Top 5 controversies of Michael Schumacher

EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX - 1997

Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villenueve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen

In 1997, Schumacher led Villeneuve by 1 point in the championship heading into the last race of the season in Jerez. On lap 48, as Villeneuve attempted to pass the German on the inside, Schumacher cut inside causing his right front wheel to hit the left sidepod of Villeneuve. The mini-collision forced Schumacher out of the race, but Villenueve finished third in the race to lift the title. Initially, there was no penalty imposed on Schumacher, but 2 weeks after the race, he was disqualified from the 1997 Drivers' Championship. FIA's disciplinary committee found Schumacher's manoeuvre deliberate, but not malicious. Schumacher accepted it was a 'mistake'. It makes him the only driver in the history of the sport (upto 2018) to have been disqualified from the Drivers' Championship. After a similar incident in 1994 with Damon Hill, Schumacher's sportsmanship was called into question once again, this time by world media.