New vs Old

[Wizzo]

Much has been written this year about Lewis Hamilton versus Fernando Alonso, the rookie versus the double World Champion.

1 of 2  At the start of the season, few would have given odds that Lewis Hamilton would be leading the championship by mid-season, with 3 wins under his belt. Fewer still would have believed that a rookie with barely any F1 experience would be able to worry Fernando Alonso, the only man to have beaten Michael Schumacher in the World Championship in the 2000s.

However, this is not the first time a 'super-rookie' has entered F1 and enjoyed immediate success. Almost a decade ago, Indycar Champion Jacques Villeneuve, son of the late Gilles Villeneuve, joined the Williams-Renault F1 team as teammate to championship favorite Damon Hill, making the 1996 Williams team the first Formula 1 team ever to have two drivers whose fathers also raced in F1.

1996 was seen as an easy run to the title for Hill, after losing out to Michael Schumacher for the previous two years. Schumacher moved to Ferrari after winning the 1995 championship with Benetton, and faced an uphill struggle to return the wayward Italian team back to race-winning form.

The season started well enough for Hill with a hat-trick of race wins. The only serious challenge came from his teammate, who very nearly won his first ever F1 race after beating the Englishman to the pole position. An oil-leak from Villeneuve's car in the final stages of the race allowed Hill to pass and take the win.

However, just as Lewis Hamilton memorably won the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this year in adverse circumstances, it only took a few races before Villeneuve took his first win after a superb performance at the European Grand Prix.

Villeneuve snatched the lead from Hill at the start, opened a substantial lead and fended off the challenge of a resurgent Michael Schumacher for much of the race, Schumacher himself desperate for his first win for Ferrari.

It was the performance of a champion in waiting, and must have worried Damon Hill more than a little. He'd been expecting a decent number two driver, but not someone who could potentially challenge him for the title. Damon Hill likely knows exactly how Fernando Alonso is feeling at the moment.

The parallels don't stop there, though. Hamilton went on to win the US Grand Prix only a week after his maiden win in Canada, defending his lead robustly as Alonso attempted to pass him into the first corner. His wins in North America and his consistent podium finishes at the start of the season placed him firmly in the lead of the championship after only 8 races.

Back in 1996 Villeneuve continued to impress in a similar fashion, collecting a further three wins to bring the gap in the championship between himself and Hill down to just 9 points before the final race in Japan. Whoever won at the final race at Suzuka would be World Champion.

Will history repeat itself this year? Given the present form of the drivers involved, it seems likely that the championship will go down to the wire, but though there are similarities between the title race in 1996 and the current one in 2007, there are also a number of crucial differences.

Firstly, there were only two real championship protagonists in 1996. The Williams team enjoyed a dominant season with closest competitors Ferrari struggling with reliability problems. This year Ferrari have no such issues, and both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are still very much in the running for the title.

Secondly, and perhaps more tellingly, there was very little discord between the two teammates in 1996 as they fought for the title. No spy scandals, no allegations of favoritism in the team, no blocking one another in the pits to gain the tiniest advantage. The fight was clean, fair and kept on the racetrack.

In the final race, despite Villeneuve taking pole position in emphatic fashion, the old hand schooled the new boy. Damon Hill won the Japanese Grand Prix to become the first son of an F1 World Champion to take the title himself.

2007 has been marred by scandal and infighting, but remains the closest championship battle for many years. Whether experience will prevail over youth remains to be seen!