Alex Zanardi - Formula One Part Two

Formula One Part Two

Zanardi's CART success caught the eye of Sir Frank Williams whom he made contact in 1997, to inform them he would be available for contract negotiations if needed. Williams visited Zanardi who signed a three-year contract in July 1998 which was publicly confirmed in September of that year. He began testing at the end of that year alongside test-driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Zanardi also received offers from BAR and Honda. In Australia, Zanardi was 9th quickest in the first free practice session but had limited track time due to reliability issues and traffic in qualifying meant he could only start 15th. He showed promise in the warm-up with 6th but the race saw him crash out on lap 21. Moving on to Brazil, Zanardi once again experienced limited time on the track which was mainly due to engine issues. He started 16th and retired with a differential failure. Zanardi also incurred a $5,000 fine for speeding in the pit lane.

At Imola, his form improved with a start position of 10th. The race itself threw up a surprise for Zanardi. His car was suffering electronic issues and ran a steady 7th in the closing stages and ran over oil from Johnny Herbert's Stewart at the Villeneuve chicane and spun into the gravel. Zanardi out qualified Schumacher at Monaco by over half a second. More drama occurred on race day as the seat in this Williams broke off during the early stages of the race but managed to finish 8th and last of the runners. In Spain, despite setting the 5th quickest lap in first free practice, a wrong set-up placed Zanardi 17th in qualifying. His car's gearbox seized after a pit stop. Similar problems occurred in Canada where Friday practice running was limited. Managing to out qualify Schumacher, Zanardi's race was incident filled. Whilst running in 8th, he spun off into the gravel trap early on and dropped to last. Further time was lost when leaving the pit lane during a safety car period and received a stop-go penalty. A further excursion occurred when an maneuver on Luca Badoer's Minardi ended with Zanardi crashing out.

The wet qualifying for the French Grand Prix saw him qualify 15th after the Williams team misread conditions and aquaplaned during the race. At Silverstone, Zanardi qualified 13th and finished 11th. In Austria, he started 14th. In the first part of the race, Zanardi's radio communications failed and around lap 33, his team hung out pit boards calling him in to pit but a battle with Pedro Diniz distracted the Italian and twice missed the board and eventually ran out of fuel. At the German Grand Prix, Zanardi qualified 14th due to a miscalculation for his position and incurred another pit lane speeding fine. In the race, a differential failure affected the engine and brakes forced a retirement. At Hungary, Zanardi reverted to using left-foot braking but suffered a third consecutive retirement from a differential failure having ran off the road earlier in the race. In Belgium, Zanardi started from 8th and the start saw him overtake Rubens Barrichello and Damon Hill into La Source. Zanardi ran as high as 4th before pitting and eventually finished 8th.

In Monza, Zanardi had stunned the Formula One world by qualifying 4th ahead of team-mate Ralf Schumacher. He managed to overtake David Coulthard and Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the start. Frentzen took over 2nd from Zanardi at the Roggia chicane. On the third lap with the floor on the Williams became loose and was forced to wave his rivals past but managed to finish 7th. At the next round at the Nürburgring, Zanardi could only manage to qualify in 18th placing blame on traffic. He performed well at the start but was forced to take avoiding action when Alexander Wurz clipped Pedro Diniz. The incident left Zanardi in last position and regained positions before his car succumbed to his engine stalling. The penultimate round in Malaysia had seen Zanardi start from 16th with a first-lap collision that damaged his front rim with a pit-stop preventing better progress. He later ran wide which caused damage to the car radiators forced another pit-stop with Zanardi finishing 10th.

The final race of the season was in Japan where he qualified 16th. In the race, Zanardi overtook many of his rivals to driving as high as 9th before his pit-lane limiter activated with the engine shutting off when he attempted to turn off the limiter on the first lap. At the end of the season, Zanardi and the Williams team decided to go their separate ways with an estimated cost of $4 million for the termination of Zanardi's contract.