All eyes on Irv's title bid:
with Murray Walker.
F1 Racing August 1999.

After tha astounding race at Silverstone there's a black cloud hanging over Maranello. Who's going to take Michael's
place? Whoever it is won't be in the same league and that's going to lost Ferrari, who still lead the constructors' championship, valuable points to the mighty McLaren, whose superstar driver pairing is now by far the best there is.

The man who joins Eddie Irvine will have a heavy load on his shoulders in Austria, in Germany and, I would expect, in Hungary too. Because I can't see Michael being back before Spa at the end of August. By then, his hopes of a Ferrari title will be out of the window if Hakkinen and McLaren keep up their strike rate. So, all eyes on Irvine in Austria! He's only eight points behind Mika and, with a free rein and all of Ferrari's efforts behind him, he could be in with a shout. And now that Coulthard's broken the psychological barrier with his gritty win at Silverstone he could make it two in a row in the Syrian Mountains. Remember last year? He started 14th on the grid after a wet qualifying, rejoined the race last after being pushed off by the joint efforts of Salo and Takagi, and still finished second.

Silverstone showed that things are closing up. Ralf Schumacher on the podium for Williams, after a stunning drive that defeated both Jordans, means we can now think of five teams in terms of the podium - Ferrari, McLaren, Jordan, Williams and Stewart. GP racing needs unpredictability to maintain the excitement, and now it looks as though we've got it.

We start the second half of this great season with eight points covering the top three drivers, and two covering the top two constructors. All change? I don't think so, but things are definitely more competitive.

-End of Article--

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