8 Shocking Scandals That Rocked The World Of F1

One of the most famous F1 controversies in recent history, ‘Crashgate’ hit the F1 world after Renault was found to have instructed Nelson Piquet Jr to crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Piquet Jr’s accident and the subsequent safety car period helped promote team-mate Fernando Alonso to first place and he claimed the win. When the Brazilian was dropped from Renault mid-way through 2009, he revealed that he had been asked to crash deliberately and the team did not contest the charges.

Renault F1’s managing director Flavio Briatore and the team’s executive director of engineering Pat Symonds left, the former was handed a life-time ban from the sport and the latter was banned for five years, but these were later overturned by a French court.

2. Spy-gate

In the 2007 season it emerged that Ferrari’s head of performance development Nigel Stepney had allegedly passed confidential information on the team’s car to Mike Coughlan, McLaren’s chief designer. A criminal investigation took place and the crucial FIA hearing saw McLaren fined $100million and excluded from the constructors’ championship that season.

3. Expanding tyres

Three years after Michelin returned to F1, it was involved in a damaging scandal after rivals Bridgestone revealed that the tyres were expanding during use. This gave the cars more grip but the FIA found that it breached the rules stating how wide the tyres had to be.

The sport’s governing body reacted quickly, bringing in a new regulation that stated tyres would be measured after the race as well as before. Michelin was forced to hastily change its tyres for the Italian Grand Prix, where the French supplier’s five-race run of wins came to an end.

This was a hugely controversial car after Brabham revealed it at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix. It was the ‘B’ version of the BT46 and was designed by Gordon Murray. It used the fan to increase downforce (by literally sucking the car to the tarmac), rivalling the ground effect Lotus 79, but was claimed by the team to be only for cooling.

It only raced once, when Niki Lauda won in Sweden, before being withdrawn. There was uproar among the rival teams about the design and it is said that some threatened to leave F1 if Bernie Ecclestone (then team owner of Brabham and recently-appointed president of the Formula One Constructors Association) continued to run the car.

5. US GP 2005

This is arguably one of the most infamous races in F1 history, because just six drivers competed, with the rest of the field pitting at the end of the formation lap due to safety fears over the Michelin tyres.

Several failures took place in practice and qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including a big shunt for Ralf Schumacher on the banked final corner. Tyres had to last a whole race in 2005 and the Michelin rubber was clearly not capable of doing the full distance safely.

The seven teams running Michelin tyres pleaded for the course to be changed, with the addition of a chicane on the banking suggested, but these requests were denied and they had no choice but to pull out. The Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi cars battled in what was a complete farce of a race, with Michael Schumacher winning.

Those of you who are fairly new to F1 may not recall the drama from qualifying for the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher had pole position but as drivers were on their final laps, he ran wide and parked his car at the exit of Rascasse.

Everyone behind, including his title rival Fernando Alonso, had to back off and so he took pole for the race. However, even the most casual F1 fan could see it was done deliberately, and the whole incident sparked outrage. The stewards agreed and dropped him to the back of the grid.

7. Twin chassis

One of the most famous cars to be banned from F1 is the Lotus 88, which was unveiled in 1981 and featured an unusual twin-chassis. The inner chassis held the cockpit and was independently sprung from the outer one to take the pressures of ground effect, while the outer one was basically one big ground effect system.

It was a clever idea and one that legendary designer Colin Chapman felt was legal, but rival teams did not agree with him and protested. The FIA banned the car and it never got the chance to race.

8. Jerez 1997

Michael Schumacher got caught up in his fair share of controversies during his time in F1, but the one with arguably the most impact was at the 1997 European Grand Prix. Schumacher hit title rival Jacques Villeneuve in a bid to take the championship but failed and retired.

The penalty was just as controversial as the incident itself, as Schumacher was excluded from the 1997 championship by the FIA and had to help with the governing body’s safe driving initiative.