The 1999 season was a classic battle between the two biggest teams in the sport: McLaren and Ferrari.
This titanic battle took a dramatic turn in round eight at Silverstone when Ferrari’s leading charger Michael Schumacher suffered a huge crash at Stowe, breaking his leg and putting him out of action for most of the remainder of the season.
Consequently, Maranello’s championship hopes now rested on their number two driver Eddie Irvine, who was the only man who could beat the mighty McLarens and their leading driver, defending world champion Mika Hakkinen.
The 1999 Austrian Grand Prix saw Finn Mika Salo brought into to replace the double world champion at Ferrari and he needed to do his very best to aid Eddie Irvine in his pursuit of a maiden world championship.
In qualifying, the McLarens were simply untouchable with Hakkinen leading a McLaren front-row lock-out. Irvine was third but over one second off the pole position time. Mika Salo was seventh on his Ferrari debut with Heinz-Harald Frentzen fourth ahead of the Stewart duo of Rubens Barrichello and Johnny Herbert.
On race day, the skies are overcast but the threat of rain is minimal. Hakkinen gets away well from pole but heading into turn two, his teammate spins the Finn around 180° causing the 1998 World Champion to fall to the back of the grid.
Meanwhile, Salo runs into the back of a slow moving Johnny Herbert, detaching the Brit’s rear wing and ruining his chances of a good result. Salo also had to pit for a new front wing. David Coulthard escaped the teammate tangle unharmed and leads the race ahead of Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine. However, McLaren is less than delighted with the Scot’s actions. Adrian Newey shouting: “Oh David, what are you doing?”
The carnage promoted 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve into fifth place, who currently didn’t have a point to his name in 1999. By lap seven, Mika Hakkinen had made so much progress he was up to 14th from last. On the following lap, Ralf Schumacher loses his Williams at turn two and beaches it in the gravel ending the German’s race prematurely.
Villeneuve then retires for the ninth race in a row with another mechanical issue. Alex Zanardi joins the Canadian on the sidelines after running out of fuel, 14 laps later Jean Alesi suffers the same fate and Pedro de la Rosa beaches his Arrows.
Irvine fires in some very quick laps and goes longer than race leader Coulthard, when Irvine makes his pit-stop, he is ahead of the McLaren and leads the race. Elsewhere, Coulthard’s teammate takes third place from Barrichello, shortly afterwards the Brazilian’s Stewart engine blows up.
Ferrari’s new leading driver Eddie Irvine holds off Coulthard to win his second Grand Prix and closes the gap in the Drivers’ Standings to just two points to Mika Hakkinen. The Finn drove a fantastic recovery drive to get up to third from the back of the pack, ahead of Frentzen and local boy Alexander Wurz. Sauber’s Pedro Diniz finished in sixth place and earned his tenth and final point in Formula One.
The 1999 Austrian Grand Prix will be remembered for the dramatic crash between McLaren teammates and consequently Mika Hakkinen’s incredible recovery drive. Eddie Irvine’s emphatic victory that kept Ferrari’s championship dreams well and truly alive and Irvine would be able to push Hakkinen all the way to the very last race of the season.
