Jacques Villeneuve clinched the 1997 F1 Drivers' title after Michael Schumacher was disqualified from the championship standings for deliberately colliding with him.
Key Facts
- Season races
- 17 races
- Season span
- 9 March – 26 October 1997
- Drivers' Champion
- Jacques Villeneuve (Williams-Renault)
- Constructors' Champion
- Williams-Renault
- Schumacher race wins retained
- 5 wins kept, 2nd place stripped
- Consecutive Renault constructors' titles
- 6 (1992–1997)
By the Numbers
Cause → Event → Consequence
Heading into the final race of the season at Jerez, Michael Schumacher led the Drivers' Championship by a single point over Jacques Villeneuve. Schumacher needed to protect his race position to secure the title, while Villeneuve needed to finish ahead of him.
During the 1997 European Grand Prix, Schumacher deliberately steered into Villeneuve as Villeneuve attempted to overtake him, causing Schumacher's car to retire in the gravel. Villeneuve continued and finished third, accumulating enough points to win the Drivers' Championship. Williams-Renault simultaneously secured the Constructors' Championship ahead of Ferrari.
The FIA found Schumacher wholly at fault for the collision and stripped him of his second-place finish in the championship standings, elevating Heinz-Harald Frentzen to second. Renault withdrew from F1 at season's end, and the title proved to be the last for Williams, for a non-European driver, and for Goodyear tyres for many years.