Pre-season during the
1995 British Grand Prix The cars were still in various stages of development heading into the new season; the
Footwork FA16 and
Simtek S951 chassis arrived at the event with virtually no testing, having been completed shortly beforehand. Luckily for them and other teams that were expected to be fighting over last places, the withdrawal of teams
Larrousse and
Lotus dropped the number of participating cars to 26, guaranteeing all entrants of a race start, without the threat of failing to qualify, for the first time since the
1994 Canadian Grand Prix. At the front of the field,
Michael Schumacher for Benetton and
Damon Hill for Williams were the favourites to battle for the
Drivers' Championship, with Schumacher anticipating a "struggle" for the championship.
Bernard Dudot,
Renault's Chief Engineer, said that he believed Benetton was less well-prepared than Williams, as the former team had just changed its engine supplier to Renault, whereas Williams had been in partnership with the company since .
McLaren were concerned about the standard refuelling equipment provided for 1995 by suppliers
Intertechnique, having suffered a major leak in a test of the new rig outside of its factory. Intertechnique had redesigned the fuel equipment, which was used by all of the teams, in the wake of the
pit lane fire suffered by driver
Jos Verstappen during the previous year's
German Grand Prix. Intertechnique traced the problem to a faulty valve within the equipment, which caused of fuel to leak, and modified the parts accordingly.
Rounds 1 to 4 runner-up
Damon Hill for
Williams achieved
pole position for the first race of the season in
Brazil. Champion
Michael Schumacher lined up in second in his
Benetton. Hill had a bad start and was immediately overtaken by Schumacher. They utilised different
pit stop strategies and the battle was heating up until, on lap 31, the Williams driver spun off the track when his gearbox seized. Schumacher comfortably won the race ahead of Hill's teammate
David Coulthard. Third place was contested by
Mika Salo in the
Tyrrell until he spun on lap 39, suffering from cramp in his hand, and was overtaken by
Mika Häkkinen in the
McLaren and the
Ferraris of
Gerhard Berger and
Jean Alesi. After the second round pit stops, Berger took third place and stayed there. After the race, Schumacher and Coulthard were both
disqualified, as the fuel sample taken from their cars after
qualifying did not match the regulations. All classified drivers moved up two places and Berger was declared the victor. However, a successful appeal by the two teams saw their drivers' results reinstated, since the illegal fuel did not offer a performance advantage. Still, the teams did not receive any points for the
Constructors' Championship and were penalized $200,000. This division between car and driver was met with criticism. The start saw collisions between eight drivers and the race was suspended. On lap six of the restarted race, Coulthard's throttle failed, allowing Schumacher and Hill past, and leading to the
Scot's retirement shortly after. During the pit stops, Hill grabbed the lead and Alesi took second place. Schumacher finished third. Before the race in
San Marino, it was Benetton's Michael Schumacher on pole position for the first time this season. Berger started second, much to the joy of the local
tifosi. Hill started in fourth. Light rain was falling and teams faced a difficult choice in
tyres. The first five drivers on the grid started on
rain tyres and, after the start, were five seconds per lap quicker than the rest of the field.
Rubens Barrichello, the only other driver on wet tyres, started in tenth in his
Jordan and quickly got up to sixth. Things turned out in the pit stops: Schumacher crashed, coming out on his cold tyres, and Berger's car stalled, giving the lead to Damon Hill. Coulthard and Alesi fought hard over then-second place, but the over-eager Williams driver exceeded the pit lane speed limit and had to undertake a
10-second stop-go penalties. The podium order was Hill, Alesi, Berger. In
Spain, it was Schumacher on pole for the second time and he led from start to finish. On the last lap, Hill was in second, but when he suffered from a hydraulic problem, he crawled across the line in fourth. This allowed Schumacher's teammate
Johnny Herbert through to second place, his first ever podium. Berger finished third, while Alesi and Coulthard retired. After four races, Schumacher in the Benetton led the
Drivers' Championship with 24 points, just one ahead of Hill in the Williams. Alesi and Berger in the Ferrari followed with 14 and 13 points, respectively. In the
Constructors' Championship, Ferrari (27) led Williams (26) and Benetton (23).
Rounds 5 to 10 saw the
Renault Clio safety car crash into
Taki Inoue's stalled
Footwork. On the narrow streets of
Monaco,
Damon Hill for
Williams qualified in
pole position. Championship leader
Michael Schumacher in the
Benetton started next to him.
David Coulthard (Williams),
Gerhard Berger and
Jean Alesi (both
Ferrari) completed the top five, but the three collided going in the first corner. The track was blocked and the race was suspended. At the second start, the top drivers remained in order, but during the pit stops, Hill fell back behind Schumacher and Alesi. The Ferrari then crashed whilst attempting to avoid
Martin Brundle, who had spun. Coulthard retired, so the top three at the finish was Schumacher, Hill, Berger. This was the last race for the
Simtek team, who withdrew from the championship because they ran out of budget. (
Ferrari won the
1995 Canadian Grand Prix In
Canada, Michael Schumacher achieved pole position, the 100th for a
Renault-powered F1 car, and led away comfortably, until on lap 57, an electrical problem forced him into the pits. He was stationary for 70 seconds to change his
steering wheel and perform an on-board computer adjustment. He recovered to fifth position at the finish. Jean Alesi went on to win the race on his 31st birthday. This would be his only career victory and also marked the last time to date that a car with a
V12 engine won. After several other front-runners encountered problems late in the race, the
Jordans of
Rubens Barrichello and
Eddie Irvine completed the surprising podium. Just like in Monaco, Hill started on pole position in
France, but lost out to second-starting Schumacher during the pit stops. His teammate Coulthard started and finished in third. (
Benetton) won the
1995 British Grand Prix During the
British Grand Prix, championship rivals Hill and Schumacher clashed for the first time. Hill had started from pole, while Schumacher fell behind third-starting Alesi. As happened regularly this season, Schumacher took the lead by only needing one pit stop, compared to Hill's two. But when the Williams tried to repass the Benetton, the two collided and retired. This promoted their teammates
Johnny Herbert and
David Coulthard to the front. Coulthard took the lead, but incurred a stop-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Herbert won the first race of his career, ahead of Jean Alesi in the Ferrari. Two weeks later, Michael Schumacher won his home race, the
German Grand Prix. Damon Hill had achieved pole position once again, but this time, spun off on the second lap as a result of
driveshaft failure. David Coulthard finished second, Gerhard Berger was third, recovering from a 10-second stop-go penalty for
jumping the start. The
1995 Hungarian Grand Prix was a
grand slam for Damon Hill: he won from pole position and set the fastest lap. Coulthard finished second and Berger third. Michael Schumacher was classified three laps down, suffering from
fuel pump issues. During the race, Taki Inoue had his second coming together with the safety car. This time, he himself was hit by the
Tatra 623 when running over to his Footwork with a fire extinguisher. He suffered minor injuries to his leg. In the
Drivers' Championship, Michael Schumacher was leading with 56 points, ahead of Damon Hill with 45 and Jean Alesi with 32. It was closer at the front of the
Constructors' Championship, with Benetton and Williams separated by just six points (74 and 68, respectively), followed by Ferrari with 57.
Rounds 11 to 14 Qualifying for the
Belgian Grand Prix took place in varying weather conditions and championship rivals
Michael Schumacher and
Damon Hill could only achieve sixteenth and eighth place on the grid, respectively.
Ferrari's
Gerhard Berger and
Jean Alesi blocked out on the front row, but both retired during the race. Schumacher's teammate
Johnny Herbert briefly led the race, but struggled for pace on the drying track. Hill took the lead after his teammate
David Coulthard retired with
gearbox issues, but then, as it was seen at least three times during the season already, Schumacher passed him during the round of
pit stops. The story did not end there, however: the rain arrived and Hill made a second pit stop for
rain tyres, while Schumacher tried to brave it out, at one point lapping six seconds slower than his rival. To make matters worse, he went off the track and the
Williams took the lead until the rain stopped, the track dried, and the
Benetton was back on top. When the
safety car came out, the playing field was levelled and Schumacher led away from Hill, both on wet tyres. It looked like a thrilling battle to come, until the
Brit was served a
10-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the
pit lane. He did recover to second place, but finished far behind the
German.
Martin Brundle came home in a surprising third position. After the race, Schumacher was given a one-race suspended ban for defending too aggressively. On the formation lap of the
Italian Grand Prix, pole-sitter
David Coulthard spun off and retired with terminal damage. However, when the race was suspended after a first-lap collision in the same corner, with the track being blocked by four stranded cars, Coulthard was able to take the restart in a
spare car, on pole position. Michael Schumacher and Gerhard Berger started behind him. On lap 13, Coulthard retired again, this time with a
wheel bearing failure, and Schumacher crashed out when he was hit in the back by championship rival Damon Hill. After the incident, reminiscent of the one at
Silverstone, Schumacher was furious with Hill, but calmed down when learning that the
Brit had had to take evasive action when lapping
Taki Inoue. The Ferraris were running 1–2 on home soil, until a
TV camera on Alesi's
rear wing fell off and destroyed Berger's suspension. With eight laps to go, the
Frenchman also retired and handed a second victory to Benetton's Johnny Herbert.
Mika Häkkinen (
McLaren) and
Heinz-Harald Frentzen (
Sauber) achieved their best results yet in second and third, respectively. After the race, Hill was given a one-race suspended ban for his part in the collision. In
Portugal, Coulthard started on pole position again and this time, he held on to achieve his first career win. Hill started in second, before Schumacher in third, but they finished the other way around. At the start,
Ukyo Katayama in the
Tyrrell made contact with
Luca Badoer's
Minardi and went airborne. After being extracted from the car, he was hospitalised for two days, suffering from a strained neck and bruising in several places. The
European Grand Prix was held at the
Nürburgring and saw Coulthard start on pole, ahead of teammate Damon Hill and championship leader Michael Schumacher. Coulthard did start in the spare car, however, after stalling his engine during his
reconnaissance lap. Many teams decided to start on
rain tyres, but Ferrari and McLaren switched to dries after the first start was abandoned. This only turned out to be the right decision after seventeen laps, when most other drivers had pitted. Schumacher and Hill battled again, switching positions several times, while Coulthard suffered from excessive
oversteer and fell behind them. Meanwhile, Alesi was in the lead and extended his advantage to 45 seconds. During the second round of pit stops, however, he collided with Hill and had to pit for repairs. Berger retired with engine problems and Hill crashed out on lap 58. Schumacher passed Alesi for the lead, two laps from the end, and Coulthard completed the podium. With three races to go, Schumacher was leading the
Drivers' Championship, 27 points ahead of Hill. This meant that the Williams driver needed to win all remaining races, with his Benetton rival scoring less than three points. In the
Constructors' Championship, Benetton was leading Williams with 112 over 92 points.
Rounds 15 to 17 The F1 circus landed in
Japan for two races, the first one dubbed the
Pacific Grand Prix.
Williams driver
David Coulthard achieved his fourth
pole position in a row, ahead of teammate
Damon Hill and championship leader
Michael Schumacher in his
Benetton. At the start, fourth-starting
Jean Alesi got up to second place. After Schumacher overtook Hill and Alesi during the first round of
pit stops, he closed in on the leader and lapped consistently faster, so that the
German just came out in front after all pit stops were made. Scoring his eighth victory of the season and gaining enough points to make it impossible for Hill to catch him, the
Schumi was crowned the
1995 Drivers' Champion. He was the youngest double Drivers' Champion up to that point (his record was subsequently surpassed by
Sebastian Vettel). Schumacher did not settle down: he started on pole position for the
Japanese Grand Prix. The Williams cars could not match the pace and made room for Jean Alesi and
Mika Häkkinen in the top three on the grid. All drivers started on
rain tyres, as it had rained in the morning and the track was damp, but it did not stop the champion from leading away. Both
Ferraris were judged to have
jumped the start and served a
10-second stop-go penalty. But Alesi was the first to switch to dry tyres and began making his way through the field. On lap 25, he was only six seconds behind leader Schumacher, when he had to retire with a
driveshaft failure. When the rain arrived, but only on one edge of the circuit, teammates Hill and Coulthard crashed out in the same corner, one lap after each other. Schumacher won and his teammate
Johnny Herbert came home in third, earning Benetton the
1995 Constructors' Champions. The final race of the season was held in
Australia and saw most of the front-running cars retire, except for
polesitter Damon Hill. David Coulthard crashed while entering the
pit lane, Schumacher and Alesi collided, and Herbert and Berger retired with mechanical issues. Hill won, over two laps ahead of
Ligier's Olivier Panis and
Gianni Morbidelli in a
Footwork, equalling
Jackie Stewart's feat during the
1969 Spanish Grand Prix. ==Results and standings==