2009 F1 Review: 5 ugly moments

There were a number of unsavoury moments in the 2009 Formula 1 season that put the sport on the front pages of newspapers for all the wrong reasons. Such is the high profile nature of modern F1 that every incident is scrutinised in an unprecedented manner. The Insider looks at the top 5 ugly moments of the season.

1. Nelson Piquet, Flavio Briatore, Pat Symonds and lie-gate

Dubbed by the media as the “The worst act of cheating in the history of sport” crash-gate may have never come to public attention had Renault team principal (at the time) Flavio Briatore not decided to axe under performing Nelson Piquet from the team in July.

Piquet piqued by his dismissal and treatment during his tenure at Renault decided to go on the attack. He revealed a conspiracy that shocked the world. In a nutshell the Brazilian was asked to crash at a crucial time in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix which gave his team leader Fernando Alonso an advantage and consequently go on to win the race.

Denials from Briatore, in particular, were fervent while the Piquet clan stood their ground, with Piquet Senior at one stage threatening to sue. The scandal raged on beyond the Italian Grand Prix with a FIA hearing scheduled.

Meanwhile Renault were forced to act and did so by axing Briatore and Symonds, who were subsequently banned by the FIA, for a lifetime and five years respectively. Renault as a team escaped censure as did Piquet. But soon ING and other sponsors dropped the French team like a hot potato.

The saga continues as Briatore has decided fight the FIA life time ban in civil court. It was and still is ugly.

2. Lewis Hamilton and lie-gate
Controversy came early on in the Formula 1 season at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. During the race there was an accident which prompted a pace car situation. During this period (under yellow flag conditions) Jarno Trulli made a mistake which saw him drift wide, upon which reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton overtook the Toyota driver.

On the McLaren pit wall the team thought that Hamilton had overtaken Trulli illegally and instructed Hamilton to allow Trulli back through which the Briton did. McLaren were wrong and tried to cover up the blunder. At the end of the race they claimed that Trulli had overtaken Hamilton and should be penalized.

Despite his protests Trulli was duly penalised 25 seconds which dropped him from third to 12th. But the matter was far from over as the stewards reopened the investigation a week later at Sepang

A statement issued by the FIA reveals that stewards asked Hamilton and team manager David Ryan “specifically” whether the British driver was instructed to allow Trulli’s Toyota to pass him. “Both the driver and the team manager stated that no such instruction had been given,” the FIA said. “The race director specifically asked Hamilton whether he had consciously allowed Trulli to overtake. Hamilton insisted that he had not done so,” the statement added.

Upon investigation (including examination of the team to driver recordings) the stewards confirmed that Hamilton and his team “acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards”. The stewards said the conduct was in breach of the International Sporting Code.

Lie-gate was blatantly exposed and what followed was a series of convoluted political manouevres which ultimately saw David Ryan dismissed from McLaren, Ron Dennis stepping down as McLaren team boss, Martin Whitmarsh taking command of the Woking team and Hamilton begging forgiveness. The damage was done.

3. John Howett and Toyota’s departure

Sources close to Toyota claim that the Formula 1 project was doomed as early as 2008 and had Honda not withdrawn in December of that year Toyota may well have pulled the plug at the time.

The recession had struck and the big motor manufacturers were hardest hit. Toyota as the biggest spender in F1 history had nothing to show for their billions and the pressure was on to tighten belts. Their under-achieving Formula 1 project was hard to justify.

Nevertheless the team manager John Howett appeared totally oblivious to the situation and was in fact one of the most verbal members of FOTA. F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said after Toyota’s withdrawal, “The problem is that their team manager John Howett fought against drastic cost-cutting all the way and was against new teams coming in.”

In fact Howett, whose background has been in marketing, said that the team was in talks with Kimi Raikkonen which the Finn openly denied. This was around October.

After Abu Dhabi, Howett was bullish about sensational debutant Kamui Kobayashi saying, “We have to really seriously consider him now after this good strong result.”

Three days later the world witnessed the modern version of Harakiri as Toyota F1 team principal Tadashi Yamashina broke down and cried at the press conference announcing the withdrawal of Toyota from Formula 1. A day later 500 staff in Cologne were informed their jobs were at risk.

4. BMW’s withdrawal from F1

When BMW decided to withdraw from Formula 1 it sent shock waves through Formula 1. Of the big manufacturers that had taken to F1 they had been the most successful, actually winning races where others failed – namely Honda and Toyota.

There appeared to be no exit plan for the team which was partner with Sauber in the project and the for sale signs went up. Soon it was announced that Qadbak a consortium led by Russell King were contenders to take over the team.

Soon it emerged that King had spent time in jail for insurance fraud, had assets frozen by court and in fact Qadbak’s F1 investors were not funded by wealthy Middle Eastern sources. The deal withered and died.

To save face BMW made a deal with Peter Sauber and after an anxious wait the Swiss team were granted an entry on to the 2010 Formula 1 grid.

BMW confirmed the decision, at the time, that the Qadbak sale “will not be completed”, and revealed that as part of the newly announced buyout, Sauber’s workforce would be cut from 388 to around 250 employees.

The whole affair left a bad impression of BMW’s desperation to recoup some of the fortune they spent on the moderately successful Formula 1 project. They departed the scene with tail firmly between their legs.

5. Renault banned then unbanned after Fernando Alonso wheel loss

Mishaps and mistakes happen in racing. Cars break down and cars are even known to lose a wheel, as Fernando Alonso experienced at the Hungarian Grand Prix. A botched pit stop saw the Spaniard leave the pits with a wobbly wheel which eventually unlodged itself and flew perilously across the Hungaroring track surface before coming to rest harmlessly, fortunately without causing damage during the journey.

Rewind 24 hours and there were the anxious scenes of Felipe Massa’s freakish accident in qualifying where the world saw a piece of metal strike the Brazilian on his helmet, rendering him unconscious and a passenger in the Ferrari, which proceeded to careen straight into a wall. Everyone held their breath and the worst was feared. Thankfully Felipe recovered.

But it was in the aftermath of this incident that the stewards in Hungary slapped a one race ban on the Renault team. The penalty seemed somewhat misguided, mistakes happen and sure a wheel did go flying off the Renault, but that’s racing. Fuels hoses stick to cars, wheels are put on askew – human error is all part of the drill. Renault appealed the decision.

A couple of weeks later, the FIA Court of Appeal announced it accepted that “there was no conscious wrongdoing on the part of anyone” in the incident involving Fernando Alonso’s loose wheel in Hungary. The judges said the stewards’ claim at the Hungaroring that Renault “knowingly” released the Spaniard’s unsafe car was “not appropriate”. Oops…

Imagine the European Grand Prix in Valencia without Fernando Alonso? Perhaps the Hungaroring stewards did not have an F1 calendar at hand….