11 replies to this topic

[LucaP]

I didn't follow any other series other than F1 before, so I've only had the possibilty to read something about this episode.
I'd like someone to shed some light on it.

In the final race of the 1996 F3000 serie, at Hockenheim, the battle for the championship saw Kenny Brack, one of my favourite drivers, against Jorg Mueller (sorry, haven't got those pesky umlauts on my keyboard)
From what I remember, the swede overtook the german in one of the chicanes with a risky manoevre, but without touching the other car.
As far as I know Brack got blackflagged immediately, without being shown any "stop and go" penalty warning, the standard practice at the time.
The fact that a german driver benefitted from this disqualification, on his home soil, generated many controversial reactions.

What were your views on this incident?

[jcbc3]

From motorsport.com:

...Brack is beside and moving to Mullers direction. Muller moves left to avoid a collision, but then there's no more room for two cars. They get wheel contact, Muller's Lola rises up, turns almost 180 degrees and lands on its wheels again with a broken suspension. Brack can continue. Two laps later the black flag is shown with Bracks number. The swede ignores it and finishes all 29 laps. The chequered flag is shown to the driver, who crosses the finish line second, Christope Tinseau wins his first F3000 race. Kenny Brack is disqualified from the race and fined with US$ 50,000 for ignoring the black flag. Jorg Muller is F3000 Champion 1996.

Seems pretty clear cut to me.

[LucaP]

Ah, so the description of the incident I remembered was wrong...

[ensign14]

As an aside I never understood why neither driver got even a sniff of a chance in F1. When you think 1997 saw such superstars as Nakano, Diniz and Fontana, and the following year Tuero and Takagi, disgracing the grid, you get a feeling some sponsors were not interested in following a winner. That or the superlicence requirements were GCSE-level-easy.

[ryan86]

Noberto Fontana followed Muller as German F3 champion, so I think he might be one of those cases of young talent not coming to anything as opposed to no talent and loadsamoney.

Did Brack have a chance of a test driver post anywhere? Because he immediately went over and started racing in the fledgling IRL series and racing on an oval only series probably consigned him to the scrapheap.

[LucaP]

He tested for a while for Arrows, but stopped because he was feeling he was wasting his time, I seem to remember he left saying "I'm a racer, not a driver".
Proper racer.

[GMiranda]

Simon Taylor interviewed Kenny Brack for the "Lunch with..." feature in Motor Sprot magazine in 2014 and, about the 1996 season finale, he said, "Around lap 10 he [Müller] was leading, I was trying to overtake, he was blocking me. I found a way around the outside, but I had to squeeze him to avoid being squeezed myself. Back then it wasn't like it is today when you can't do anything without being disqualified. In those days that's how you raced, and we were fighting for the title. As we braked, with me a little bit ahead, maybe there was a bump or maybe he turned into me. Anyway, we touched. My actions didn't make us come together, it was a racing incident. We both went off: I was lucky enough to get going again, he couldn't. I was still in the lead, and the officials knew that if they just gave me a stop-go penalty I still would have won the race, because I was so far ahead. So they black-flagged me. I thought 'Screw them, I'm not going to stop for anything except the chequered flag, because I should win this race, and the championship' ".

 

Obviously, Jörg Müller has another opinion and, looking at the accident; I think Bräck made a mistake. If there was blocking before or not, I can't say because I barely saw any F3000 races from the '90s until 1998.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=ziL2TYmcxG4

[Myhinpaa]

To be fair to Kenny Brack, his description seems fairley accurate. And unlike what the title on the clip indicates, it was more forceful than dirty driving.

 

As they approach the bend Brack is slightly in front and have no intention of backing down.... So he gives Muller a bit of a squeeze as a warning.

Muller goes to the left towards the kerb, but comes back to his line. Then he seems to have been outpsyched by Brack and "freezes up" (?)

Then when he have run out of options he seems to turn into (!?) Brack in desperation and tangles, not wanting to brake and let Brack get away.

 

Very forceful driving by Brack but not that dirty, Michael Schumacher got away with much worse. (Many times!)

But on the other hand Brack was in a hopeless line going into that LH corner, but still fair play to him for trying.

 

Muller counted on that Brack would surrender, but was wrong.... Brack was always known for being extremely competitive. 

 

Dijon '79 was a race where neither of two drivers got outpsyched by the other, raced hard and close with neither of them crashing out.

 

https://youtu.be/ii6H0MktrOg

Edited by Myhinpaa, 16 November 2021 - 14:43.

[Ross Stonefeld]

It's not helped by how much those cars are moving around with their downforce levels, but Brack does kinda lunge at him twice and arguably a third feint. And it leads to an accident, so... 

[GMiranda]

To be fair to Kenny Brack, his description seems fairley accurate. And unlike what the title on the clip indicates, it was more forceful than dirty driving.

 

As they approach the bend Brack is slightly in front and have no intention of backing down.... So he gives Muller a bit of a squeeze as a warning.

Muller goes to the left towards the kerb, but comes back to his line. Then he seems to have been outpsyched by Brack and "freezes up" (?)

Then when he have run out of options he seems to turn into (!?) Brack in desperation and tangles, not wanting to brake and let Brack get away.

 

Very forceful driving by Brack but not that dirty, Michael Schumacher got away with much worse. (Many times!)

But on the other hand Brack was in a hopeless line going into that LH corner, but still fair play to him for trying.

 

Muller counted on that Brack would surrender, but was wrong.... Brack was always known for being extremely competitive. 

 

Dijon '79 was a race where neither of two drivers got outpsyched by the other, raced hard and close with neither of them crashing out.

 

https://youtu.be/ii6H0MktrOg

I think Bräck had a chance if Müller chose to break earlier, he would have better traction when he was inside the chicane. However, I believe probably it was a bump in the circuit, and both were driving on the limit, so it was a racing accident. Eventually worthy of a 10-second penalty.

[William Hunt]

Müller hit Brack because he was forced off line because of several intimidations by the Swede. Müller's car veeres towards Brack's car exactly when his front wheel touches the sand off track. This is clearly too agressive driving of Brack, imho the disqualification was correct.

Edited by William Hunt, 19 November 2021 - 15:33.

[ensign14]

Interesting compare and contrast.

 

Brack forces Muller off track: instant black flag.

 

Verstappen forces Hamilton off track: move on, nothing to see here.