NOVEMBER 3, 1997

Damon's revenge

DAMON HILL was among Michael Schumacher's critics in the wake of the German's attempt to take Jacques Villeneuve out of the race at Jerez. The 1996 World Champion remembered Adelaide 1994 when a collision with Schumacher destroyed Hill's hopes of the World title.

"Clearly everyone feels that Michael tried to do something deliberate to prevent Jacques from overtaking him," Damon said. "Certainly that is my view from watching the video. Michael did something that was so blatant that it really tarnished his great reputation. What he did in the last race undid all his good work that he had done through the season.

Hill said that he was worried by the lack of action by the FIA stewards. "I'm not interested in settling any scores or gloating about what happened," said Hill. "I think the serious issue is the credibility of Formula 1 and the way the sport is managed when we have an incident like this. We have inconsistencies. Draconian punishments are brought on people for doing something that seems fairly innocuous and at other times nothing is done.

"As long as nothing is done these sort of incidents will continue to happen."