S9 E4: Spa 1994 - Schumacher's 'plank' exclusion
Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories
The Race Media Ltd
4.9 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2024
⏱️ 78 minutes
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Summary
The 1994 Belgian Grand Prix will forever be remembered as the race where Michael Schumacher was excluded for the plank under his Benetton being too worn down. But it was also the weekend when Rubens Barrichello claimed a shock first pole for Jordan, and the iconic Eau Rouge sequence was sanitised by the addition of a slow-speed chicane.
Gary Anderson - the main responsible for Barrichello's slick-tyre gamble in qualifying - and Sam Smith join Glenn Freeman to revisit a time in F1 when Renault signed up with Benetton for 1995, Nigel Mansell was still in the mix for a full-time Williams seat, McLaren was trying to get Jordan to take its Peugeot engines, Mercedes was running out of patience with Sauber, Forti was getting ready to come into F1, and Damon Hill challenged David Coulthard to a fight!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.7 | You can take your pick for memorable moments from the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix weekend, |
| 0:15.9 | from O'Rouge being sanitised or should that be neutered with a temporary chicane, |
| 0:20.2 | to Rubens Barrichello, claiming |
| 0:21.5 | his and Jordan's first pole position, and of course Michael Schumacher being disqualified |
| 0:26.5 | post-race for the recently introduced plank under his car being too worn down. And to make matters |
| 0:32.8 | worse for Schumacher and Benetton, two days later, a two-race ban for a black flag infringement earlier in the season at the British Grand Prix was upheld, meaning he would miss the next two races after Spile. In many ways, it was a week that summed up the summer of 1994, with Schumacher and Benetton looking peerless on track and finding ways to fall into trouble off of it. |
| 0:58.4 | So joining me, Glenn Freeman, to look back at all that and much more from the end of August 1994 as Sam Smith and the man responsible for Barrichello's brilliant underdog poll position, |
| 1:05.5 | Gary Anderson. And I should say that's not me saying that. Both Rubens and Eddie Jordan |
| 1:10.4 | are on record as crediting this poll position to Gary. |
| 1:14.7 | So at the risk, Gary, of teeing up your answer to the first question. |
| 1:19.1 | When you think of SPAR 94, what's the first thing that comes to mind? |
| 1:23.3 | Well, obviously, being on poll was very important for the team. |
| 1:27.2 | It was a major step. We've had a |
| 1:29.8 | competitive car that season. Brazil, we were fourth, Aida, we were third. And, you know, it was |
| 1:36.6 | continuing in that direction, really, until in it was obviously when we had the massive accident |
| 1:42.6 | and then the deaths of two other drivers. So I think it |
| 1:46.7 | was one of those sort of situations where Spa was us getting back up to speed again. And it was |
| 1:52.7 | nice to sort of outwit some of the big boys. It was one of those things that it came to us a little bit, |
| 1:58.0 | you know, but we'll come to that in a minute or two really when we talk about it more in detail. |
| 2:01.8 | But it came to us, but really, I suppose my big disappointment is not taking away more points at the end of the day, because if you're on poll, as Irvine was fourth, you know, you'd hope to be coming out, coming home with decent points, but that didn't happen. |
| 2:15.6 | Yeah, and as you say, we'll get into it properly later on. |
... |
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