Here, we will take a lookat the top controversies in F1. Formula 1 has developed as a sport which isspreading its wings of popularity to many parts across the globe. Beingan extremely expensive and technicalsport, it has still produced some great competition over the years encouraging countries like India to incur those heavy expenses and build a track for the Indian F1 aficionados. Just like any other sport, F1 hasnt been shy of its controversies.We will go through some of these high-profile controversies which rocked the F1 world.
#5 Luigi Faggio and Juan Manuel Fangio, France, 1951
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In this era, drivers were allowed to swap cars with their teammates. Here, Alfa Romeo instructed Faggio to give his car to Fangio, when the latter lost control of his car at the beginning of the race. Faggio obliged, but the whole issue didn’t bode well with him and he quit the team soon afterwards.
#4 Red Bull Controversy, German GP, 2012
During the season, Red Bull were alleged to have run a pitch map which mimics the traction control. This map will alter the aerodynamics of the cars of both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. The presence of such a map, though not proved, didn’t fit into the rule. But the reaction of the technical staff was absolutely weird and therefore, it lead to a huge suspicion surrounding the incident.
#3 Damon Hill retirement, Adelaide, 1994
It was a tight battle between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher in 1994 for the title. Damon Hill negotiated a tight turn from the inside while Schumacher was on the outside. Schumi tried to push Hill to the side, but ended up going to the barricade himself. This disqualified him from the race but then, Damon Hill, was forced to retire too, giving Schumi the title under extremely fishy circumstances.
#2 Michael Schumacher\'s 3 violations in 1994
An F1 legend, Michael Schumacher has given some pivotal performances to the F1 crowd through his amazing driving. But he is not short of controversy. The 1994 season saw him being caught for three violations.
Violation #1 : He was caught to have an illegal launch system in his car in San Marino which gave him a really positive start. As FIA had no proof that it was actually used, Schumacher wasn’t fined much, but a $100,000 fine was imposed due to the refusal to provide source codes.
Violation #2 : He and his team ignored the Black flag and continue racing. Eventually, he accepted his punishment.
Violation #3 : A slight modification in the fuel system led to the spill of copious amounts of volatile gasoline on the track.
#1 Fernando Alonso vs Lewis Hamilton, Monaco, 2007
The rivalry between these established drivers took place when Alonso was told by the technical team to clear out from the pits quickly as Hamilton was right behind. As it was the third qualifying phase of the Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton was at the No. 1 grid on the table, and was gaining momentum. Alonso then delayed Hamilton from getting to his pitstop on time leaving Hamilton extremely frustrated.
This led to Hamilton losing his pole position to Alonso and left Mclaren chief, Ron Dennis, fuming. Alonso was then stripped off his pole position and Mclaren were fined by FIA.
