Nürburgring 26th September
Ricardo had great problems to find a comfortable set-up as the car had heavy understeer during first practice and then during second practice he suffered several technical problems which prevented him from doing any proper testing.
"I am not running with the same equipment as Jacques at this race as he has a new development differential and clutch fitted on his car, so I feel at a bit of a disadvantage. I also have some work to do on finding a good set-up. We started this morning with quite a lot of understeer, especially in the slower corners. We fixed that but the change made the car more nervous at the rear under power. Our car is performing better with new tyres and I didn't do a good new tyre run with my last set-up because my engine developed a problem, so I will have to concentrate on getting the best compromise set-up on Saturday morning."
Friday 1st practice:
17th, 1:23.604 +2.639
Friday combined practice:
21th, 1:23.604 +2.846, 34 laps
At start of qualifying the track was very wet but it was drying out fast. Ricardo waited almost half an hour before going out on rain tyres to do a first lap of 1:32.895, giving him a provisional ninth position. Changing to dry tyres he was out again improving his time to 1:23.6, again gaining 9th position. Ricardo had only time for one more attempt and he improved his time but just by 1.4 seconds and he dropped to 17th.
"Qualifying in these conditions is like a game because the person who waits longest will have the most advantage. I am very disappointed with this grid position because, although we improved the set-up since this morning, it was not good enough for us and I always had too much understeer."
Saturday practice:
19th, 1:21.224 +2.279, 29 laps
Qualifying:
17th, 1:22.267 +2.357, 10 laps
After the first start was aborted because of a confusion in the grid the European Grand Prix started successfully in the second attempt. Ricardo made a good start but then Wurz (Benetton) and Diniz (Sauber) collided in front of him and Ricardo had to slow down dramatically and lost several places. Diniz' car landed upside down and created a safety car situation with Ricardo cruising back in 16th position. After 6 laps the safety car was withdrawn and on the restart Ricardo passed Takagi (Arrows) for 15th. A retirement by Zanardi (Williams) at lap 11 and a pitstop by de la Rosa (Arrows) during the following lap meant that Ricardo gained 2 positions and was now following eventual winner Herbert (Stewart). Around lap 19 it began to rain on the far side of the circuit and several drivers including Ricardo, Häkkinen (McLaren) and Panis (Sauber) came in for rain tyres, a decision that proved to be a costly mistake. However, the decision was a hard one and Ricardo's team mate Villeneuve, who decided to remain on dry weather tires, spun. Ricardo rejoined the race in 16th position but almost immediately the rain stopped and Ricardo was back in the pit on lap 24. Ricardo continued in 15th position between Häkkinen (McLaren) and Salo (Ferrari), two other victims of the rain. On lap 35 the rain returned. Ricardo gained positions as the others made their stops and on lap 41 he passed both Panis and Häkkinen. Ricardo was in 10th position when made his final pit stop on lap 44 losing a position to Häkkinen in the progress. Three retirements meant that Ricardo finished the race in 8th position but without the extra pit stop he surely would have scored his first World Championship points that day.
"It was my choice to come in for wets during the first rainstorm and this was a mistake because the rain was not that bad. It's a pity because the car was fast and good to drive and I could have finished higher without that extra pit stop."
Warmup:
15th, 1:29.376 +2.441, 10 laps
Race:
8th. -1 lap
FL: 1:23.067 on lap 64 10th, +1.785)
Winner: Johnny Herbert (Stewart-Ford)