The Athletic

Hinteld Frensen was meant to be Williams' next great signing,

but after being brought in at the expense of world champion Damon Hill, he only took one victory for the team.

That win came early on in his time at Williams at the 1997 San Marino Grand Prix,

but rather than being a sign of French and turning a corner,

it proved to be little more than a false dawn.

This was a time of significant change looming on the F1 horizon,

with drastic rule changes for 1998 dominating debate in the paddock,

and the legal battle over Adrian Newey's seismic move from Williams to McLaren finally being concluded.

So joining me, Glenn Freeman, to discuss all of that and much more, are Ed Straw and making his first appearance of the series, Matt Beer.

Now Matt, until you mentioned that you hadn't been on one in this series,

I hadn't passed me by.

I just assumed that you're making three or four appearances per series.

So I can only massively apologise for that.

We've taken far too long to get you on.

So let's not waste any more time

getting you your first opening question of series 7. Tell us, when you think of the 1997

San Marino Grand Prix, what's the first thing that comes to mind? I'm going to go massively general

and not obscure at all. It's the one afternoon when for the only British teenager who thought

Damon Hill was rubbish and Heinz Harold Frensen was the future, it was the one afternoon

of vindication until the complete vindication of 1999. Yeah, that's fair enough. Ed, what stands out for you?

Matt said he was going to go mainstream and not obscure, so how have you managed to go obscure, I wonder?

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