Ferrari need Schuey back for the title fight:
with Murray Walker.
F1 Racing September 1999.

If there's one thing Hungary proved, it was that Ron Dennis was right when he said that Ferrari had not won the last two
grands prix - McLaren had lost them. With their reliability back, no collisions and no tyre gremlins, his team were dominant. Despite Irvine's brilliant response to becoming team leader, he and Salo are inadequate substitutes for Schumacher, and Ferrari must be praying for the rapid return of the German.

He won't be at glorious Spa, for my money the best circuit in the world. Ferrari are leading both championships, but they're going to need all the car improvements that Irvine was talking about in Budapest to defeat the Woking Wonders - I refuse to call them the Silver Arrows. They're not. It's hard to imagine a more impressive ribbon of Tarmac than Spa. It's also hard to imagine a more incident-filled race than its 1998 encounter: the pile-up at the start; Hakkinen colliding with Schumacher at the restart; Michael driving into the rain cloud that contained Coulthard and then furiously confronting him in the McLaren garage; Hill's 22nd win; Jordan's first.

It could all happen again. It's often the weather and first corner that decides Spa, so I'm not making any predictions - except to say that I'll be surprised if Irvine and Ferrari are still leading the championships on the evening of 29 August.

-End of Article--

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