The 10 biggest controversies in F1 history

formula one has always been a hotbed of controversy rarely does a season go by without some allegation of cheating a dramatic on-track incident or political arguments becoming a huge talking point it happens so regularly that sifting it down to a choice of the 10 biggest proved to be a big challenge our choices include some that resulted in sporting or financial penalties but others went unpunished what matters here is that these are the most talked about controversies that have hit f1 and that they remain as subject to debate to this day in some cases decades after they happened ferraris austria 2002 team orders team orders have caused problems for as long as motorsport has existed but the most explosive reaction of all came when rubens barrichello lifted off just before the finish line to let ferrari teammate michael schumacher passed to win the 2002 austrian grand prix the timing was a result of the lengthy dispute between barrichello and the ferrari pit wall meaning he didn't seed until the last moment and only after team boss john tot directly ordered him to do so several times inevitably this led to an outcry the reason it was so unpopular was just how unnecessary it was given it was only the sixth rate of the season this meant schumacher's championship lead over juan pablo montoya was 27 points rather than 23 and this remember was in the days of 10 points for a win schumacher didn't fully grasp just how unpopular this was until he was on the podium greeted by jeers and booze he made barakello take to the top step for the german national anthem and gave him the winners trophy this proved to be the only thing ferrari was actually punished for with a 1 million fine half of it suspended for a year for failing to respect the podium procedure as a result team orders were banned from f1 until 2011. ferrari also led to that reversal of the rule change thanks to another team orders controversy involving fernando alonso and felipe massa in the 2010 german grand prix the f1 drivers strike disputes between drivers and f1's governing body aren't unusual but at the 1982 season opening south african grand prix things boiled over ahead of thursday practice most of the drivers boarded a bus and headed from the kyle army circuit to the sunnyside park hotel in johannesburg the dispute was over new terms added to their super licenses the first of which would bind their licence to the team for the full term of their contract and prevent drivers changing teams the second was a clause preventing drivers doing anything that might harm the moral or material interests of motorsport and f1 effectively this silenced any criticism spearheaded by the returning nikki louder and gpda chairman didio peroni with the latter acting as the key go-between with fisa president jean-marie bellesch there were genuine fears that the impasse might not be broken the drivers spent thursday night in a makeshift dormitory in the hotel as they showed real solidarity with a few exceptions but they did return to the circuit on friday before racing on saturday blessed initially attempted to backtrack on assurances the drivers would not be censured although they did ultimately escape punishment but for one day and a night the strike was a global news story and it was the high point of the long-running fisa fokker war that shaped modern f1 the pink mercedes when the racing point rp20 broke cover at barcelona pre-season testing in 2020 it brought a striking resemblance to the 2019 title-winning mercedes w10 it was soon dubbed the pink mercedes the name stuck and thanks to the delayed start to the season it wasn't until the second race of 2020 the styrian grand prix that renault protested the very rapid racing point focusing specifically on the brake ducts racing point was cleared of everything except for illegally designed rear brake ducts this is because it had received the designs from mercedes when it was legal before brake ducts were added to the listed parts teams must design themselves for 2020 but crucially it had not run that design of rear brake duct in 2019 because it did not work with the higher rate concept racing point used then so it did not qualify to be carried over into 2020 as racing point's own design unlike the front brake ducts racing point was docked 15 points and fined 400 000 euros but that didn't end the controversy the threat of protests wasn't dropped until the fia finalised new regulations outlawing so-called copycat cars for 2021 the singapore grand prix race fix nelson pk jr's crash exiting turn 18 while running 16th in the 2008 singapore grand prix is the most infamous in f1 history it was the key moment of renault manipulating the race to ensure that pk's teammate fernando alonso won despite starting 16th having suffered a fuel pump failure in qualifying the following year it emerged that pk had been ordered by the team's executive director of engineering pat simmons to cause a well-timed safety car after alonso made an early pit stop this instruction was given during a meeting on sunday afternoon ahead of the race with team principal flavio briatori present after the ensuing investigation briatori was given a life ban from f1 with simmons a five-year ban although both punishments were subsequently reduced pk was indemnified for his cooperation having brought the incident to the fia's attention while alonso was exonerated as having no knowledge of the manipulation the prost sena zazuka wipeouts title deciding collisions aren't unusual in f1 but the clashes between alain prost and erton senna at zazuka in 1989 and 1990 are the most contentious the first happened in the penultimate race of 1989 as senna gradually closed the gap on his mclaren teammate for the race lead on lap 47 he made his move to the inside approaching the chicane only for pros to turn in on him in a move cena later described as unforgivable the pair collided with prostout on the spot and senna rejoining to win only to be disqualified for missing the chicane this allowed prost to clinch the title with a race to spare and gave benetton driver alessandro nanini his sole f1 win cena's subsequent allegations that the fia had favoured prost led to the threat of him not being granted a super license for the following season history repeated itself in 1990 only even more spectacularly cena started on pole position but lost the lead to prost now driving for ferrari on the run to turn one senna looked to the inside kept his foot in and wiped both out this time it was senna who clinched the title with a race to spare but he faced a barrage of criticism for causing a crash at approaching 150 miles an hour at the time cena blamed crossed for turning in on him but a year later he confessed that he was responsible peyronie's stolen victory the 1982 san marino grand prix remains one of the most talked about races in f1 history thanks to the row between ferrari teammates didier perrone and giovilnov the controversy rages to this day did peyronie disregard an explicit team order to beat vilniuf was it a genuine misunderstanding or were no team orders ever really issued what is beyond question is that vlnerv overtook peyronie for the lead on the penultimate lap losing it again at piritella a lap later villeneuve was furious and felt betrayed by having the wind taken from him to complicate matas as only 14 cars entered the race thanks to the fisa fokker war the ferrari and renault drivers agreed privately to put on a show race in the first half of the grand prix to guarantee action villeneuve believed peyronie was continuing to do this to the end and would eventually take second only on the last lap did the penny drop the truth probably lies somewhere between the various explanations most likely it seems that the famous pit board with slow on it was first displayed at the end of lap 53 the same lap that velnov ran wide and lost the lead it was therefore inadvertently shown when peyronie was in front there was also confusion as to whether the slow was a warning about fuel levels or if it really did mean hold position while peroni likely realised the intent of the instruction the uncertainty allowed him to argue that he had the right to win an opportunity he took villeneuve took his anger to the grave losing his life in a qualifying crash at zolda two weeks later while peyronie's reputation was damaged for good hunt's british grand prix disqualification the first attempt to start the 1976 british grand prix at bran's hatch resulted in a red flag after clay regards only clashed with ferrari teammate nikki louder and spun james hunt couldn't quite get around the spinning records only with his mclaren briefly flicked up into the air before coming crashing down damaging the front suspension officials world hunt would not be able to make the restart although the car had got back to the pits he didn't complete the full lap before doing so instead he pulled up at the end of the cooper strait where the car was recovered to the pits via a cut-through by the team as team boss teddy mayer argued hunt should be allowed to start the front suspension was changed and the car repaired meaning the spare mclaren m23 wasn't required with a crowd chanting we want hunt eventually the officials came to placate the fans and hunt started and won the race an initial protest against hunt was thrown out on the day it wasn't until ferrari lodged a third protest that the result was finally overturned and hunt was disqualified handing louder victory just over two months later benetton's 1994 season michael schumacher and benetton's driver's championship winning campaign in 1994 is the most controversial in f1 history in a tragic season remembered for the death of earth and senna benetton was rarely out of the headlines and for more than just his wins accusations of using traction control which were never proved even though the innuendo remains to this day arose early in the season the fia also investigated and cleared benetton for using launch control which could be engaged via the infamous option 13 accessible via a connected laptop benetton also pleaded guilty to illegally modifying its refuelling rig by removing a fuel filter from the hose but escape penalty as the manufacturer had given it and others permission to do so but it should be noted this is not reckoned to have caused joss verstappen's famous german grand prix refuelling fire schumacher was excluded from the british grand prix for ignoring a penalty for illegally passing damon hill on the formation lap and was also hit with a two-race ban for the offence keeping him out of the italian and portuguese grand prix he also lost victory at spa for what the fia deemed to be a legal plank ware the season culminated with schumacher turning in on hill in adelaide causing a collision that clinched the world championship for the benetton driver a worthy champion certainly but also a controversial one mclaren spy scandal accusations of espionage are not unusual on f1 but in 2007 mclaren was found guilty of both possessing and using ferrari design data the result was an enormous 100 million dollar fine and mclaren being stripped of its constructors championship points costing it the title the twists and turns of the case are astonishing it all started with ferrari investigating race and testing manager nigel stepney who was ultimately sentenced to 20 months in prison for sabotage industrial espionage and sporting fraud although he did not serve any jail time the fia's investigation found that stepney had exchanged information with mclaren chief designer mike coughlin who was found to be in possession of a 780-page ferrari technical dossier and to have passed information to other members of the mclaren team and it all came to light thanks to an anonymous employee of awoking photocopy shop spotting the documents being copied and tipping off ferrari the indy 2005 tire farce the 2005 united states grand prix was the weekend formula one's intransigence allowed it to descend into farce only the six bridgestone shod cars started the race with a 14 michelin runners pulling into the pits at the end of the formation lap it all started with toyota driver ralph schumacher's massive accident at the final corner during friday practice the result of a rear-left michelin tyre failure it wasn't a one-off michelin was in trouble the reasons for the michelin tyre problems were multi-fold rule changes covering the height of the front wing endplates meant there was less of a benefit from ground effect and led to inconsistent downforce levels and therefore load spikes in the corner that created aerodynamic bouncing the tyres had to absorb this was also the year that f1 switched to tyres that had to last the full race distance requiring harder compounds and meaning less grip michelin compensated for this with an even more flexible sidewall but that flexing combined with the aerodynamic bouncing effect resulted in the steel belt inside the tyre detaching from the sidewall on top of this the track had been diamond ground over the winter which also changed the loads on the tyres the michelin tyres being unable to handle loads created this situation but the real reason the race became a six-car fast dominated by ferrari duo michael schumacher and ruben's barrichello was because the teams the fia and the tyre suppliers failed to find a solution various options were tabled including the imposition of a last corner speed limit and the addition of a chicane but to f1 shame no compromise was found those are our choices of f1's greatest controversies but let us know in the comments below which ones we've missed if you enjoyed this video give us a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe and hit the notifications bell so you never miss a thing from the race

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 1,382,296

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, f1 controversy, f1 illegal, f1 cheating, f1 rules, singapore f1 2008, crashgate, piquet singapore, spy scandal, mclaren, ferrari, spygate, indianapolis 2005, michelin, pink mercedes, prost, senna, suzuka, crash, gilles villeneuve, f1 drivers strike, FISA v FOCA, F1 politics, The Race, the-race.com, F1 list, F1 countdown, F1 top 10, @wearetherace, edd straw

Id: Ia4xtbICIUU

Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/nokeldin42]

I'm a bit surprised Ferrari's engine cheating didn't make it in. Maybe because it was "resolved" behind closed doors, but imo that only added to the controversy.