After the factory withdrawal of Renault and the departure of designer Adrian Newey to McLaren, the Williams team and Jacques Villeneuve were unable to defend their respective championships.
The team also opted not to renew Jean Alesi's contract, so the Frenchman signed a two-year deal to join Johnny Herbert at Sauber.
As their replacements, Benetton signed Giancarlo Fisichella from Jordan and Alexander Wurz, who had already substituted for Berger for three races in 1997.
To fill his Hill's seat, Arrows secured the services of Tyrrell's Mika Salo alongside Pedro Diniz.
However, new owners British American Tobacco preferred to hire Brazilian Ricardo Rosset, who had briefly raced for the now-defunct Lola team in 1997.
Verstappen returned to F1 midway through 1998 with Stewart, while Lola's other driver, Vincenzo Sospiri, found a home in the IndyCar Series.
Jan Magnussen was dropped by Stewart after the Canadian Grand Prix, following a series of underwhelming performances (including crashing into and eliminating his teammate Rubens Barrichello on lap 1 at Imola).
The 1998 season brought about two significant technical changes to reduce cornering speeds and aid overtaking:[10][11][12][13] Quite a list of regulations were drafted up with regards to the brakes.
"X wings", a pair of tall aerodynamic appendages mounted at the front of each sidepod and first seen on the Tyrrell 025 in 1997, were banned before the Spanish Grand Prix.
Coulthard bounced back in Imola by gaining pole position and winning the race ahead of the Ferrari's of Schumacher and Eddie Irvine.
Michael Schumacher climbed back in the standings by winning the next three races, while mistakes and mechanical failures cost both Häkkinen and Coulthard points.
Finally, a strategic master stroke in Hungary allowed Schumacher to take the win, with Häkkinen only managing sixth, and close the championship gap again, to just seven points.
The start of a typically rain-filled Belgian Grand Prix saw one of the worst accidents in Formula One history, with over half the cars on the grid crashing into each other after the first corner.
An action-packed race saw Mika Häkkinen spin out into retirement at the restart and saw Michael Schumacher crashing into David Coulthard when trying to lap him.
And the season concluded in Japan, where Häkkinen won without any challenge from Schumacher, who stalled on the grid and retired from a blown tyre later in the race.