At the Canadian Grand Prix Irvine was involved in another first lap incident, this time with McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen. He was back on the podium with third place at the French Grand Prix, before a run of seven races where he was either out of the points or out of the race. During the summer, it was announced that Irvine would remain at Ferrari for 1998. His run of poor results ended with a third-place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix, and he concluded the season with a fifth place at the European Grand Prix. Irvine finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 24 points.