Slings and Arrows

2007 will mark the 10th anniversary of one of the great “Nearly” moments in motor racing. Few had given Damon Hill any chance of success when he was faced with the prospect of defending his World Championship from the cockpit of an uncompetitive Arrows Yamaha.

The year couldn’t have got off to a worse start as Damon’s car expired right at the start with throttle problems. Twelve months earlier he had won the race.

When a World Championship finally point came his way after a stunning drive at Silverstone, the season was half over. No one then had any inkling of what was about to come.

I was on holiday in America that weekend, and had been stunned to hear in a telephone conversation with a mate back home that Damon had put his car into P3 for the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix. At all costs I had to find coverage of the race on Television.

Now back in 1997 I was yet to get hooked up to even the basic sky package, and so was used only to the terrestrial British television consisting of 4 channels. I was now desperately searching hundreds as the clock ticked down. Eventually I heard the unmistakable tones of John Watson and I was just in time for the start.

Damon of course would go off on the drive of his life – famously passing the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher for the lead which he would hold until the very last lap. It was of course not to be. A combination of a Transmission problem and a charging Jacques Villeneuve would deny the sport the greatest unexpected win since Olivier Panis had taken the Monaco GP 12 months earlier.

Of the teams that started that race in 1997, only Williams, McLaren, Ferrari & Sauber still remain. Of those only one is not now linked to a global Manufactuer.

The next few weeks would seem to be critical in determining the direction of the next decade of the sport. The fight between the Privateers and the Manufactuers seems to be heading for its high noon moment in the Melbourne paddock as arguments persist about the legalities of customer chassis and B-Teams.

10 years from now will we have lost forever at this level, those true privateer teams that are the last link between our modern world and the Brooklands spirit?

All I know is that there is no major corporation who could ever stir in me the spectrum of emotions that I felt watching that little Arrows team reach for the stars, and so nearly pulling it off!