Season 1996
Formula 1 is something of a success story. Already a well established plant under its previous promoter, in the three years since Nicolo di San Germano has occupied the hot seat it has blossomed and though still without an overall title sponsor for the championship as a whole, San Germano has worked assiduously to get it funded.
Thus we entered 1996 with a collection of blue chip companies hanging their names on the series, including Agip, Catamaran Swiss Watches, Maserati, Royales de Champagne and INA Assitalia for starters and a nine race programme to take the contenders from Italy to Hungary Russia, France, Greece, China and the UAE. Other concepts initiated by San Germano and beginning to bear fruit included proper tented pit and hospitality villages, smart team uniforms, a pace boat and two-boat teams.
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| The 196 season started in Porto Cervo,
Sardinia with a win for defending champion Guido Cappellini but noone
quite knew then how was to dominate. Photo: Formula Photographic |
Of the twelve teams commanding priority treatment, i.e. those that had posted the necessary financial bond before the season, the defending champion, Guido Cappellini, held pride of place with Yutaka Sugihara in the Laserline-Castrol/DAC 1 equip and it was an even money bet that he would be favourite to retain the title for a fourth consecutive year. Other drivers to go with DAC included the Pohjan Poika team of Massimo Roggiero and Perti Leppala and Texaco's Carlos Maidana and Anton van Heerden.
Thomas Ericsson had teamed with Andy Elliott in the Singha Beer camp, the Swede running a Molgaard and the Englishman a Burgess, Fabrizio Bocca and Kiko Vidoli had DYVA Italia Seebolds, Emirates driver, Humaid Bakhit was driving a Seebold for Abu Dhabi Team with Gordon Sutherland managing him, Michael Werner fielded a radical Burgess with some of his own design input alongside Goran Karlof and the Frenchmen, Philippe Dessertenne and Jean-Vital Deguisne were respectively mounted in Seebolds.
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| Andy Elliott's teaming with Thomas
Ericsson in the Singha Beer equip should have set him up but problems
with his boat led to a lessening of confidence for the Englishman. Photo: Formula Photographic |
Massimo Roggiero had his best season
yet in Pertti Leppala's Pohjan Poika team, despite not winning a race
and this talented drivers joins Jones for 1997. Photo: Formula Photographic |
Walter and Giuseppe Cabrini fielfed their Lucini cats but the biggest news and the world's worst kept secret was the re-entry into boat racing of John Player and their signing up of the wily Welshman, Jonathan Jones and his selection of F3 driver, Paul Blackburn, to run as his number two in the Gold Leaf Team Burgesses and Jones talked a good story as the teams made their way to Sardinia for the European Grand Prix in May Cappellini came out of the box with a 29.98 second lap to take pole from Bocca, Werner, Roggiero and Jones while Walter Cabrini rolled in practice and had difficulty in getting out of the upturned boat and Maidana flipped in testing. In the race itself, Cappellini did what was expected of him to win but Jones, starting fifth on the grid pushed him hard and was unlucky to be baulked by a back-marker whilst challenging late in the race which passed without major incident. Leppala beat Roggiero to third and Werner struggled to fifth while Blackburn did well to take sixth, off thirteenth place on the grid.
The Danube at Dunaujvaros is not an easy place to go quickly and survive in tact so some of the more experienced drivers leave their qualifying until late in the day and are overtly careful. Cappellini may have fallen into either or both categories for he showed no higher than fourth on the grid while the younger chargers, Bocca, Roggiero and Blackburn all went faster and started higher. For Blackburn, third on the grid in only his second race was good but out-qualifying his team leader Jones was probably better and put down a marker for the season ahead.
True to its reputation, a windy race produced its crop of problems. Anton van Heerden tripped end over end on Lap 13, Owen JeIf's fuel tank broke loose, Thomas Guttormsen experienced power trim defects, Jean-Vital Deguisne had electrical problems and Piergiorgio Chiappa, deputising for Sugihara in the Laserline/DAC, suffered a siezed cylinder. After the re-start, during which Elliott was erroneously docked a lap for passing under the pace boat, Cappellini played with the field and with Jones out with a broken boat on Lap 1 it was Werner who pushed the Italian champion hardest from Bocca, Roggiero, Blackburn and Elliott. Two down and seven to go.
The Russians in St.Petersburg love the annual arrival of the Fl circus but unfortunately the weather does not always cooperate. In 1996 it was the wind that howled down the Neva past the Winter Palace of the Czars to delay proceedings and those drivers who got in a good early run were happy indeed as conditions worsened. The one who did best was South Africa's Anton van Heerden in the Texaco/DAC, ahead of Jones, a subdued Cappellini, Leppalla, Roggiero and Guttormsen but this was hardly representative as the race proved.
Run in rougher conditions than many would have liked, Cappellini went straight to the front and stayed there while things began happening astern of him. Pushing hardest, Jones was rewarded with a siezed engine, letting Leppalla through to second ahead of Werner, who's '96 Burgess was not performing as well as his '95 model, now in the hands of team mate Guttormsen, who harried his leader and just kept Van Heerden out of fourth. Bakhit took sixth but Karlof broke a crankshaft, Blackburn and Elliott split their hulls and elf barrel rolled to leave the defending champion firmly in charge.
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| A testing accident in Chalon left Jones's mechanics
in a race of their own to re-rig Blacknurn's boat for their team leader
who picked up nine points. Photo: Formula Photographic |
The fourth race of the series brought the fleet back to France and the beautiful River Sa6ne at Chalon. Practice brought its fair share of problems, not least for Jones, who rolled his Burgess and took over Blackburn's boat, leasing the rapid rookie to fume over the T-boat's apparent inadequacies and his diminishing chances. Cappellini left it to the last possible moment before scorching round the river circuit in 37.02 seconds to equal Roggiero's time but take pole on count-back. Bakhit put up his best showing of the year so far to take third on the grid ahead of Leppala, an unhappy Werner and a rejuvenated Elliott, sixth quickest after pre-race testing at Macon.
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| Cappellini makes a point to F1 promoter
Nicolo di San Germano who has done much to improve the image of his
championship and listens to his drivers. Photo: Formula Photographic |
Starting off pole position, Cappellini rushed ahead at the race start and stayed there until Leppalla flipped while overtaking Roggiero and Bakhit, who had been flying all weekend, got the jump at the re-start and led his first grand prix. Cappellini eventually got past him, followed by Roggiero and Werner but try as he might, Jones only managed to get into fourth place on Lap 43 with a dive down the inside but the Emirates driver was eventually passed by Van Heerden, the South African having run over the back of Jones' Burgess earlier in the race. Blackburn retired the badly handling T-boat early and with seven boats side-lined by damage, Cappellini cruised home to make it four out of four.
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| Oil wars; Texaco's Carlos Maidana
beat Fuchs' Philippe Dessertenne by a mere three points and two places
after a season wich did no favours to either of them. Photo: Formula Photographic |
Qualifying for the Greek Grand Prix in Corfu's Garitsa Bay was another example of how far Bakhit, the young UAE driver, had improved as he took the course by storm to set an early mark which eluded everyone until very late in the final session, when it was Roggiero who blasted past with a sub-40 second lap to snatch his first pole. Apparently happier with his Burgess, Werner scraped past Bakhit for second place with Cappellini fourth, Jones fifth and Guttormsen sixth, after flipping in the first session.
Bakhit, still suffering from ribs broken in Chalon, rocketed off the grid to lead for ten laps before the inevitable Cappellini charge took him to the front and it was Roggiero who hounded his mentor hardest for most of the first session, until the Abu Dhabi driver clipped a turn buoy and they came under the control of the pace boat. Bocca showed some of his old sparkle to run third ahead of Van Heerden, Bakhit and Werner who commented afterwards that "this Burgess is an autobahn boat, great in the fiat but to drive it quickly in the rough you need to leave your brain on the dockside". Karlof broke a crank, Ericsson bent a propeller, Dessertenne suffered with piston problems, Zamparelli had low revs, Van Heerden ran out of fuel and Cappellini tied up the European Championship.
In front of a crowd estimated at 100,000, qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix on Lake Tai, Wuxi with its right hand turn included local driver, Peng Lin Wu, who had been training with Jones and Blackburn but it was Cappellini who posted the quickest times to grab another pole from Werner, Roggiero, Bakhit and an improving Maidana with the Chinese driver down in twentieth position and just happy to be there at all in this company
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| Rough, as in St Petersburg or smooth,
as in Gallipoli, Cappellini hurled his Laserline-Castrol/DAC about
with studied abandon, winning eight out of his nine starts. Photo: Formula Photographic |
Cappellini ran at the front from lights to flag to give him six wins in a row and Bakhit, Werner and Roggiero jostled for the minor places until the Italian crashed out on Lap 18 when lying second. Bakhit took up the running at the front of the chasing pack but running a rich fuel mixture produced starvation problems later in the race to drop him back while Blackburn had started well until being baulked by Jones, a hosing down from which he never recovered but finished in seventh position.
Strong winds over Lake Lugano delayed practice for the Italian Grand Prix and in what became the only five minute window, Cappellini nailed another one from Anton van Heerden, Leppalla, Jones, Karloff and Jelf and protests by others were to little avail. While Blackburn was still suffering from a suspected crack in his regular hull, team leader Jones was fired with ambition by this high grid placing and to everyone's surprise, on a placid lake beat Cappellini to record a win.
Van Heerden led from the lights but Sugihara caused a re-start and from this second attempt, Jones took the lead and fought gamely over it with Leppalla for the duration of the race. Karlof swept into third from Vidoli, Bocca and Guttormsen, while uncharacteristically Cappellini failed to finish in the points having inexplicably decided to start on the back of the grid, a ruse which did not pay off when he was in and out of the pits regularly with misfiring problems witch slowed him considerably.
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| Michael Werner had problems all season
with a boat wich he had helped design and wich was almost impossible
to drive except in flat water. Photo: Formula Photographic |
While the location may have moved from a northern Italian lake to a southern Italian harbour side, the wind persisted to dominate the Gallipoli round of the 1996 championship and practice was postponed and then cancelled, leaving the teams to line up in the order of their overall points standing. Inevitably this gave Cappellini the start he needed to tie up the championship but there was the little matter of a race to get through first.
Set within the walls of the old city and including a right hand mark, the Grand Prix of the Three Seas was eventually run in flat calm conditions. Following a spectacular start from the back of the grid, Bakhit hurtled up to sixth position in the first lap, this after an accident in testing, but was only able to watch the transoms of Cappellini, Werner, Leppalla, Roggiero and Jones until
Werner began dropping back with loss of power. Jones was baulked by a back-marker late on whilst chasing Leppala and both Bakhit and Blackburn barrel rolled out in the closing stages, elevating Sugihara up the leader board.
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| A throughtful Humaid Bakhit ponders
his future in the Abu Dhabi team with Paul Blackburn, having won the
Asia/Pacific Championship title and placed sixth in the World Championship. Photo: Formula Photographic |
With Cappellini uncatchable and the Fl champion for the fourth successive year, some might have thought that he would back off and take things easy in Abu Dhabi, not a venue which has been kind to him over the years but they would have been wrong. True champion that he is, he rocketed around the Corniche course in 55.58 seconds, a clear 1.32 seconds clear of his protégé Roggiero, with Werner, Bakhit, Jones and Leppalla struggling to get close.
Came race day in the presence of HH Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the top six battled for the lead which swapped between Jones, Cappellini and Bakhit, before Werner broke a crank and the race was stopped. On the re-start, Jones who was using a different engine builder prospered, while Bakhit dropped back but the Welshman's charge stopped short of success with a failed crank. When the pace boat pulled off, the local Abu Dhabi driver hit the pedal to overtake Leppalla and harass Cappellini in a show of well judged aggression, which allowed him to win the Asia/Pacific F1 Championship and bodes well for his chances in 1997.
| Season 1997 | Season 1995 |
