WINTER hopes turned to nought very quickly for the Irish brigade in Formula One as Eddie Irvine and Jordan driver, Ralf Schumacher, failed to complete a single lap of the Australian Grand Prix yesterday, while second Jordan driver Giancarlo Fisichella spun out of an uncompetitive ninth place at quarter distance.
Disappointment for the Irish was in total contrast to the joy of the Scots - David Coulthard breaking a four year winning drought for McLaren with a fine victory and Jackie Stewart's team making a remarkably impressive debut, outshining Jordan in particular.
Irvine wash Ireland's main hope, starting from fifth on the grid, but a brave late braking manoeuvre up the inside into turn one triggered a three car accident putting out Johnny Herbert and championship favourite Jacques Villeneuve, along with the Ulsterman.
"I made a good start," said Irvine afterwards, "and was alongside Coulthard at the first corner and then inside Villeneuve who moved over on me. He obviously had not seen me. The impact punctured my left front tyre. It was a typical racing accident. It was a shame because I had done a lot of work on my starting technique over the winter."
Others were not so slow in apportioning blame: "It's very frustrating after dominating practice," said championship favourite Jacques Villeneuve: "I was approaching the first corner on the inside when Irvine made a kamikaze dive down inside me on the grass. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised from him," said the 25 year old Canadian, who raced with Irvine for two years in Japan.
Johnny Herbert, who has had a number of on track incidents with Irvine was incensed: "It was madness. He pushed Jacques into me. I don't know why he did it," said the normally good humoured Herbert, who was having his most competitive weekend in 18 months.
Irvine was later called before the three race stewards who found he was not guilty of any punishable wrongdoing. In fairness to Irvine, he has been a paragon of virtue since his crashing spell ended in early 1995. Galway based solicitor Brian Brophy was one of the stewards at Melbourne. To say Eddie Jordan was disappointed after the race was an understatement. It was galling to have both Jordans outqualified by Rubens Barrichello in the Stewart Ford. The talented Brazilian wasn't good enough for Jordan last year, yet he could get a brand new car - from a totally inexperienced team - ahead of the pair of Benson and Hedges cars.
Almost as galling was to see Prost score points with Olivier Panis's finishing fifth. Jordan must be ahead of Prost in the championship at the half way point this year to have an option on the Peugeot engines next year.
Ralf Schumacher, who qualified 12th, suffered a CV joint failure - on the second lap. "It's not good," he said, "This should not happen at this level," said the irate young German, who has a bit to learn about team play and who should ask his brother about reliability in Formula One.
Giancarlo Fisichella was battling for eighth place with Barrichello, to salvage some Jordan honour, when he spun off. "It was my mistake. As soon as I pulled out to pass Rubens I got on to the marbles (rubber debris) and lost grip and spun."
Jordan believe that the flukey nature of the once a year Melbourne track and a wrong tyre choice in qualifying let them down. Gary Anderson said last month the 197 was "two seconds a lap quicker" than last year's. Problem is, Villeneuve was three seconds a lap quicker than last year in qualifying. Tyres this year are a great deal grippier. It also seems clear that the Saubers of Herbert and Larini are going to be real competition for Jordan.
Killiney resident Damon Hill took the biscuit for the worst weekend. The world champion qualified on the back row of the grid and then suffered a throttle problem on the parade lap. He never got to the start line.
