F1’s Biggest Ever Scandals – Global Sports Planet

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Formula 1 is one of the biggest and most popular sports in the world. It moves hundreds of millions of dollars every year and attracts the attention of many media outlets.

The category is called the pinnacle of motorsport, known for its great competitiveness and rivalry, as well as its prestige and glamour. The margins in Formula 1 are very small, and sometimes the difference between victory and defeat is just a few milliseconds.

Much has happened since its creation in 1950. It has gone from being an experimental car competition to the benchmark of all motorsports. In these more than 70 years there has been everything, including many scandals and controversies that stained the sport and marked a before and after.

That said, today we are going to look at what have been the biggest scandals in the history of Formula 1.

1. The Crashgate Scandal

The first Singapore Grand Prix, held in 2008 and which was the first night race in the history of Formula 1, was shrouded in controversy caused by the Renault team. Renault, which had won the 2005 and 2006 titles with Fernando Alonso, had a drop in performance from 2007 onwards, struggling with midfield teams.

The 2008 Singapore Grand Prix looked like another one for the French team, with Alonso starting from the fifteenth position and his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. from the sixteenth, but the situation changed quickly in the race.

Alonso was the only driver who had made an early pit stop, and in turn 17 on lap 14, Piquet crashed into the barriers, causing a safety car. Alonso was promoted to the race lead, while other cars made their stop under the safety car conditions. The Spaniard eventually won the race, and Piquet claimed that it was simply a mistake.

However, after Piquet left Renault in 2009, he alleged that he deliberately crashed, following orders from Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds, to give Alonso an advantage.

Following an investigation, Renault F1 was charged with conspiracy. Briatore received a lifetime ban while Symonds received a 5-year ban. Briatore returned to F1 in 2022 as an ambassador, while Symonds returned in 2011 as a technical advisor to Virgin Racing.

2. 2005 United States GP

The 2005 United States Grand Prix, held at the Indianapolis Speedway, is considered the worst race in the history of Formula 1, and an embarrassment to many. During the 2005 season, there were two tire suppliers, Michelin, used by most teams, and Bridgestone, only used by 3 teams: Ferrari, Jordan, and Minardi.

During Friday\’s free practice sessions, some of the Michelin teams had accidents at the banked, high-speed Turn 13 of the tack, and after an investigation, Michelin announced that it could not ensure the safety of its tires during the race, because they could not withstand the enormous stress of Turn 13.

After several negotiations on possible solutions, there was no agreement between F1, the FIA, Michelin, and the teams, so the Grand Prix continued as normal. On Sunday, before the race started, the Michelin teams did the installation lap and went to the garage, so that when the lights went out, only 3 teams started the race, under the astonished eyes of the whole world.

With only 6 cars, the race was very boring, with no overtaking. The Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were first and second, and the modest Jordan of Thiago Monteiro was third. Spectators booed the Grand Prix and called for a refund. This tarnished the image of Formula 1 and the FIA for a long time.

3. 2021 Abu Dhabi GP

The 2021 season was one of the most intense of the hybrid era in Formula 1, with Max Verstappen breaking Mercedes\’ dominance and fighting until the last round for the title against former world champion Lewis Hamilton. Both drivers were very evenly matched throughout the year and had many accidents and clashes.

Verstappen and Hamilton both reached the final race, the Abu Dhabi GP with 369.5 points. On Saturday, Verstappen took the pole position, while Hamilton was second, but in the race, he overtook the Dutchman at the first corner and soon consolidated the lead, where he stayed for most of the race.

However, with 5 laps to go, an accident by Nicholas Latifi caused a Safety Car. Verstappen and other drivers took the opportunity to change tires, while Hamilton stayed out.

After several laps with the Safety Car deployed and the tension of the championship, the race direction decided to restart the race with one lap to go and allowed the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to overtake the Safety Car, leaving both drivers side by side. Verstappen, taking advantage of his fresh tires, overtook Hamilton in an intense last lap to claim the world championship.

This abrupt decision to restart the race with only one lap to go, obviously influenced by the championship picture, generated a lot of controversies, with the Mercedes team denouncing the situation. In the end, Verstappen retained the championship, but the situation forced the departure of race director Michael Masi.

4. Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost: 1989 & 1990 Season

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost are two great icons of Formula 1, starring during the 80s and 90s in what is probably the most famous rivalry in the history of the category. The Frenchman and the Brazilian were teammates at McLaren in 1988 and 1989, where they forged their infamous rivalry.

In 1988, it was Senna who won the title, in his first year with McLaren. In 1989, the two fought to the end for the championship. In the Japanese GP, on lap 46, Senna attempted to pass Prost from far away to take the lead at the last chicane, and the two collided. Prost retired from the race, while Senna was helped by the marshals and was able to continue, eventually winning the race.

After this incident, Prost went to the stewards to denounce the action of the Brazilian, who was later disqualified, so the Frenchman won his third title in a very controversial way. The following season, in 1990, with the Frenchman already at Ferrari, history repeated itself, with Prost and Senna fighting for the championship at the Japanese GP.

After having lost the 1989 championship in the office, being disqualified and sanctioned, Senna took his revenge a year later. The Brazilian, who started from pole position, lost the position to Prost at the start, but in the first corner, he had the inside and did not yield, which caused both to collide and retire from the race, which was enough for him to win the championship.

The Frenchman was extremely angry with this move, while the Brazilian came to the pits looking little proud of what he had done, marking another historic event in this iconic rivalry.

5. The Spygate Scandal

Formula 1 teams are always pushing the limits, trying to find those thousandths that can make their cars faster. They often \”copy\” or take inspiration from the cars of other teams whose innovations have proven to be effective, although sometimes this has gone too far, such as McLaren during the 2007 season.

McLaren and Ferrari were the fastest teams in 2007 and fought throughout the year for both the drivers\’ and constructors\’ titles. However, in the middle of the season, a spying scandal known as \”Spygate\” came to light, which was a series of accusations by Formula 1 teams that confidential technical information had been passed between them.

Specifically, there were allegations that Ferrari\’s head of Team Performance Development, Nigel Stepney, had passed a substantial amount of technical information regarding the team\’s cars, plans and finances to McLaren\’s Mike Coughlan.

After several months of investigation and trials, McLaren was fined $100 million and disqualified from the constructors\’ championship. Its drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso could fight for the championship but lost the title by one point in the last round to Ferrari\’s Kimi Räikkönen.

6. 1997 European GP

Canadian Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve and German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher fought intensely for the title throughout the 1997 season, reaching the final round, the European Grand Prix, held at the Jerez circuit, as title contenders, separated by just one point.

On Saturday, in qualifying, both Schumacher and Villeneuve and his teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen set the same time. Villeneuve received the pole position while Schumacher started second.

On Sunday, Schumacher took the lead at the first corner, and stayed there for most of the race, while Villeneuve followed closely behind. On lap 48, at turn 6, the Canadian tried to overtake on the inside, but Schumacher, desperate not to be passed, turned inside, causing a collision between the two.

Villeneuve was able to continue the race, but Schumacher got stuck in the gravel and retired. The Canadian finished third, good enough to win the title. An investigation was opened after the race, and Schumacher was disqualified from the championship for his move, which greatly tarnished his racing career.

7. Max Mosley Sex Scandal

Max Mosley, who was FIA president from 1993 to 2009, ruled Formula 1 with an iron fist during all those years, however, he was not without controversy.

In 2007, the News of the World newspaper leaked a video allegedly showing Mosley performing Nazi-themed acts with 5 prostitutes in the bedroom. Mosley sued the newspaper and in 2008 won the lawsuit, clearing his name that he was not part of a \”Nazi-themed\” orgy.

Despite this, it greatly tarnished Mosley\’s image, and more so considering his past, as his father, Oswald Mosley, was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. This scandal began his decline in power, and in 2009 he was replaced as FIA President by Jean Todt.

8. The Rascassegate

Qualifying for the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix had a dramatic ending that went down in history as one of the most controversial moments in the category. In Q3, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap, provisionally taking pole position.

However, during the last part of the session, when the drivers were completing their final laps, the German, who was on course to set a slower lap, ran wide at the Rascasse corner and parked his Ferrari on the exit of the corner.

This brought out the yellow flags, so all drivers had to abort their laps, preventing them from improving on Schumacher\’s time. The German, who had clearly done this deliberately, was relegated to the back of the grid by the stewards.

Felipe Massa, Schumacher\’s teammate, revealed a conversation within the Ferrari team prior to the incident, stating that the German deliberately pulled out after a suggestion from Ross Brawn, Ferrari\’s technical director, as he explained:

“We had a meeting with the team, we were talking about the qualifying […] Then you had two sets of tires for the qualifying. And Michael said something: ‘Yeah but I mean if we are quicker straight away and then we go in for the second set…’ […] And Ross Brawn said: ‘Maybe we can create a yellow flag’. And I said: ‘For fun. Not seriously, for fun.” […] It happens exactly that [way]. So Michael used that funny thing for him to do.”

The German did not acknowledge that he did it deliberately until a year later, according to Massa.

9. 1981 Belgian GP

The 1981 Belgian Grand Prix was surrounded by controversy, chaos, and tragedy from start to finish. Before the GP, the pit lane was criticized because it was too narrow and dangerous, so it was announced that new pits and a wider pit lane would be built in 1982.

However, on Friday, one of the Osella team mechanics tripped over the pit wall and fell into the pit lane, being run over by Carlos Reutemann\’s car, which was unable to avoid him. Giovanni Amadeo, the mechanic, suffered a skull fracture and died days later.

This incident caused an outcry among the mechanics on race day, which was joined by many drivers, causing many cars to overheat from standing still for so long, while other cars started the formation lap.

Amidst this chaos, Ricardo Patrese\’s engine overheated, so unable to start, he began waving his arms, while his mechanic Dave Luckett went to the back of the car to start it. However, the lights went off and the cars started, and Patrese\’s teammate, Siegfried Stohr impacted right into Luckett.

Miraculously, Luckett survived, albeit with a broken leg and lacerations. Following this Grand Prix, the FIA introduced the rule prohibiting tires from being on the starting grid 15 seconds before the formation lap.

10. Brabham BT46B – 1978 Swedish GP

The 1978 season was dominated by Lotus Team and Mario Andretti, with the famous and innovative Lotus 79 ground effect, which changed the way of understanding aerodynamics in Formula 1. However, halfway through the season, for the Swedish GP, Brabham introduced the \”B\” version of its BT46, designed by Gordon Murray, which attracted everyone\’s attention and was the talk of the town for a long time.

Murray, who knew that the secret of the Lotus 79 was not in the spoilers, as many suggested, but under the car, and knowing that he could not apply it to the Brabham BT46A, as it was too wide, was inspired to improve the BT46A by the Chaparral 2J, an experimental car that had fans that pushed the air passing under the car and that had proven to be tremendously fast, to improve the BT46A.

Formula 1 had very clear rules that prevented moving aerodynamics on the cars, but Murray began to develop a fan car with the premise that it would serve to cool the engine, which served to pass the FIA tests. Brabham put the BT46B on track at the 1978 Swedish GP, with a giant fan at the rear of the car, generating great protest among the rest of the teams.

Knowing that this car would absolutely dominate the grid, both Niki Lauda and John Watson were ordered not to go too fast in qualifying, lest they get pole position. In the race, however, Lauda won the race without any problems, half a minute ahead of 2nd and 3rd, describing it afterward as the easiest victory of his life.

After the Swedish GP in 1978, the Brabham BT46B was banned, with the excuse that the fan car raised too much dust. Thus, the BT46B is the only car in F1 history to win every race it has ever raced and could have broken all F1 records.

11. 2003 Michelin Tires

For the 2003 season, there were two tire suppliers, Bridgestone, which had been in the category since 1997 and supplied 5 teams (Ferrari, Sauber, Jordan, BAR, and Minardi), and Michelin, which had returned to the category in 2001, supplying 5 other teams (McLaren, Williams, Renault, Jaguar, and Toyota).

The Michelin teams, led by McLaren, started the season very well, with 2 wins and the rest of the podium positions in 3 races, which were succeeded by 3 wins in a row by Michael Schumacher\’s Ferrari, but which dropped in performance after that while the Michelin teams had successes.

Before the summer break, Bridgestone noticed that the Michelin tires had degradation in the sidewalls, which was an unusual location, and meant that they expanded during use, breaching the rule that the tread width must be 270 MM. In addition, this resulted in less degradation, better tire cooling, and a better overall lifetime.

Despite Michelin\’s claim that they had used the same design since joining the sport, an investigation was opened, and they were forced to redesign a new tire compound that complied with the rules.

After redesigning a new tire in the 3 weeks of summer break, Michelin cars, which were not designed for this new tire, declined, while Ferrari resurged, winning the drivers\’ championship with Michael Schumacher and the constructors\’ championship.

12. Lotus 88 – Twin Chassis

Team Lotus, led by Colin Chapman, enjoyed great success during the 1960s and 1970s, introducing many innovations to the category, such as the ground effect, which they made the most of. Lotus was the pioneer of many of the things we see today in Formula 1 cars, so it is a team that has had great importance in the history of the category.

3 years after dominating the championship with Mario Andretti and the ground effect Lotus 79, the team had fallen in performance during the following years, as rivals copied and improved their invention, so something had to be done to turn the situation around. To do this, Colin Chapman, along with Martin Ogilvie and Peter Wright had the unusual and ingenious idea of designing a car with a double chassis, one inside the other.

The inner chassis carried the cockpit, engine, and gearbox, and acted independently of the outer chassis, which carried the aerodynamic elements and was designed to counteract the pressures of the ground effect, as it generated many G forces after the banning of the skirts.

While the rest of the teams protested about this design, Chapman tried to race the Lotus 88 in several races but was never able to compete because it either broke or failed to pass scrutiny, until it was finally banned by the FIA. Despite breaking down, the Lotus 88 had extraordinary potential.

13. Ferrari Staged Finish – 2002 Austrian GP

Team orders are always controversial in Formula 1. Some believe that they are necessary while others believe that they break the competitive spirit of the category. One of the most controversial team orders in history occurred during the 2002 Austrian GP, starring Ferrari.

Rubens Barrichello took pole position on Saturday, and on Sunday led most of the race, however, before the end, the Brazilian was ordered to let his teammate Michael Schumacher pass \”for the championship\”.

Thus, the resigned Brazilian, who had just signed a 2-year renewal contract with the Scuderia to be the number 2 driver, let himself be passed on the last straight, crossing the finish line 0.182 seconds behind Schumacher.

This generated a lot of criticism from the media, fans, and other teams. Schumacher, embarrassed with what happened, switched positions with Barrichello on the podium. Ferrari team principal Ross Brawn justified the move by claiming that the victory would give Schumacher a 27-point lead over second-placed Juan Pablo Montoya.

However, at the end of the championship, Schumacher finished 67 points ahead of Barrichello and 94 points ahead of Montoya, proving that this team order was totally unnecessary.