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The1998 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 52nd season ofFIAFormula One motor racing. It featured the 1998 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1998 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 8 March and ended on 1 November.
The season saw a large shuffling of the pecking order, withMcLaren emerging as the fastest constructor. After the factory withdrawal ofRenault and the departure of designerAdrian Newey to McLaren, theWilliams team andJacques Villeneuve were unable to defend their respective championships. Williams suffered their first winless season since1988.
Mika Häkkinen won his firstWorld Drivers' Championship[1] and McLaren won theWorld Constructors' Championship for the first time since1991. McLaren would wait a further 26 years before their next constructors' title was secured in2024.[2][3]
The followingteams anddrivers competed in the 1998 FIA Formula One World Championship.
† All engines were 3.0 litre,V10 configuration.[4]
At the end of1997,Renault withdrew as a direct engine supplier from Formula One and thus marked the first season since1988 thatRenault-branded engines were absent due to the company'sprivatisation plan. As a result, the two teams running Renault engines were forced to source alternative suppliers.Williams opted to run engines supplied byMecachrome, who were working with Renault to develop the most recent iteration of their RS9 engine rebadged with the Mecachrome name.Benetton sourced a similar rebadged Renault-based Mecachrome engine rebadging itPlaylife after a fashion brand owned by the Benetton family. Neither Williams nor Benetton were competitive to the same level as in previous seasons. Renault themselves would invest in Benetton for2000, before buying the team outright in2002. They would not supply engines to other competing teams again until2007.
Arrows had bought outBrian Hart'spreparation company to build their ownengines.[7] They would do so as well for1999.
TheProst andJordan teams swapped their engine suppliers from 1997: Prost now usedPeugeot, whilst Jordan usedMugen-Honda.
Minardi switched fromHart toFord engines.
Gerhard Berger retired at the end of1997 after fourteen years in F1, leaving a vacant seat atBenetton. The team also opted not to renewJean Alesi's contract, so the Frenchman signed a two-year deal to joinJohnny Herbert atSauber. As their replacements, Benetton signedGiancarlo Fisichella fromJordan andAlexander Wurz, who had already substituted for Berger for three races in 1997.
Jordan replaced Fisichella by signing1996 World ChampionDamon Hill to partnerRalf Schumacher. To fill his Hill's seat, Arrows secured the services ofTyrrell'sMika Salo alongsidePedro Diniz. Tyrrell also parted ways withJos Verstappen in the off-season, despiteKen Tyrrell wanting him to stay. However, new ownersBritish American Tobacco preferred to hire BrazilianRicardo Rosset, who had briefly raced for the now-defunctLola team in 1997. They promoted test driverToranosuke Takagi to fill the second seat. Verstappen returned to F1 midway through 1998 withStewart, while Lola's other driver,Vincenzo Sospiri, found a home in theIndyCar Series.
Prost retainedOlivier Panis, but dropped second driverShinji Nakano and replaced him withJarno Trulli. Trulli had started 1997 withMinardi but then substituted for Panis when he broke his leg at theCanadian Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Nakano joined Trulli's old team,Minardi, to replace his retiring countrymanUkyo Katayama. He was partnered by rookieEsteban Tuero, who was promoted from a testing role as he was preferred to the outgoingTarso Marques. Marques would eventually return to F1 in2001, also with Minardi.
Jan Magnussen was dropped byStewart after theCanadian Grand Prix, following a series of underwhelming performances (including crashing into and eliminating his teammateRubens Barrichello on lap 1 atImola). He was replaced byJos Verstappen, who had been out of a drive since leavingTyrrell at the end of 1997.
The 1998 season brought about two significant technical changes to reduce cornering speeds and aid overtaking:[12][13][14][15]
Quite a list of regulations were drafted up with regards to thebrakes. The goal was to limit braking performance, thereby improving possibilities of overtaking and reducing costs.[18]
Thecameras mounted on top of the engine covers, as seen on selected cars from 1995 to 1997, were changed from an I-shape to a more aerodynamic T-shape. This design has remained largely unchanged since. While the cameras still appeared on selected cars at each race, any car not running a camera had to have a dummy unit (which weighed the same as the camera so that there was no weight advantage) mounted in place.
"X wings", a pair of tall aerodynamic appendages mounted at the front of each sidepod and first seen on theTyrrell 025 in 1997, were banned before theSpanish Grand Prix.[19] The teams that used them before the ban wereFerrari,Jordan,Prost,Sauber, andTyrrell.
In1997, a driver was allowed a maximum of 30 lapsfree practice per day. This limit was abolished for 1998.[20]
When the season commenced, it was immediately clear thatMcLaren had adapted to the rule changes best, with their drivers locking out the front row of the grid at the opening race of the season inAustralia and both being more than half a second clear ofMichael Schumacher in theFerrari.Mika Häkkinen started onpole position and led up to lap 36, when he misheard a call to come into thepits. TeammateDavid Coulthard took the lead, but moved over to allow Häkkinen to pass, honouring a pre-race agreement that the driver leading at the first corner could win the race. The result was protested but was held up by theWMSC.
The McLaren drivers finished 1–2 again inBrazil, and in the same order. But once again, controversy was not far away: a protest was lodged regarding the McLaren braking system. It was suggested to allow the drivers to brake front and rear wheels independently, contravening the rules. McLaren agreed not to run the system, but remained dominant in the race.
WithGoodyear making steps forward beforeArgentina, Schumacher was able to take his first win of the season there. Häkkinen finished a distant second and Coulthard only managed sixth after he was tipped into a spin by Schumacher early in the race.
Coulthard bounced back inImola by gainingpole position and winning the race ahead of the Ferrari's of Schumacher andEddie Irvine. Häkkinen suffered his first retirement of the season due to a gearbox failure.
It seemed that normal service resumed inSpain, however, where the McLaren took another 1–2 finish led by Häkkinen. A further win for Häkkinen inMonaco gave him a seventeen-point lead over Coulthard with Schumacher a further five points behind.
Michael Schumacher climbed back in the standings by winning the next three races, while mistakes and mechanical failures cost both Häkkinen and Coulthard points. After theBritish Grand Prix, Schumacher had closed the gap to Häkkinen to just two points, while Coulthard was 26 points behind his teammate and looking unlikely to be able to fight for the championship.
Consecutive wins inAustria andGermany for Häkkinen, however, proved that McLaren still had the strongest car. Finally, a strategic master stroke inHungary allowed Schumacher to take the win, with Häkkinen only managing sixth, and close the championship gap again, to just seven points.
The start of a typically rain-filledBelgian Grand Prix saw one of the worst accidents in Formula One history, with over half the cars on the grid crashing into each other after the first corner. Four of the drivers were unable to take the restart, which took place almost an hour later, due to lack of spare cars. An action-packed race sawMika Häkkinen spin out into retirement at the restart and sawMichael Schumacher crashing intoDavid Coulthard when trying to lap him. The path was then clear for1996 world championDamon Hill to takeJordan's first ever win, followed by teammateRalf Schumacher in second.
Schumacher bounced back to take a surprise victory inItaly. Häkkinen initially followed in second, but after two spins caused by brake problems, could only manage fourth. The rivals were now level in points with two races to go andFerrari was back into contention for the Constructors' Championship (just ten points behind onMcLaren).
For the next race at theNürburgring,[a] Häkkinen managed to beat Schumacher in a straight fight. And the season concluded inJapan, where Häkkinen won without any challenge from Schumacher, who stalled on the grid and retired from a blown tyre later in the race.
This gave Häkkinen his first Drivers' Championship and McLaren their eighth Constructors' Championship.Williams, champions of1997, experienced a disappointing season overall, with only two podium finishes for reigning championJacques Villeneuve and one forHeinz-Harald Frentzen. In Japan, they did manage to secure third in the Constructors' Championship, ahead ofJordan andBenetton.
Points were awarded to the top six finishers in each race as follows:[22]
| 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 | ESP | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | LUX | JPN | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | McLaren-Mercedes | 7 | 2 | 2 | 6P | 1P | 2 | Ret | RetP | 6F | Ret | 2F | 2F | 2 | 7 | Ret | 3 | 3 | 156 |
| 8 | 1PF | 1PF | 2 | Ret | 1PF | 1PF | Ret | 3P | 2P | 1 | 1P | 6P | RetP | 4F | 1F | 1 | |||
| 2 | Ferrari | 3 | Ret | 3 | 1 | 2F | 3 | 10 | 1F | 1 | 1F | 3 | 5 | 1F | RetF | 1P | 2P | RetPF | 133 |
| 4 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 3 | Ret | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | Ret | Ret | 2 | 4 | 2 | |||
| 3 | Williams-Mecachrome | 1 | 5 | 7 | Ret | 4 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 3 | Ret | Ret | 8 | 6 | 38 |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 8 | Ret | Ret | 15† | Ret | Ret | 9 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 4 |  Jordan-Mugen-Honda | 9 | 8 | DSQ | 8 | 10† | Ret | 8 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 34 |
| 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 7 | 11 | Ret | Ret | 16 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 3 | Ret | Ret | |||
| 5 | Benetton-Playlife | 5 | Ret | 6 | 7 | Ret | Ret | 2 | 2 | 9 | 5 | RetP | 7 | 8 | Ret | 8 | 6 | 8 | 33 |
| 6 | 7 | 4 | 4F | Ret | 4 | Ret | 4 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 11 | 16† | Ret | Ret | 7 | 9 | |||
| 6 |  Sauber-Petronas | 14 | Ret | 9 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 12† | Ret | 7 | Ret | Ret | 10 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 10 |
| 15 | 6 | 11† | Ret | Ret | 7 | 7 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 10 | |||
| 7 | Arrows | 16 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 | 9 | 14 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 11 | 5 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 6 |
| 17 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | Ret | 4 | Ret | 13 | Ret | Ret | 14 | Ret | DNS | Ret | 14 | Ret | |||
| 8 | Stewart-Ford | 18 | Ret | Ret | 10 | Ret | 5 | Ret | 5 | 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNS | 10 | 11 | Ret | 5 |
| 19 | Ret | 10 | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | 6 | 12 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 13 | Ret | Ret | 13 | Ret | |||
| 9 | Prost-Peugeot | 11 | 9 | Ret | 15† | 11† | 16† | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | 15 | 12 | DNS | Ret | 12 | 11 | 1 |
| 12 | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | 9 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 10 | 12 | Ret | 6 | 13 | Ret | 12† | |||
| 10 | Minardi-Ford | 22 | Ret | Ret | 13 | Ret | 14 | 9 | 7 | 17† | 8 | 11 | Ret | 15 | 8 | Ret | 15 | Ret | 0 |
| 23 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | 15 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 16 | Ret | Ret | NC | Ret | Ret | |||
| 11 | Tyrrell-Ford | 20 | Ret | Ret | 14 | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | 8 | Ret | Ret | 12 | DNQ | DNQ | DNS | 12 | Ret | DNQ | 0 |
| 21 | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | 13 | 11 | Ret | Ret | 9 | Ret | 13 | 14 | Ret | 9 | 16 | Ret | |||
| Pos. | Constructor | No. | AUS | BRA | ARG | SMR | ESP | MON | CAN | FRA | GBR | AUT | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | LUX | JPN | Points |
| Source:[23] | |||||||||||||||||||
Notes:
