S9 E8: Portugal '96 - Villeneuve stuns Schumacher

Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories

The Race Media Ltd

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4.9 • 734 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 72 minutes

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Summary

The 1996 Portuguese Grand Prix is famous for one thing: Jacques Villeneuve's thrilling around-the-outside pass on Michael Schumacher's Ferrari at the fearsome final corner, which set him up for a charge to victory that kept that year's title battle alive all the way to the final race in Japan. Matt Beer and Ben Anderson join a giddy Glenn Freeman to revisit one of Villeneuve's greatest days in F1, also looking at how Schumacher really reacted to the move in private. We also discuss Damon Hill somewhat limping to the title after starting the year so well, plus how Stewart and Jordan did battle for his signature for 1997 before he chose Arrows. There's also talk of Ralf Schumacher rejecting McLaren to sign for Jordan, Sauber landing its Ferrari engine deal, Eddie Irvine benefitting from some rare Ferrari testing, and what happened after McLaren team-mates David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen collided during the race. GET IN TOUCH: Use the hashtag #BringBackV10s on Twitter or email [email protected] Join the Bring Back V10s Twitter Community To buy some BBV10s merch, click here! Click here to join The Race Members' Club and get early access to episodes

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Athletic
0:02.7	It's been a while since we've truly celebrated Jack Vilner on this podcast, and I am being serious there.
0:16.2	So for the final regular episode of Series 9, we're revisiting one of his greatest performances
0:22.1	when he kept the 1996 Championship Battle alive with a classic victory in the Portuguese
0:27.4	Grand Prix, a race most famous for his daring around the outside pass on Michael Schumacher
0:33.3	at the fearsome final corner.
0:35.9	After pulling off an overtake, he'd predicted he'd be capable of.
0:39.4	Vilner then hunted down the other Williams of title rival Damon Hill
0:42.6	to deny Hill the chance to wrap up the championship of race early,
0:46.4	ensuring there would be a title decider in Japan.
0:49.9	So joining me, Glenn Freeman, to spend most of the episode marveling at Vilner's overtake and general brilliance, and we'll probably talk about some of the other stuff
0:57.5	as well at some point in the episode. There was other things going on in F1 at the time.
1:02.2	We have Matt Beer and Ben Anderson, who were two of several potential guests
1:06.0	to enthusiastically volunteer to join us for this episode. So you always know you've got it right
1:12.0	when a load of people come back. When I announce what the episodes are internally and a load of
1:16.4	people come back saying, can I do that one? So yeah, that was the case with Portugal 96. And Matt,
1:22.3	we'll come to you first. When you think of the 96 Portuguese Grand Prix, what's the first thing
1:27.3	that comes to mind?
1:28.7	A brief but absolutely heartfelt certainty that Jacques Villeneuve was capable of anything.
1:34.0	Not just because of the past, because of the gap he closed down and how he turned that from a
1:38.4	certain defeat into a victory. I was like, I was right about this guy. He is incredible. You've
1:43.7	stuck with that, Glenn, 30 or years later.
	...

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