1995 Brazilian Grand Prix

Autódromo Jose Carlos Pace
Interlagos
26 March 1995

The first Brazilian Grand Prix since the death of Ayrton Senna would take place at an Interlagos circuit that had been resurfaced over the winter, but with the asphalt laid in three parallel strips it was even bumpier than before. The drivers were unimpressed – local boy Barrichello called the organisers “idiots” and Frentzen claimed he’d nearly passed out.

The Simtek and Footwork teams had arrived with cars that had barely turned a wheel, while McLaren arrived without one of their drivers: Nigel Mansell had had problems squeezing into the cramped cockpit of the MP4/10 and was replaced by Mark Blundell while a new tub was built for him.

7. Mark Blundell

Poor Mark has never had the breaks in F1 – three times now he has signed for a team (Brabham, Ligier and Tyrrell) and done well only to find himself dropped at the end of the season in favour of more politically acceptable or better-funded alternatives. While McLaren are firm in their commitment to Mansell, Blundell will want to take the opportunity of having a top drive to show what everyone is missing.

The race was marred by early controversy – aside from the resurfacing issues, the FIA’s new zero-tolerance approach to fuel irregularities was being

95 brz barrichello helmet — Barrichello’s Senna tribute helmet

demonstrated with Schumacher and Coulthard being informed their fuel samples didn’t match the control batch, and they were allowed to start under protest. Meanwhile, there was a threatened drivers’ boycott over terms of the new FIA superlicence (which, among other things, mandated drivers doing sponsorship appearances and forbade them from criticising the governing body) which was sorted out before a walkout took place.

With all that out of the way, the cars set out for their first laps. Schumacher had a nasty moment on Friday, going into the barriers heavily on turn 8 with a steering problem, then went off in damp conditions on Saturday through an error. Nonetheless he topped Saturday’s timing charts, but couldn’t quite crack Hill’s 1:20.081 from Friday and had to settle for second, with Coulthard third and Herbert an excellent fourth. He had not set a time at all on Friday while the mechanics tried to figure out what had gone wrong with Schumacher’s car and would start in the spare. Berger and Alesi were on row 3, followed by Häkkinen and Irvine, with Blundell 9th and Panis 10th. With 26 cars entering, everyone qualified, with Pedro Diniz starting his first Grand Prix from 25th, just ahead of Schiattarella’s Simtek, which was a whopping 8 seconds off the pace.

Martini’s Minardi failed on the parade lap but everyone else got away safely at the start, with Hill and Schumacher diving into the Senna S together with Coulthard behind and Häkkinen making a cracking start to leap up to fourth. Herbert, meanwhile, had bogged down and dropped behind his old Lotus teammate and Berger. Schumacher took the lead, but had Hill climbing all over the back of his car. Behind them, Panis was nerfed into the barriers by Katayama, while Blundell had a nightmare start as his gearbox jumped from first to third, and dropped back to 14th.

A slight error from Schumacher on lap 3 gave Hill a chance to get past, but when Schumacher closed the door, Hill had to bail out of the move and Coulthard briefly got past into second, before losing momentum himself and conceding the place. By now, the top three had got 4s ahead of Häkkinen, who was in turn 3s or so ahead of a three-way scrap between the two Ferraris and Eddie Irvine, which was soon joined by a flying Mika Salo. Coulthard now began to drop back from the leading pair, though not losing time to Häkkinen, as he decided to keep a watching brief rather than get involved in the Hill-Schumacher clash.

On lap 10, Schumacher and Hill came upon the duelling backmarkers of Diniz and Schiattarella, and went through without problems, while a lap later Frentzen retired his Sauber from 12th – “the engine just stopped” thanks to what was later identified as an electrical fault. Schiattarella soon went out with steering problems, Katayama spun off and Irvine pitted for what turned out to be an incurable clutch issue and also retired. Barrichello completed Jordan’s dreadful weekend by crawling in on lap 17 to retired with a gearbox problem, and he was overtaken in the pitlane entrance by Schumacher, coming in for his first of three stops. He exited just behind Berger’s Ferrari, but was soon past once his tyres warmed up.

On lap 20, Herbert came in and a slipping clutch and dicky speed limiter meant he was stationary for 16s, and on the same lap, Hill was in with a 21s lead. His stop was slower – partly the extra fuel for a 2-stop strategy and partly a sticking wheel nut. Nonetheless, he emerged just ahead of Schumacher, and Coulthard quickly followed suit, losing his briefly-held lead. Häkkinen took the lead, but Hill was quickly past and the Finn stopped shortly afterwards. He had a long 18s stop when the fuel rig stuck, and returned to the track seventh.

Hill had not only gained the lead on strategy so far, but was easing away from Schumacher despite a heavier fuel load, as Berger made his one stop, only for a miscommunication among the pit crew to see him signalled to leave, then stopped again while a wheel was attached properly, leaving him 40s down. Häkkinen, meanwhile, was on a charge, making a great move on Alesi to get past the Ferrari for fourth.

And then, on lap 31, Hill’s gearbox seized up and threw him off the track at turn 2. Schumacher gratefully surged past into the lead, with Coulthard second and Mika Salo now up to an impressive third, chased by his countryman and namesake Häkkinen, followed in turn by the two Ferraris of Alesi and Berger, going at it hammer and tongs in their own private battle. Schumacher was then back in on lap 37 for his second stop, handing the lead to Coulthard, while Häkkinen had caught Salo and the two Mikas ran together, battling over 3rd place. Salo was suffering severely from cramp and, driving with one hand, he spun on lap 39, handing the place to Häkkinen and dropping to sixth – he then pitted to replace his wrecked tyres. The McLaren was in itself a few laps later and once again the refuelling rig wouldn’t disengage and cost him time.

Up at the front, Coulthard was making his way through traffic, which allowed Schumacher to close further up on him and when Coulthard stopped Schumacher went ahead to the tune of 22s – he now had to give himself enough of a lead over the next six laps or so to stop again without losing first place. When he did, the lead was up to 26s and Schumacher was able to get out ahead, but only just – however, Coulthard was trying to lap Jean Alesi at the time as well and was unable to take advantage of Schumacher’s colder tyres.

The closing stages saw Schumacher and Coulthard settle in to cruise to the finish, while Berger came in third after making his final stop without losing a place. Häkkinen brought the much-derided MP4/10 home fourth on its first outing. Morbidelli had got his impressive-looking Footwork up to fifth before retiring with an engine failure 9 laps from the end, leaving Alesi to finish fifth and Blundell sixth.

In the aftermath of the race, the FIA announced that Schumacher and Coulthard had been disqualified for fuel irregularities. Naturally, both Benetton and Williams appealed but for the moment, the win was awarded to Gerhard Berger.