FILTER FIDDLING FUELS FIREBALL! The Story of the 1994 German Grand Prix

[Music] with the amount of stuff that happened during the 1994 season it could easily fill one of those 23 episode American TV Seasons or whatever they're called because there was just so much happening that the writers would never be short of content and it would be the easiest job they'd ever have but unlike those American TV seasons there wouldn't be 18 Standalone episodes just to fill the contract with maybe one story arc in the middle and then three episodes at the end to sort of round it out this would be pure quality as well as quantity for real though 1994 has Hollywood written all over it there's people that could be goodies there's people that could be baddies there's twists and turns there's grit there's drama there's comedy there's tragedy it's got everything they might even have to change certain bits of it to make it more believable there's a um well we'll call it a film based off certain historical events where they actually had to change one of the characters well I say one of the characters one of the actual people in the film if that makes any sense because he was so evil in real life they didn't think that it would be believable in the film so 1994 it seems excessive but that doesn't mean it didn't happen now this is where I'm put in a difficult position I could tell you everything that happened even though regular viewers will just sigh and Skip ahead because they've heard it all before don't blame you or I couldn't recap it and then get complaints that I forgot to talk about something that's how much material the 1994 Form 1 season has provided through being what it was it was like 1976 2014 2016 2021 1990 1989 or 1982 one of those made for Hollywood types of Seasons but for this video we're going into the second half of the 1994 season where the heat is going to get cranked up metaphorically and well he's about to find out literally it's July the checked flag has just descended on the British G Prix and Damon Hill has achieved what his late greata never could win the British gor Prix Graham never win the British gor Prix Damon never won at Monaco it's one of those weird facts you might like to pull out of your trivia tank whenever you feel the need but those celebrations had the shine taken off because schumacker and the beniton had just been disqualified from second place so all the attention was on that this has been covered in its own Standalone video but the Billy basic explanation is that Michael overtook Damon on the formation lab LED most of that lap and then when the start had to be aborted due to kard stalling his Williams Michael did it again there was a huge and the FIA decided to Black Flag schumacker for failure to obey black flags like I said I've covered it all before I'll leave a card for you so the FIA started mulling over the punishment for schumacker doing their investigations reading reports other bits and pieces and also having to deal with the so-called option 13 thing because at this time Benetton was still delaying the FIA showing up to have a look at their engine control software and other bits and pieces and I've talked about option 133 more times than I care to count because it's such an interesting Saga and one that will be debated ated until the end of time and insults such as Sena widows salty Brit and cheaters will be lobbed around by all parties but some reckon that the three race ban might be to just sort of give an excuse to do something about the option 13 stuff who knows it's the FIA and it works in mysterious ways but on the Monday or the Tuesday of the raw ke LOL meme the FIA decided that they were going to hand schumacker a three race ban for his actions at silverston a three race ban would have dented his title prospects that after the Monaco Grand prie the Williams car had become less Twitchy and a bit easier to drive and set up you'd think in some sort of massive dark Twist of irony the safety and Rule changes brought about by sena's accident at IMA might have actually helped Williams a bit so the thinking was no Michael on the grid means that Damon should in that Williams be able to score a massive chunk of points and it was a lot of points to overhaul remember that only the top six scored points in these days and it was 10 6 4 3 21 for those places and schumacker had a 27-point lead over Damon it had been 37 points but Damon had clawed back 10 of those with his win at silverston with schumacker potentially gone for three races Damon could enter the Italian Grand Prix seven points in the lead and this three R band was going to start at the German Grand Prix a shumak a noow when the crowds were turning up just to see Michael would have caused a bit of chaos the gor PRI was a total sellout and had been sold out since March 140,000 people were expected through the gate on race day so it could be around the 300,000 Mark for the weekend and the crowds were not happy that their new sporting hero had been told to stay away from the car and not being allowed to race the unhappiness was causing a lot of concern the crowds were leaving piles of wood near the circuit and the authorities were worried that the Germans would start a few bonfires with this wood and potentially end up starting quite the forest fire the mayor of hackenheim faced with all this unrest and a mob setting fire to his Forest begged the FIA to let shimaka race but Benetton had a trick of its sleeve and that was to Simply appeal the decision while under appeal Schumaker was allowed to race but they were still playing a little bit of a game of rushian roulette with what they were doing they had V8 engines so hackenheim was going to be a track where they were going to suffer because hackenheim was the power tracks power track Wings on the car were just for show more than anything the Ford V8 was going to be down on power versus the Rena in the two Williams cars and quite a bit down on the Ferrari v12s turning up to hackenheim for a smattering of points would help them if the FIA decided to uphold the ban they'd walk away with at least some form of damage limitation that's outcome number one they walk away with something just in case the FIA decides that schumacker is banned for Hungary spart and Monza after delaying the ban thanks to the appeal because hungry and Spar suited the Benetton better on the other hand if it takes a while for the appeal to go through it could mean that the beneton is banned from racing as a track that it's good at outcome number two is the worst case scenario that the FIA takes precedent from earlier in the season and triples the ban like it did with Eddie Irvine after he was blamed for the accident in Brazil that accident almost saw Martin brundle get his head taken off by ven's car Jordan had appealed that ban only to see it triple in severity so there was the very real prospect that shaka's season was over but unlikely and then there's the best case scenario that the FIA just drops the issue entirely and allows Michael to carry on with no penalty other than the disqualification from the British G Prix although the FIA also has precedent with Nigel Manel in 1989 who committed the exact same offense and got a One race ban so really they're dealing with the first option in terms of a realistic outcome come the tension at the track dropped a bit but security was heightened because Damon Hill had been informed by his Williams team that a German newspaper had received a threat to the effect of Damon will be shot if he qualifies ahead of Michael a number of people seem to think that I somehow should be blamed for his plight Damon said it could have been a prank of course but these days you never know and we took every precaution and this wasn't just an overreaction to one person sending one letter to one personal newspaper the previous year 1993 tennis player Monica C had been stabbed on court with a 9-in knife by an obsessed Stephie graph fan who is like Scher German so there was reason to believe that it could happen again just in a different sport Damon had to go in through a back entrance to the circuit and had to have an escort by Zer Roes to and from the venue as well as having someone guard his hotel room I'm not making this up the security was also stepped up for Gerhard burer when he put his Ferrari on pole position on Saturday afternoon 410 back was the other Ferrari of a lazy sh that the V12 really had a home on this particular track Damon was third only 100th behind a lazy and schumacker was 2/10 back still being on an open top car as fireworks flares and claxons went off didn't do much to ease Damon's nerves but the attempt on his life wasn't carried out and on was to the race it was Ferrari's first front row lockout since 1990 and they were looking for their first win since 1990 Ferrari was in the middle of quite the baron patch having not won a race in nearly four years so they were pretty much on for winning this Grand Prix so long as the V12 is held up obviously a lazy might have had pole if not for his engine cover flying off at the osur which explains his Gap to Burger the track was also slightly modified for this year the third chicane had a tighter entry and had been renamed Senna and the first chane while not having any major changes was now called The Clark chicane having been called The brm Curve 1 since it was installed in 1970 when the race began it was yet another mark on the Carnage field season of 1994 Andrea deesis hit Alberto taking them off on opposite sides of the track and this also took out zady up ahead hackin and hit future teammate kard that caused a melee that wiped out as many as 10 cars listed in the retirements as not completing a lap due to a collision were hacken Blondell fren Irvine barello Herbert Tzus martini zady and Alberto haakan would later pick up a Bound for causing the biggest of the three separate incidents kard had his front Wing broken in the chaos and up towards the first chicane a LA's car broke down as the electric went katayama had managed to get ahead of shimaka and Hill in his tile but shaca was able to get back in front by the second chicane into the third Kama and Hill Tangled with Hill getting bent suspension for his trouble this elated the German fans you'd think then that the race would have been stopped because 10 cars were wiped out before the first corner and a lazy had stopped just before the first chicane at well the fastest track on the Formula 1 Calendar at that time but no there was no red flag there wasn't even a safety car cynics among you would think that they didn't stop the race or bring out the safety car because schuma was now in second and Hill was in the pits getting his suspension fixed but it is what it is despite the engine disadvantage schuma was able to keep up with burer thanks to having an absolutely tiny rear wing and running a little lighter on fuel and schuma would enter the pits for his first stop on lap 13 of the 45 that were scheduled he came out behind vapen who let him through and then Yos the boss was in a couple of laps later fappen entered the pits drove into his box and they started changing the tires when the fuel rig operator Simon moley tried to put the hose on it wasn't fitting properly so as he took it off to try and have another attempt to putting it back on the fuel didn't just trickle out it sprayed out some of that fuel had spilled onto the hot exhaust of the beniton and also the front right brake disc and this was enough to set this fuel on fire I watched the footage to see how long it took and I've timed it it's around 1.8 seconds from the fuel splashing to the time it ignites might be a little bit less my reactions with the stop aren't that good could have just used some editing software but what's the fun in that anyway it's made even scarier when you consider how much more tightly packed pit lanes were in those days plus those two massive pressurized canisters that are in this Photograph I hope that's not oxygen in there there's also a more harrowing picture of this incident that you've probably seen it's of benett and mechanic Paul CB completely dowed in petrol Flames like something out of an action film others who were injured include ven moley and Wayne Bennett with the latter having to stick his foot in a toilet because there was not enough cold water to go around there's an autop sport article that has some images that are just insane they're almost not real members of other teams ran to help it was only 6 lers that sprayed onto ven's car but as you can see from the footage and the photographs that's enough vapen and moley needed extended treatment but other than that there weren't any proper serious injuries it also meant that shimaka was effectively out of the race half of his crew was getting treatment for burns in the pit area was caked in foam so he couldn't get fuel or tires his engine died on lap 21 anyway so the car ended itself before the fuel tank could dry up so what happened well more cheating accusations were thrown around afterwards all the fuel hoses contained a filter made by the French company inter technique and it was alleged that Benetton had removed this filter designed to restrict the fuel flow to an FIA approved limit and in doing so bennetton would gain a Competitive Edge in the pit stops this had been hinted at as early as Brazil when Sena had entered the pits first and then emerged behind shoeer it's reckoned that not having this filter installed to the hoses was saving bennetton about a second in the pit stops and the allegations of cheating were piling up on Benetton and schumacker over the course of the year as mentioned the option 13 thing was still going on and Charlie Whiting along with the independent investigators ldra had found the Smoking Gun if you want to call it that of the launch control software in the Benetton ECU this could be turned on through a laptop or using some sort of video game style cheat code not only with the option 13 Revelations being presented to the FIA World Motorsport Council the FIA also wanted a little chat about this fuel flow thing that meeting was brought forward to the 7th of September when the FIA sat down to discuss the disqualification of Schumaker from the Belgian gu Prix in what would be the first edition of plank gate so basically they were discussing the whole plank thing and the fuel thing at the same time the FIA was close to throwing the book at Benetton for what had happened especially since the fire could have been so much worse if not for the quick thinking of the mechanics in the pit Lane not just the Benetton ones but all the other teams that helped the day before the hearing though the larus team gave Benetton a Lifeline they contacted the FIA and said that inter technique had told them to remove this fuel filter and Benetton was under the impression that everybody had removed this filter with the exception of four teams who those four teams are I don't know Williams might be one of them now this is where things get confusing because the FIA said that beniton had not removed it to cheat but they had removed it without the authorization of inter technique to gain an Advantage maybe because Benetton weren't told to but then found out through sheer look that Laro had been told to by that manufacturer aners on the postcard because that doesn't make sense because removed it without the authorization of inter technique to gain an advantage isn't that still cheating Benetton was found guilty but they were spared punishment because of the fact that Laro had told the FIA that inter technique had told them to remove this particular fuel filter so the plea mitigation yeah the mitigation ple was found valid but they were still disqualified from the Belgian G Prix which is a video I still need to do in the future the thing is the fire in the Benetton pit Lane in that German Grand Prix distracts from the fact that burer won that race ahead of the two liet who were able to take advantage of the attrition this was Ferrari's first win since pross won at herth in 1990 and Burger's first win in two years had Burger won without the fireball happening it would have been a more popular Victory than it was at the time given that burger had lost a good friend in Senna and a countryman in ratsenberg a few months prior Damon would be eighth and a lap down due to the collision with katayama whose throttle went on lap six so he was unable to take a bite out of the championship lead Schumaker was then allowed to race at Hungary before the Belgian Grand PRI disqualification and then missed out in monzo and esteril as the FIA upheld the ban meanwhile other than having quite valuable sperm yosa stapper is pretty much known for this one thing while he did suffer Burns to his face due to his Visa being up when he entered the pit box the longer lasting effects are strange which sometimes happens with Burns you know I was set on fire a couple of years ago it's not nice when V sappan drinks wine he can feel the burning and the redness from it flares up from time to time CB has since joked that when he started dating his wife the only picture his future mother-in-law had of him was the one of him on fire so somewhere in his mother-in-law's house was brother-in-law's wedding sister-in-law's wedding other daughter's boyfriend on fire I would actually say it's one of my three earliest motorport Memories the first is the wheel coming off the manard IMA in that same year the third is brundle going over at Melbourne in 1996 and the second is this one I remember watching it I was only young but I remember it and it's one of those things that's played over and over because of the shock it caused the millions around the world thankfully Fireballs of this scale are rare yes there was Pedro Den is in 1996 which was probably about a year and a half later and then there was groan at Bahrain in 2020 or sakir whatever the name name of the race was so thankfully even though we still have these three case studies they're incredibly rare and that's a good thing so then a look at the VAP of Fireball of 1994 if this has explained something that you thought was interesting then a like on this video would be appreciated and for more stuff from the channel subscribe and get that Bell on so you never miss out massive thanks as ever to the Fine bunch of lads at patreon and if you want to help keep the picture purchasing piggy bank topped up then a link is in the description along with links to Discord socials and Affiliates or this super thanks if you just want to do a one and done so until next time I've been a m have a great day and [Music] goodbye

Channel: Aidan Millward

Views: 29,182

Keywords: 1994 f1 season, formula one, imola 1994, ayrton senna, michael schumacher, benetton, cheating, scandal, option 13, aiden millward, the race, bring back v10s, autosport, podcast, talking head, history, explained, pit stops, jos verstappen, max verstappen, racing, 1994 german grand prix, 1994 san marino grand prix, schumacher cheating, adelaide 1994, motorsport, motor racing, indycar, nascar, wtf1, matt gallagher, tommo, aldas, josh revell

Id: Lj9AmkezHxA

Length: 16min 52sec (1012 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2024