| 1998 Australian Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 1 of 16 in the1998 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 8 March 1998 | ||||
| Official name | 1998 Qantas Australian Grand Prix | ||||
| Location | Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit Albert Park,Melbourne,Australia | ||||
| Course | Albert Park Circuit | ||||
| Course length | 5.303 km (3.295 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Clear with maximum temperatures reaching 24 degrees at the start, increasing to 30 degrees by the end of the race. | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:30.010 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Mika Häkkinen | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:31.649 on lap 39 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Second | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Third | Williams-Mecachrome | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The1998 Australian Grand Prix (formally the1998 Qantas Australian Grand Prix)[1] was aFormula One motor race held at theAlbert Park street circuit in innerMelbourne on 8 March 1998 at 14:00AEDT (UTC+10). It was the 63rd race in the combined history of theAustralian Grand Prix that dates back to the100 Miles Road Race of 1928. It was the first of the sixteen races of the1998 FIA Formula One World Championship and held over 58 laps of the 5.3 kilometre street circuit and the sixth to be held on the Albert Park venue first used in 1953, or the third since the new circuit first hosted the race in 1996.
The race was dominated by theMcLaren-Mercedes team and won byMika Häkkinen over his teammateDavid Coulthard in controversial circumstances due toteam orders.Williams driverHeinz-Harald Frentzen finished third, his only podium finish this season. The race also represented the first win for Japanese tyre manufacturerBridgestone in Formula One and the first race since the1991 Canadian Grand Prix not won byGoodyear.Johnny Herbert scored his only point of the season.
The McLarens of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard made good starts from the front row of the grid.Ferrari'sMichael Schumacher, starting third, also had a good start and tried to overtake second place Coulthard. The Ferrari driver stayed with the McLarens but retired on lap 6 when his engine failed.[2] This handed third place to the Williams ofJacques Villeneuve, who was being chased by Benetton'sGiancarlo Fisichella. After the first round of pitstops, Villeneuve found himself behind teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Ferrari'sEddie Irvine, and Fisichella. Fisichella was able to pass Frentzen for third but then retired with mechanical failure, leaving Frentzen to finish just ahead of Irvine's Ferrari, which had gambled on a one-stop strategy. Villeneuve was lapped soon after this by the McLarens but still managed to finish in fifth place. All cars except the two McLarens were lapped down.[2]
On lap 36, Häkkinen came into the pits unexpectedly, apparently having misheard a call over the radio. He drove straight through the pitlane and rejoined the race without stopping but lost first place to teammate Coulthard. In 2007, McLaren bossRon Dennis claimed that someone had tapped into the team's radio system: "We do not and have not manipulated Grands Prix, unless there were some exceptional circumstances, which occurred in Australia [1998], when someone had tapped into our radio and instructed Mika Häkkinen to enter the pits."[3] In 2023, Hakkinen recalled: "The team said something on the radio, I was confused, I thought they asked me to come to change tyres and that was not the case. They were just giving me some different information. So I just drove through the pit lane and I of course lost the lead of the race, David got the lead."[2]
With 16 laps to go, Coulthard had a 12-second lead; by lap 55 of 58, Coulthard's lead was reduced to two seconds.[2] A few laps before the end of the race, Coulthard let Häkkinen past on the front straight. From the pre-season test, it was clear that McLaren had the fastest car but was unreliable.[2][nb 1] Due to those reliability concerns, Hakkinen and Coulthard had made a pre-race agreement that between the two of them, the driver who led at the first corner would go on to win the race, should he be in the position to do so.[4][nb 2] Coulthard and the McLaren team were criticised heavily,[5][6] leading to discussion about team orders.[7] The situation surrounding Coulthard allowing Häkkinen through would eventually go to the World Motorsport Council. The verdict was that "any future act prejudicial to the interests of competition should be severely punished in accordance with article 151c ofInternational Sporting Code."[8][9][10] Team orders continued to be controversial in Formula One and were banned following the events of the2002 Austrian Grand Prix but were reallowed following the2010 German Grand Prix.[11] Frentzen took third place for Williams.[12] The race was the first win for the tyre manufacturerBridgestone after they entered Formula One a year earlier.[13]
After the race concluded, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairmanRon Walker lodged an official complaint to the FIA into how the actions of the McLaren team decided the race for Häkkinen.[14]
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| Previous race: 1997 European Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 1998 season | Next race: 1998 Brazilian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 1997 Australian Grand Prix | Australian Grand Prix | Next race: 1999 Australian Grand Prix |
