 11† | 7 | 6 | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 10 | |||
| 7 |  Sauber-Petronas | 16 | Ret | 7 | 4 | Ret | Ret | 5 | 5 | 8 | Ret | Ret | 3 | 4 | Ret | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 16 |
| 17 | 6 | 11 | Ret | 7 | Ret | 14 | 10 | Ret | 9 | 9 | Ret | 9 | 12 | 9 | 9 | DNS | 14 | |||
| 8 | Arrows-Yamaha | 1 | DNS | 17† | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 13† | Ret | 7 | 8 | 11 | Ret | 9 |
| 2 | 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 7 | Ret | 13† | 5 | 12 | Ret | |||
| 9 | Stewart-Ford | 22 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 2 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 13 | 14† | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 |
| 23 | Ret | DNS | 10† | Ret | 7 | 13 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | |||
| 10 | Tyrrell-Ford | 18 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 10 | 8 | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | 13 | 16 | 2 |
| 19 | Ret | 13 | 8 | 9 | 5 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 13 | 11 | Ret | Ret | 10 | Ret | 12 | |||
| — | Minardi-Hart | 20 | Ret | 18 | Ret | 11 | 10 | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | 10 | 14† | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | 17 | 0 |
| 21 | 9 | 12 | 9 | DNS | Ret | 15 | Ret | Ret | 10 | Ret | 12 | Ret | 14 | EX | Ret | Ret | 15 | |||
| — | Lola-Ford | 24 | DNQ | WD | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| 25 | DNQ | WD | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pos. | Constructor | No. | AUS | BRA | ARG | SMR | MON | ESP | CAN | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | AUT | LUX | JPN | EUR | Points |
| Source:[21] | ||||||||||||||||||||
Notes:
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