Off Track: My Favourite F1 Scandals

It’s 9:52am- I’ve just arrived into work after a miserable rainy commute. I check my phone to see an F1 story which has seemly been slow cooking for the past few years. ‘Felipe Massa sues F1 management and Bernie Ecclestone’ over the outcome of the famous ‘Crashgate’ scandal of 2008. Where Nelson Piquet was told to put his car in the wall on purpose to give team mate Fernando Alonso a preferable strategy and eventually the win, at the expense of Massa, who would go on to lose the Championship by a single point to Lewis Hamilton.

The last few weeks certainly haven’t been quite on the F1 scandal front, with a steady stream of stories coming from Red Bull, regarding the conduct of team boss Christian Horner. Many have said, including 1996 World Champion Damon Hill, that F1 used to be about *clenches fist* “the racing”. But has it really? Ever since I have followed the sport, as an excited 6 year old watching Mika Hakkinen beat Michael Schumacher in the late 90’s, there has always been a backdrop of controversy surrounding the sport. I take a look back on some of my favourites in my lifetime…

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER EXPELLED- 1997

There are probably quite a few potential Schumacher scandals that could make the list. From crashing into Damon Hill in 1994 to win his first championship, or parking up at Monaco in 2006. But it’s 1997 that stands out, the season finale vs Williams driver Jacque Villeneuve coming down to the wire, in a winner takes all clash. Schumacher attempted to recreate his 94’ antics, only to end up beached in the gravel trap, handing the title to Jacque. Due to his actions Michael was subsequently stripped of his 2nd place in the Championship.

Rating 7/10- It’s up their with my favourites purely due to the instant karama on show.

THE TYRE WAR- 2005

This is the first scandal on this list I actually remember, I was three years old when Schumi attempted to swipe JV off the road. However, I remember fully this debacle. Michelin tyres exploding in the USA, meant that the manufactuer pulled its cars out of the event at Indonapolis in 2005. It meant that just 6 Bridgestone running cars started the Grand Prix. Two Ferraris, two Jordans and two Minardis. It was a weird and almost funny sight to behold, less so for the people in attendance, some left, others launched beer bottles onto the track. In the end Schumacher lead home a Ferrari 1-2, Monterio brought home his Jordan to 3rd place, and brilliantly sprayed champagne on his own. It was an overall case of F1 shooting itself in the foot again, Michelin brought the wrong tyres to the event. But not allowing them to change, or add in a chicane on the high speed banking meant that only the fans missed out. F1 would race at Indie for the last time in 2007 and have never returned.

Rating 5/10: Funny at times, but F1’s ability to self harm shone through. It took Netflix to rebuild F1’s reputation in the states.

SPY GATE- 2007

One of my favourite ever Formula 1 seasons yet again set across a dark backdrop of scandal. It was Ferrari vs McLaren vs Lewis Hamilton vs Fernando Alonso. With Kimi Raikonnen coming from nowhere in the last couple of races to ruin the beautiful chrome cars party. Behind the scenes it was even more incredible, with a disgruntled employee of Ferrari handing over top secret documents to someone who worked for rivals McLaren. It ended up leaving McLaren with a £100million fine and being thrown out of the constructors championship (something they haven’t won since 1998.) It was an almighty season and one you can imagine Drive to Survive digging their teeth into if it were today.

Rating 9/10: Sounded like the plot to a spy drama, it had everything and the action on track matched.

HAMILTON VS ROSBERG -2016

To be honest, this is more of a conspiracy theory, but nevertheless I liked it. At the start of the turbo era, Mercedes, like Red Bull in 2024 had a huge advantage. Thankfully Nico Rosberg gave Lewis Hamilton an almighty battle in all three seasons from 2014-2016. As we went into the 2016 season. Three time champion Hamilton had pipped Nico the championship the following two years. It ended up being a titanic battle throughout the season, with it going down to the last race again. However, in Malaysia it looked as though Lewis was going to have the championship in his control again. That was until a huge engine blow out, meant Rosberg could finish the remaining races in P2 and take the title. Which he did. Stories circulated that the German manufacturer Mercedes, wanted a German champion and pulled the plug on Lewis’ engine in Malaysia. Earlier that season the team had also swapped mecanics around in the garage, fuelling Hamiltons paranoia around the situation. What made it seem even fishier was that Rosberg then decided not to defend his crown, retirin

Rating: 8/10: A brilliant conspiracy, ending with Nico’s ride off into the sunset never to been seen again (a part from Sky Sports coverage)

ABU DHABI- 2021

Not sure what more I can even say about this. Hamilton vs Verstappen. Winner takes all. It was an incredbile end to the greatest F1 season I had ever watched. It had everything you wanted, two huge teams fighting it out, with two of the best ever drivers the sport has ever seen. Hamilton looked like he was cruising to the title before a late crash brought out the safety car. Normal protocols were thrown out of the window to put Verstappen behind Lewis for the last lap. Max overtook Hamilton on fresh tyres to win the championship. Never before has a race director, Michael Masi had so much attention on him. Mercedes were going to court to question the final result of the championship, but It was concluded that it was human error and Verstappen’s first Championship stood. A season that will never be matched.

Rating: 10/10: Insane. Featuring: manipulation, human error, youth vs experience and a brilliant season tarnished by it’s last lap.

THE RED BULL CATERING COST CAP

Weird one. The cost cap was first brought into the sport in 2022 to help even the playing field and stop the big teams from constantly dominating the sport. This doesn’t seem to have worked really, with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes still taking the top spots. The question around this new policy, was how it was actually going to be policed? That question was answered it its first year, when Red Bull breached the budget cap. The excuse? Catering. Red Bull claimed that the only area they went over on was in the food budget.. It was an incredible time, tensions heightened due to the nature of Red Bull winning the Championship in 2021. Meant that Toto Wolf and other team bosses wanted Red Bull thrown out of the Championship. However, the team paid the price for serving expensive sarnies by having a 10% reduction in wind tunnel time, essentially a slap on the wrist.

Rating: 5/10: Could expensive sandwiches win a championship? By looking at what has followed since, maybe so.

BIG BAD WOLFFS & HORNY HORNER 2023/2024

I do wonder how big these scandals would’ve turned out if the action on track was as drab as it is? It started in the off season, when a complaint was heard from an unnamed team regarding the apparent conflict of interest been Susie and Toto Wolff. All teams denied that it was them and to this day, we still have no idea who submitted the complaint. A strange but short saga for the off season.

Things were only going to get weirder. Just before the car launches, an investigation was launched by Red Bull into team boss Christian Horner and his conduct towards a female employee. Just before the first race in Bahrain, Horner was cleared of any wrong doing. Just hours later, a Google Drive containing alleged messages between Horner and the employee were leaked. What did we learn from them? Christian likes coco pops, his flirting game is weak and he’s a bit naughty.

Rating: 4/10: The only thing worth talking about in F1 at the moment. Which is sad.