After the race we spoke to Jos ...
Published on 30 August 1998 by Verstappen Info Page
After the race we spoke to Jos who remained positive, "Both starts I made were perfect and I did not have any wheel spin at all. After the first start I managed to overtake tow or three cars after which I landed in the chaos after the first corner. I was able to keep out of trouble but at the end was hit on the right end of my car. The damage however was not so big but I got a flat left rear tyre which damaged some of the body work on my way back to the pits. Therefor I had to step in to the T-car which was set up for me this race" Jos told us. Rubens Barrichello injured his arm in the crash, but it looks not to be a serious injury. His arm has swallowed a bit, but it is certainly not broken. This injury was therefor of no influence of Jos taking the T-car. Before the race, the team had decided to set up the T-car for Jos, and therefor he took place in the T-car for the second start.
Rubens Barrichello being helped by the marshalls after the 'big bang'
Copyright Frits van Eldik
As stated, Jos again made a perfect start, Jos his comment: "indeed also the second start went very well and I again managed to overtake several cars, however after the first corner, Mika Häkkinen stood still, forcing me to brake very hard which resulted in the other cars to overtake me again." It looked as if Jos did no go extreme fast in the first few laps, since Diniz was moving away from him in the front, and Takagi was pushing behind him, but the reason appeared to be very clear: "The team had filled up my car with the maximum 140 litre of fuel, so it couldn't be any heavier. Besides that we had chosen for rain tyres since the team expected it to rain for a longer period. I must say, the team did a great job in tactical sense, certainly since the last few laps I was gaining time towards Diniz until my engine gave up. When you look at the things happening on the track you can conclude that 1 or 2 points were certainly possible today", Jos stated. The Stewart-Ford team made indeed the right decisions to go out heavy on rain tyres since lots of teams entered the pits only once to change their intermediates for rain tyres. Jos agreed: "Certainly the team has proven that they made the right decisions with the rain tyres and a filled tank, with the plan for only one short stop in the second half of the race. Next week on Tuesday and Whednesday will be testing again in Monza" as Jos told us, and he certainly did not sound very disappointing.
Jos evades Mika Hakkinen smartly
Copyright Frits van Eldik
Managing director Paul Stewart spoke of an unfortunate end of an eventual weekend and an incident-packed race. "Normally you would say that the conditions would have suited Rubens and given him chance of championship points. However, even he reported the circuit was quite treacherous at the start. After his first lap incident and the subsequent injury to his arm, we decided that he shouldn't restart the race. Jos was running well on hard, wet tyres and the one-step strategy could have worked out. However it was not to be. We now look ahead to the test programme at Monza next week in preparation for the Italian Grand Prix".
Alan Jenkins was concerned for the damage of this weekend. "we now face a lot of work for our guys back in the factory to be in good shape for the next grand prix in Monza"
Martin Whitaker of Ford European Motorsport was not very pleased with the reliability of the engines. "Jos his engine failed early on. This was our second engine failure of the weekend which gives us some concern, particularly as in recent months, reliability has been extremely good".
