Today’s F1 drivers have well and truly grown up in the internet age where every move they make and every step they take is watched, reported on and discussed. It never ceases to amaze me how a certain few drivers attract literally thousands of fan hours of writing claiming one conspiracy theory after another. That being the case, I though I’d look at some of F1’s biggest conspiricies that pre-date the Internet age (or at the very least run into the pre mass fan site age). These aren’t the eventually proven ones such as Spygate or Crashgate but are the ones that people still talk about today and yet have no conclusive answers about.
I’ll start with a relatively recent one:
Eddie Irvine – World Champion?
The Facts: The year is 1999 and Ferrari look set to finally win their first title since 1979 with Michael Schumacher leading the charge. That was until the British GP when mechanical failure put Schumacher into the barrier and out for a long while with a broken leg. His team mate Eddie Irvine now lead the team. Going into the final few races Irvine was in a close race with Mika Hakkinen for the title. That was until the European GP when, with Hakkinen out of the race, the Ferrari mechanics made a total louse up of Irvine’s pit stop. Irvine eventually finished seventh In the remainder of the season, Irvine was off the pace, only took a win thanks to it being handed to him by a returning Schumacher (who by now was well out of the title race) and would eventually finish second in the championship by 2 points. Ferrari took the constructors title but had to wait another year before taking the drivers title.
The Conspiracy: On the 15th of September, three days after the Italian GP, Irvine had announced that he was leaving Ferrari to join Jaguar the following season. Obviously Ferrari didn’t want their first world champion in 20 years to take the number 1 with him to a new team. Anyway, Ferrari was built around Schumacher and it wouldn’t do that this young Irish upstart winning the world title that was supposed to be the Germans. So Ferrari did their utmost, including sabotaging Irvine’s pit stop, to prevent him from winning the title.
Verdict: While you feel that anything is possible at Ferrari, Schumacher moved over to give Irvine the win, therefore, CAT’s verdict is – Conspiracy Unlikely
Prost – With a little help from his friend
The Facts: One of the most famous team mate battles of all time ended when Prost closed the door on his team mate Senna at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. The sight of the two McLarens, wheels interlocked, stationary just before the chicane is a famous F1 image. Prost, leapt of his car, effectively the new World Champion, Senna on the other hand was having none of it and after being push started, rejoined the race to go on to win. In doing so he kept his championship hopes alive going into the final round of the season in Australia. After the race however, the decision was handed down that Senna had been disqualified for missing the chicane. Senna appealed and Ron Dennis found himself in the interesting situation of having to defend one of his drivers against the other (Prost by now had announced he was leaving McLaren to join Ferrari for 1990). The appeal failed on Prost was awarded the world title.
The Conspiracy: The man wielding the biggest stick in F1 in 1989 was Jean Marie Balestre the Frenchman who rule F1 with an iron rod. Evidence was produced at the appeal to show that many drivers that race weekend and in the passed had used the escape road and missed the chicane without penalty however the appeal was thrown out. The French Balestre was obviously only doing this to help a French driver become world champion. Senna went on record as saying it was a conspiracy.
The verdict: Too hard to call this one however, I have a feeling that it wasn’t the fact that Senna missed the chicane so much as the fact that he failed to rejoin the track at the point at which he left it which was the rule used to hang him. Would Balestre have behaved differently if the situation didn’t involve Prost? Maybe. CATs verdict: Conspiracy Possible
Tyrrell – The thorn in F1’s side
The Facts: Being the last team in F1 to run a normally aspirated engine, Tyrell were able to take advantage of the lighter smaller car to produce some impressive results during the 1984 season. There was however, a little trick they were using that allowed the car to run underweight thanks to the rule that said all cars could be topped up with fluids before being weighed at the end of the race. This had been used by several teams in the 1982 season when water cooled brakes appeared. The water tanks fired the water in the rough direction of the brakes and were empty within a few laps allowing the car to run under weight until they were topped up at the end of the race. Tyrrell went one further however, and were using lead shot in their engine water injection supply tanks. So much lead shot in fact that the bits that escaped during the injection of the shot at the last pit stop of a race, some of spilled out and shot down the pit lane. Obviously this couldn’t go on and when the powers that be got wind of it, Tyrrell were dragged over the coals, disqualified from all of their race finishes that season and banned for the rest of the year.
The Conspiracy: There’s actually two at play here. Firstly, the FIA wanted all of the teams to run Turbo engines, it is claimed this would attract more sponsors and make F1 more marketable. Ken Tyrrell was adamant in his disapproval of Turbo engines and was avoiding at all costs having to use one. The teams were also unhappy with Tyrrell because rule changes need unanimous disapproval from the teams to be blocked from being introduced. The FIA wanted to limit the amount of fuel turbo cars could carry in order to reduce overall speeds in a race. Tyrrell with a normally aspirated engine weren’t bothered about this at all but the big teams with their big and thirsty turbo engines were. Hence when little Tyrrell were thrown out there was much rejoicing all round.
The Verdict: After coming through several years of upheaval in F1, the political aspects of the sport had really taken hold. CAT’s verdict: Conspiracy most likely.
There are a few to begin with.
I know there are more out there so which ones are your favourites ??
I’ll start with a relatively recent one:
Eddie Irvine – World Champion?
The Facts: The year is 1999 and Ferrari look set to finally win their first title since 1979 with Michael Schumacher leading the charge. That was until the British GP when mechanical failure put Schumacher into the barrier and out for a long while with a broken leg. His team mate Eddie Irvine now lead the team. Going into the final few races Irvine was in a close race with Mika Hakkinen for the title. That was until the European GP when, with Hakkinen out of the race, the Ferrari mechanics made a total louse up of Irvine’s pit stop. Irvine eventually finished seventh In the remainder of the season, Irvine was off the pace, only took a win thanks to it being handed to him by a returning Schumacher (who by now was well out of the title race) and would eventually finish second in the championship by 2 points. Ferrari took the constructors title but had to wait another year before taking the drivers title.
The Conspiracy: On the 15th of September, three days after the Italian GP, Irvine had announced that he was leaving Ferrari to join Jaguar the following season. Obviously Ferrari didn’t want their first world champion in 20 years to take the number 1 with him to a new team. Anyway, Ferrari was built around Schumacher and it wouldn’t do that this young Irish upstart winning the world title that was supposed to be the Germans. So Ferrari did their utmost, including sabotaging Irvine’s pit stop, to prevent him from winning the title.
Verdict: While you feel that anything is possible at Ferrari, Schumacher moved over to give Irvine the win, therefore, CAT’s verdict is – Conspiracy Unlikely
Prost – With a little help from his friend
The Facts: One of the most famous team mate battles of all time ended when Prost closed the door on his team mate Senna at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. The sight of the two McLarens, wheels interlocked, stationary just before the chicane is a famous F1 image. Prost, leapt of his car, effectively the new World Champion, Senna on the other hand was having none of it and after being push started, rejoined the race to go on to win. In doing so he kept his championship hopes alive going into the final round of the season in Australia. After the race however, the decision was handed down that Senna had been disqualified for missing the chicane. Senna appealed and Ron Dennis found himself in the interesting situation of having to defend one of his drivers against the other (Prost by now had announced he was leaving McLaren to join Ferrari for 1990). The appeal failed on Prost was awarded the world title.
The Conspiracy: The man wielding the biggest stick in F1 in 1989 was Jean Marie Balestre the Frenchman who rule F1 with an iron rod. Evidence was produced at the appeal to show that many drivers that race weekend and in the passed had used the escape road and missed the chicane without penalty however the appeal was thrown out. The French Balestre was obviously only doing this to help a French driver become world champion. Senna went on record as saying it was a conspiracy.
The verdict: Too hard to call this one however, I have a feeling that it wasn’t the fact that Senna missed the chicane so much as the fact that he failed to rejoin the track at the point at which he left it which was the rule used to hang him. Would Balestre have behaved differently if the situation didn’t involve Prost? Maybe. CATs verdict: Conspiracy Possible
Tyrrell – The thorn in F1’s side
The Facts: Being the last team in F1 to run a normally aspirated engine, Tyrell were able to take advantage of the lighter smaller car to produce some impressive results during the 1984 season. There was however, a little trick they were using that allowed the car to run underweight thanks to the rule that said all cars could be topped up with fluids before being weighed at the end of the race. This had been used by several teams in the 1982 season when water cooled brakes appeared. The water tanks fired the water in the rough direction of the brakes and were empty within a few laps allowing the car to run under weight until they were topped up at the end of the race. Tyrrell went one further however, and were using lead shot in their engine water injection supply tanks. So much lead shot in fact that the bits that escaped during the injection of the shot at the last pit stop of a race, some of spilled out and shot down the pit lane. Obviously this couldn’t go on and when the powers that be got wind of it, Tyrrell were dragged over the coals, disqualified from all of their race finishes that season and banned for the rest of the year.
The Conspiracy: There’s actually two at play here. Firstly, the FIA wanted all of the teams to run Turbo engines, it is claimed this would attract more sponsors and make F1 more marketable. Ken Tyrrell was adamant in his disapproval of Turbo engines and was avoiding at all costs having to use one. The teams were also unhappy with Tyrrell because rule changes need unanimous disapproval from the teams to be blocked from being introduced. The FIA wanted to limit the amount of fuel turbo cars could carry in order to reduce overall speeds in a race. Tyrrell with a normally aspirated engine weren’t bothered about this at all but the big teams with their big and thirsty turbo engines were. Hence when little Tyrrell were thrown out there was much rejoicing all round.
The Verdict: After coming through several years of upheaval in F1, the political aspects of the sport had really taken hold. CAT’s verdict: Conspiracy most likely.
There are a few to begin with.
I know there are more out there so which ones are your favourites ??