Melbourne 7th March
Ricardo Zonta's first encounter with Grand Prix racing was cut short when he retired early in the second Friday practice session with a gearbox problem.
"We had some problems with the car in the second session so I couldn't complete the round. We should have completed more laps to be sure of a good set-up, so I am quite disappointed with the day. I would have liked to be able to do some more laps to get to know the circuit and improve the set up."
Friday 1st practice:
20th, 1:38.342 +5.129
Friday combined practice:
22th, 1:38.078 +6.107, 12 laps
At Saturday practice the same gearbox problems reappeared and Ricardo was forced to stop after having done only 3 laps. He sat out the second session while his mechanics worked frantically to repair the car for qualifying. Ricardo's first qualifying lap had a time of 1:36.186 and at the end of the session he had bettered it to 1:34.412 to achieve 19th position on the grid."After having many problems with the car this morning, I have had to learn the circuit during qualifying. We made some improvements to the car for qualifying, but I think if we had more laps the car set-up and my lap time could have been improved. The last lap I started to pick up speed, but someone spun ahead of me and the yellow flag went up, so I had to slow down."
Saturday practice:
22th, 1:48.227 +17.903, 3 laps
Qualifying:
19th, 1:34.412 +3.950, 11 laps
After an aborted start, because Barrichello's and Herbert's Stewart cars had caught fire and after further chaos on the grid that sent M Schumacher (Ferrari) and Takagi (Arrows) down to the rear of the field, the GP finally got away.
There were more incidents in the first corner and Ricardo found himself up in 10th position, which he held until Villeneuve in the other BAR car lost his rear wing on lap 14 and crashed creating a safety car situation. Ricardo was momentarily up 8th but pitted on lap 15 and rejoined in 14th position. After the restart he was back up at
10th and worked himself slowly upwards while other cars pitted. He found himself in 7th position as the safety car came out again during laps 23-25 and reached 5th position at lap 28. Ricardo did his second pitstop on lap 31 and rejoined in 7th position between Takagi and Barrichello. Ricardo had to let his country man pass on lap 40 and at lap 43 Ricardo did a third pitstop. He rejoined in 8th position in front of Irvine's leading Ferrari. But Ricardo was now in trouble. Debris was blocking the car's cooler duct, which led to overheating in the gearbox, and Ricardo raced on with a trail of smoke behind the car, obviously more interested in looking at the temperature meters than looking in his mirrors, while blue flags were waived. The situation didn't last long as Ricardo pulled off to retire on lap 49.
"I am very happy with my result. At the start of the race I felt a little bit worried as many drivers were having problems. I made my first pit-stop four laps early because the safety car was out, and when I got back to the race I had gained several positions. I had a lot of oversteer in my car, so it was very hard to drive and I knew it would be easy to make a mistake. I tried to drive at the limit, without making any mistakes. Later, I came in for two more pit-stops and was aiming to finish the race in sixth position. Then my engineer called me to make another pit-stop to check my rear wing, because of Jacques' problem. Unfortunately, because of an overheating problem, I couldn't continue. Overall I am happy with my first race."
The team was also impressed:
"The highlight of team's appearance at the Australian Grand Prix was the excellent drive of rookie Ricardo Zonta, who in his inaugural Formula One race showed enormous potential, despite not finishing."
Warmup:
17th, 1:35.294 +2.734, 10 laps
Race:
DNF 48 laps, engine
FL: 1:34.756 on lap 13 (10th, +2.644)
Winner: Eddie Irvine (Ferrari)