  the 1997 australian grand prix was a formula one race held on 9 march 1997 at the melbourne grand prix circuit in albert park, melbourne. it was the first race of the 1997 formula one season. it was the second grand prix to be hosted in melbourne. ==report== ===background=== two new teams came into formula one in 1997: stewart and lola. footwork reverted to their old name of arrows and acquired yamaha engines, while ligier were bought by alain prost and changed their name to prost grand prix. tyrrell acquired ford engines. the change that dominated the drivers line up was damon hill's surprise sacking from williams having just won the world championship to join tom walkinshaw and the newly purchased arrows team. in the week up to the race, there were rumours of hill having left arrows due to the poor performance of the car, rumours that were quashed. pedro diniz with his sponsorship backing was hired as his teammate. williams retained jacques villeneuve and was teamed with heinz-harald frentzen who was not seen as a popular replacement to hill. villeneuve was the bookmakers favourite heading into the
1997_Formula_One_races 1997_in_Australian_motorsport Australian_Grand_Prix