F1's greatest championship battles #288
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Part
wishbone
A wishbone is a part of a car's suspension system that helps the wheels move up and down while keeping the car stable. It's important for how the car handles on the road.
Term
traction control
Traction control is a feature in cars that helps keep the wheels from spinning too much when you accelerate. It makes driving safer, especially on wet or slippery roads.
Concept
Formula One
Formula One is a type of car racing that involves fast cars competing in races called Grands Prix. It's known for its advanced technology and exciting races held in different countries.
Company
Reams
Reims is a famous race track in France where many important car races, including Formula One, were held. It's known for its history in racing.
Term
championship lead
A championship lead means a driver has more points than others in a racing series, which helps them win the overall title at the end of the season.
Term
win point system
A win point system is how points are given to drivers based on where they finish in a race. The better they do, the more points they get.
Term
gearbox sensor
A gearbox sensor checks how well the car's transmission is working. It helps the car change gears smoothly and can alert the driver if there's a problem.
Term
tire explosion
A tire explosion happens when a tire bursts and loses air quickly. This can make it hard to control the car, especially if you're driving very fast.
Term
car control
Car control is how well a driver can keep the car steady and safe, especially when something goes wrong, like a tire blowing out. It helps the driver steer and stop the car properly.
Term
downforce
Downforce is what helps keep a car glued to the road when it's going fast. It’s created by the shape of the car and its parts, helping the tires grip better, especially when turning.
Term
yawing
Yawing is when a car turns or rotates sideways instead of going straight. This can happen if the car loses grip or control, especially when going fast.
Term
Formula 1
Formula 1 is a type of car racing that features very fast cars on special tracks. It's one of the most popular and exciting forms of motorsport in the world.
Brand
Ferrari
Ferrari is a famous car brand from Italy that makes fast and expensive sports cars. They are well-known for their success in racing, especially in Formula 1.
Term
overtake
Overtaking is when one car passes another car on the racetrack. It's an important part of racing, where drivers try to get ahead of each other.
Concept
Schumacher
Michael Schumacher is a famous race car driver who won many championships in Formula 1. He is known for being one of the best drivers ever.
Term
gravel trap
A gravel trap is a section of loose gravel on the side of a racetrack. If a car goes off the track, it can slow down in the gravel instead of crashing into something hard.
Concept
Williams Museum
The Williams Museum is a place where you can learn about the Williams racing team and see their cars and trophies. It's like a history museum for a famous car racing team.
Term
world champion
A world champion is the best driver in a racing series for that year. They earn points by finishing races and the one with the most points at the end wins.
Concept
Singapore Grand Prix
The Singapore Grand Prix is a Formula 1 race that takes place at night on the streets of Singapore. It's special because it's the first F1 race held at night, making it visually striking and challenging for drivers.
Term
safety car
A safety car is a vehicle used in racing to slow down the cars on the track when there's a dangerous situation, like an accident. It helps keep everyone safe until the problem is fixed.
Term
halo
The halo is a safety feature on race cars that helps protect the driver's head during crashes. It's a strong bar that goes around the top of the car's cockpit.
Term
disqualification
Disqualification means that a driver is not allowed to compete or keep their results because they broke a rule during the race or qualifying.
Concept
Lotus
Lotus is a car brand from Britain that makes sports cars. They are famous for making cars that are very light and fast, and they have a long history in racing.
Term
brakes
Brakes are what help a car slow down or stop. They are very important for safety, and there are different kinds that work in different ways.
Term
P3, P4, P5
P3, P4, and P5 are just ways to say which position the cars are in during the race. P3 means third place, P4 means fourth place, and P5 means fifth place.
Term
exhaust pipes
Exhaust pipes are the tubes that carry smoke and gases out of the car after the engine burns fuel. They help keep the car running smoothly and cleanly.
Concept
Caesar's Palace
Caesar's Palace is a well-known hotel in Las Vegas where a Formula One race took place. It's famous for its casinos and entertainment.
Company
Supernatural Car Care
Supernatural Car Care is a brand that makes products to clean and take care of cars. They help keep your car looking nice and new.
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Welcome back to the intercooler podcast, everybody.
The podcast powered by car finance specialist, JBR Capital.
This is episode 288 with Dan Proser and Andrew Frankel.
Andrew, we are talking about Formula One's greatest
ever championship battles.
Yes.
Can I make one point first?
You can.
We are recording this before the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Yeah.
You are listening to this or watching this
after the Brazilian Grand Prix.
We are doing this entire thing in the hope
and the expectation that this year turns out
to be a great championship battle.
As we speak, but not as you hear,
the two title leaders are separated by a single point.
Who knows what that situation is now?
Well, you clearly not us.
So yes, that's it.
So please, if this seems somehow strange to be doing
this because I don't know, Oscar crashed
and Landau's walking it, then our apologies.
But that's the reason we chose to do it
and let's hope it still holds true.
Well said.
So let's crack on then.
So you're going to do the earlier ones.
I'm going to do the more recent ones.
Yes.
I thought it would work better that way around.
No comment.
But we won't do it chronologically.
I think we'll fire back and forth
and just choose one that we think is interesting.
I do.
How many have you got?
I've gone very, very deep on four or five,
but there's a few others that we can discuss as well.
Have you got more?
Well, I've got 10, but actually a couple of them
are sort of here to dig on tomorrow.
So it doesn't, it'll end up being pretty similar, I think.
OK.
All right, well, let's kick off with one of yours then.
So you're handling 1950 to 1995.
Yes.
You've done a few, you've had a longer time span
to dig into than I have clearly.
I'm doing 95 to today.
Yes.
So go on, give us your first.
OK, so let's go 1994, which is my most recent one.
So this, people will remember, came down
to a fight between a young Michael Schumacher
and a not quite so young Damon Hill.
Michael obviously being in the Bennett and Ford,
Damon being in the Williams.
And it came down to the last race.
And Schumacher was one point ahead of Damon at the time.
And what this means is that if neither of them
finished the race, Michael was world champion.
And to cut a very long story short,
they both kind of like disappeared at the beginning
of the race, left everyone for dead.
So it's quite, it's quite a simple story to tell.
They're not all like that.
But on lap 35, Michael hits the wall.
And Damon is only a second behind him.
He's just waiting for a moment just like that.
This is Adelaide.
Yes.
Street circuit.
Street circuit.
No runoff, yeah.
No runoff.
It is, I think, even now, because of what happened
almost immediately after, unclear whether Michael's car
was damaged as a result of that rush with the wall.
But what is very clear is it gave Damon an opportunity
to post one up the inside, which he duly did,
which he had to do.
Because if he didn't do that, he had no chance.
And he didn't know what state Michael's car was in.
No, all he saw was an open door and an opportunity to overtake.
The door was open, so he tried to go through it.
And Michael thought otherwise about that.
Now, clearly, in that situation, Damon had everything to lose.
And Michael had everything to gain.
Because if they both went out, one was well champion
and the other wasn't.
And Michael turned in, I think even he would,
or his family, did his family in that film finally admit
that it was a bit aggressive.
But clearly, I think in the court of popular opinion,
he turned in, he deliberately turned in,
quite aware of the distinct possibility
that both cars would be out of the race as a result
and therefore that he would be well champion.
And that is exactly what happened.
So he turned in and the image of the Bennington
sort of up in the air at 45 degrees
is a very famous one.
And so he's out instantly on the spot.
And I can remember watching this when it happened
and thinking, Damon's well champion
because the Williams just sort of straight away
and seemed to be fine.
But he was in the pits that loud
and he had a broken wishbone.
And that was it and it was over.
And whatever, 31 years ago,
can you imagine if that had happened now?
They would have slung Michael out of the race.
They would have probably slung him out of the championship
and Damon would have been well champion.
But at the time, the astonishing thing to me is,
although I suspect it's all tied up
in them dealing with the appalling aftermath of Senna's death,
Williamson didn't even protest it.
Yeah, wow.
And so, and as it was obviously later revealed,
this was in the option of 13 year.
Ah, yeah, yeah.
So on top of all of that,
on top of all the awful stuff that had happened,
obviously at Imola,
Damon went on to discover that he was fighting a car
that had a cheat on it.
Now, I can call it that because it was on the car.
No one's ever denied that.
What was denied and the reason
that they were never thrown out of it
is that no one could find any proof
despite the fact that, so it's called option 13
because on the steering wheel,
there were various perfectly legal options,
sort of one to 10.
And you got to the end of it
and that appeared to be the end of it.
But you had to scroll down off the bottom of the screen
until you got to option 13,
which was traction control,
but no one could prove that it had been used.
So it wasn't illegal to have traction control.
The rules stated that it was legal
to use traction control.
So it was the loopiest of loopholes
by which Michael Schumacher claimed his first,
well, championship and Damon didn't.
And I've always thought
that was one of the most iniquitous outcomes
of a Formula One season that there's been.
I mean, people have spent,
there are videos on YouTube,
deep diving, the collision,
just trying to determine exactly
what Schumacher's intention was there.
I think it's crystal clear.
To me, it always has been.
And I'm a big Michael fan, it always has been.
But there's no question at all that then
and it was hereth, wasn't it, the following year?
Well, we'll come to that.
It is one of mine.
This is, okay.
And so I know it probably seems
deeply uncharitable to be sitting here,
talking about Michael Schumacher's
malevolent, intense, you know,
30-odd years ago,
particularly given his condition these days, but...
No, I disagree.
I think you have to see these people for who they are.
It was my problem with the original Senna movie.
It was a hagiography
and I don't think that that actually did him
a huge amount of justice.
So the point I'll make is that
we are actually both huge admirers
of Michael Schumacher and everything he did.
And I've said it a million times before
on this podcast and in writing
and to anybody who listened to me.
But it's important to be honest about these incidents
and we will be.
We will be.
I will be a little bit later on.
Excellent.
But do you think, is there any aspect,
is there anything within Damon Hill
that do you think he would actually
not want that 1994 championship
because he only got the opportunity
to fight for it because Senna lost his life at Immola?
I don't, I can't speak for Damon.
I don't know him very well.
If it were me, I think the correct way to look at that
is what would Senna want?
And I think Senna would want in his memory
for his teammate to finish the job.
I really do.
I think Senna would want Damon to fight
with everything he had to beat the rival,
particularly if, as it turned out,
the rival was in a position to cheat
even though he may or may not have done.
I think Senna would have been
banged behind Damon doing that, I think.
I think you're right, actually.
I hadn't thought about it like that,
but I think you are right.
Okay, let me give you one of mine.
Go on.
2007.
Oh.
Lewis Hamilton, rookie season.
Fernando.
Yeah, Lewis's debut season,
he should have won the championship.
And just sort of sitting here,
reflecting on that fact,
he could have, probably should have,
won the championship in his rookie year.
That's like Kimi Antonelli coming in now,
this season at Mercedes,
winning a bunch of races,
leading the championship into the final round
and almost winning it.
Giuseppe Farina did it in 1950.
Oh, come on.
But only because it was everybody's rookie year,
because it was the first year.
But it's never been done.
I just think it's utterly, utterly extraordinary.
And I can't see it happening again.
Oh, hang on, did Shaq Real know of dude?
Well, no, he did it, so he raced in,
he was there in 96.
So he won the championship in his second season,
like as Fyres did, do you?
But he was already,
he was car champion in the US already, wasn't he,
Shaq Real?
So he was already a very well established driver.
And I think the reason I can't see it happening now
is that these kids are coming into F1 as teenagers now.
You know, they might do a season in F3,
they might do a bit of F2, and then they're into F1,
whereas Lewis had a really structured junior
single-seater career.
He worked methodically up through the ranks
and he was 21 before he came into F1.
But also most drivers, I know not all,
but most drivers who are rookies come into B teams,
don't they?
They come into the junior teams,
you're never gonna be a world champion in your rookie season.
Who was the only driver to win
his first ever Formula One race
and never won a Formula One race again after that?
Come on.
Giancarlo Baggetti.
Really?
Yeah, at Reams in 1961.
Wow.
First ever Formula One race.
So he peaked early.
Won it, never won another.
That is amazing.
There you go.
Well, so Hamilton into,
unusually for a rookie driver,
he came into a top team with a competitive car.
Yes.
Against reigning double world champion,
Fernando Alonso, who was the guy.
He was the guy who ended Michael Schumacher's
era of dominance.
Yes.
And I don't think anyone predicted that Lewis would be
such a nuisance to Fernando Alonso that season.
But he scored a podium in his debut race in Australia
and he was on the podium for his first nine races,
including two wins.
That's quite good, isn't it?
With two Grand Prix to go.
Well, with a double world champion as a, yeah.
And there was all that tension between them.
There's all that nonsense in, it was hungry, wasn't it?
And yeah, they sort of,
it got really quite dirty behind the scenes.
With two Grand Prix to go,
Lewis led the championship by 12 points ahead
of his teammate and 17 ahead of Kimmy Reichenan.
And this is in the old point system,
10 points for a win.
So the 12 and 17 point lead in the championship,
surely it's in the bag for Lewis.
But then, China penultimate race,
he, you know, either the team left him out too long
on those warm tires or he just,
I think it's probably a combination actually.
He made a mistake coming into the pit lane
and slid off into the gravel trap and just got stuck.
That gravel trap isn't there anymore.
It was taken away pretty soon after, I believe.
So Lewis gets beached in that gravel trap, Kimmy wins.
One race to go.
Lewis still leading the championship though,
four points ahead of Alonso, seven ahead of Kimmy.
That's still a decent championship lead
under a 10 point for a win point system.
But at the start of the race, a gearbox sensor problem
drops Lewis all the way down the order.
He can only recover to seventh.
Alonso finishes third, but Kimmy wins again.
And the title goes to Reichenan
by a single point ahead of the two McLaren drivers.
And the McLaren with the constructors.
Yeah, yeah.
Although, yeah, they do, they do.
So with only 20 points on offer,
Kimmy Reichenan turned a 17 point deficit around
to win the championship.
That is amazing.
It's unbelievable.
And Lewis missed out on becoming rookie champion
by a single point.
I think Reichenan actually is a deserving champion
because he won the most races that year
and he was very, very consistent
through the final third of the season.
He was on the podium for each of the seven final rounds.
So, you know, you really can't take anything away
from Kimmy Reichenan for winning that season.
But, I just think, Lewis,
and there's also, there's more to his story as well.
Everyone's first black driver.
He came from a very, very modest working class background.
And he rookie season should have won the championship.
I just find that extraordinary.
And also that, the battle with Fernando Alonso.
And frankly, I think a lot of people would suggest
that Alonso's never quite got over that.
He's, particularly nowadays,
he is always having a dig at Lewis, isn't he?
He is always having a pop at Lewis for whatever reason.
Yeah.
It's our grapes.
I think it probably is.
And as we know, Lewis did come back
to win the season the following year.
And that is another one of mine
that I will come back to a little bit later on.
But actually, just to,
you mentioned that McLaren won the championship.
They scored the most points.
Spygate.
But Spygate, maybe they didn't,
oh, I'm a bit confused about that actually.
But Ferrari won the championship.
Spygate meant that McLaren
were excluded from the championship.
Okay.
So, it was a remarkable year.
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Okay, I'm going to stay in Adelaide.
I started in Adelaide.
Yep.
I'm going to stay in Adelaide.
Okay.
Do you know where I'm going?
I don't, actually.
1986.
Okay.
Mansell, last race of the season,
has got 70 points.
Prostas got 64.
PK, Mansell's teammate, has 63.
Nine points for a win.
So, it's Mansell's, it's Mansell's two to lose.
I can't remember the exact stats,
but I think if he comes a lot,
so the first, second, or third, it's basically his.
But on lap 63, going down the straight,
he has, do you remember this, the tire explodes?
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, 180 miles an hour, the tire explodes.
Amazing bit of car control.
The car's going left, right,
swinging all over the place.
But it's okay in terms of Williams becoming champion,
because that puts PK ahead of Prost,
and PK was only a point behind Prost,
so PK's going to be world champion.
So what do Williams do?
They think, well, we just had a tiger on this car,
and it could have been an appalling accident.
Can we really, in all conscience,
leave Nelson out there?
And they thought we probably can't.
We better bring him in, and they bring him in,
and they check the car over.
It's absolutely fine, Prost goes through
and wins the championship.
The thing that I find,
I think it was a while later that Nigel Mansel,
he had a word with an official,
it might have been the clock of the course,
and the clock of the course said to Nigel,
if instead of performing that incredible save,
you just sort of casually decided
to go and stick it in the wall instead.
I'd have red flagged the race.
And because it would have run more than two-thirds distance
at a time, you'd be world champion.
Not the sort of thing you want to hear, is it?
No, it's probably not.
Nigel's out there sort of battling away,
trying to save this car,
trying to save himself after this.
Ridiculous.
It's an amazing thing to watch,
because it teaches you about downforce,
because when the tyre blows,
the car continues to track completely straight,
and as the car slows down,
the yawing gets more severe.
Because you think when it happens,
you think, God, he's got that under control.
But in fact, it's only as he starts to lose the downforce
that the car starts to swing about.
And then, as the speed does then come down,
it stops, it does it less.
So it was a great, very interesting thing to watch.
And he should have been champion,
but he had to wait, gosh, another...
Several seasons, yeah.
Six seasons.
Yeah.
Six seasons.
Cardio 1997 now.
Yeah, you do what you like.
So Michael Schumacher was leading a resurgent Ferrari,
versus probably the faster Williams of Jacques Villeneuve.
Jacques was only in his second F1 season, as we said,
but he was already cart champion in the US.
Carts being...
Did that then morph into Indy Carr?
I'm a bit confused about this.
Well, they ran their rival series for a while, weren't they?
Yeah, okay.
So he was already a very well-established racing champion.
Yeah.
Villeneuve, in the first 10 of the first 11 races,
Villeneuve either won or retired.
Wow.
Win, retire.
Win, retire.
And so Michael, I think it's widely accepted
that the Ferrari was not as quick as the Williams,
but Schumacher still won five races that season.
After the penultimate round,
so going into the final round at Hereth,
Schumacher leads by one point.
In qualifying, three drivers set the same lap time,
measured to 1,000th of a second.
Wow.
Villeneuve on pole, Michael Schumacher next to him,
Frenzen in third, because that was the order
they set their times in.
That's the way the rules work.
Okay.
So three drivers setting the same lap time
to 1,000th of a second.
Amazing.
Schumacher takes the lead on lap one,
and for 40 of the first 47 laps he's leading the race.
Then lap 48.
Villeneuve is right behind Michael Schumacher,
closing, closing, closing down a straight,
coming into a tight right-hander.
Villeneuve attempts the overtake down the inside
and the cars collide.
Yes.
I think there's no doubt really what happened there.
Bit like Adelaide.
Schumacher just turns into him.
But as Brondle said on commentary.
He says, that didn't work.
That didn't work, Michael.
You hit the wrong part of him, my friend.
Yes, that's exactly it.
Such memorable commentary.
Brilliant.
Yeah, and so it doesn't work.
Schumacher goes off the track and gets stuck in the gravel.
Villeneuve continues, car undamaged.
He finishes third and wins the championship.
I can remember getting a guided tour
around the Williams Museum at Grove by Patrick Head.
And he showed me the car.
And the tire marks were still on it.
Yeah, brilliant.
They just left them like that.
That's great.
So Schumacher was, unlike in 94,
there was a disciplinary hearing by the FIA.
And Schumacher was disqualified
from that year's world championship.
So he lost second place in the standings to Frenzen.
And Ferrari, I think they didn't challenge it.
They accepted that Schumacher made a mistake,
I think was their wording.
What was strange is that
Schumacher and Villeneuve never really,
they never shared a podium that season.
Goodness.
And they didn't really race wheel-to-wheel very much,
apart from that one incident that ended it all for Michael
and meant that Villeneuve was champion.
Okay, we're gonna go to the other end now.
Go on.
1958.
All the way back, almost.
So in 1958, this was the battle
between Sterling and Moss and Mike Hawthorne.
And in that season, Sterling Moss won four races,
Mike Hawthorne won one.
Yeah.
I think it was a short season, seven, eight races or something.
Eight or nine, yeah.
In Portugal, Mike Hawthorne gets excluded from the race
because he has spun the car and then reversed up the track,
which you're absolutely not allowed to do.
Ferrari appealed it and Sterling, at the appeal,
spoke up in his defense and said,
I think you'll find he wasn't on the track,
he was on the pavement.
Hawthorne got reinstated,
Sterling loses the title by one point, one point.
So, yeah, I mean, that was gonna be Sterling season.
And it was four races to one,
but the Ferrari won that championship
in the way that it has won a few championships
and all credit to them by just always being there
or thereabouts, not necessarily winning everything,
but just being very reliable, very consistent.
Another one, which isn't on my list,
but I'll just mention it very briefly in 1956
at the last race,
the title races between Peter Collins,
Fangio and Sterling,
Fangio and Collins being teammates at Ferrari
and Sterling being in a Maserati.
And Fangio's out, so he's not gonna be a world champion,
until Collins comes in because he's a young lad
and Fangio's a bit of an old boy
and says, come on, Hawthorne, take my car.
Take my car because I've got all the time
with a lot to be a champion.
So Fangio gets in Collins's car,
goes off, beats Sterling by a single point,
becomes champion and two years later,
Peter Collins is dead at the age of 26, I think.
Wow.
And I still think that's one of the greatest,
most noblest acts.
You just, I know I'm an old fuddy duddy
and I'm sentimental, I'm an idiot and a fool,
but I love stories like that.
And they are so much part of an era of,
well, I don't want to sound too military about this,
but of chivalry and gallantry,
which, duh, doesn't exist anymore.
That's right, and it's a reminder
that we mustn't take statistics too seriously
because they don't tell the full story.
So Sterling must never won the world championship,
but for those two incidents being different,
he could have been a double world champion.
Yes, yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, that is amazing.
I want to do 2008, which has become topical again.
Hamilton versus Felipe Massa.
Yes, and Timo Glock playing a small walk on,
but nevertheless quite significant cameo.
He did.
And that was the season of the Singapore Grand Prix
that was essentially fixed by Renault, Flavio Breatory,
Nelson Piquet Jr. crashing intentionally
so that it would bring out a safety car
at an opportune time for Fernando Alonso,
who went on to win that race.
Renault under massive pressure
from the mothership that season,
and they had to win a race, essentially,
to just to keep the team alive,
keep Renault in Formula One.
That's the explanation that I think Breatory
and others have given.
They essentially fixed that race.
But it was one of those great years
where the title protagonists,
they weren't between them winning every other race.
I think Massa won five races that year
and Lewis Hamilton won four or maybe at six and five.
And so, you know, it's a good ding-dong battle
back and forth throughout the entire year.
And we go to Brazil for the final round.
Hamilton leads by seven points,
Massa on pole, Hamilton qualifies fourth.
In the closing stages of the race, Massa is winning.
Hamilton had to finish no lower than fifth.
And with rain falling on lap 69,
Hamilton runs wide while running fifth
and Vettel gets past, dropping Lewis to sixth,
which is not enough, with Massa winning,
not enough to win the championship.
And just to leap forward a few seconds,
Massa crosses the line to win the race
and you see his family leaping up and down
in the garage.
He was well champion.
He was briefly technically well champion, wasn't he?
You see them leaping up and down.
His father.
His dad.
His face is, you know, full of joy.
It's actually heartbreaking to look at now
because there is that moment where they realize,
they realize that actually Lewis has finished fifth.
By getting past.
By getting on the final lap,
essentially the final proper corner of the entire season.
Rain coming down.
Timo Glock, who was running fifth,
is on dry tires struggling.
Lewis gets by and there's that, again, a Brundle line.
He goes, is that Glock?
And Lewis gets up to fifth.
Is that Glock?
Is that Glock wins the championship by a single point.
And it was an epic, epic season
and just an epic finale as well.
And actually in the moment,
Massa carried himself with real dignity,
clearly heartbroken,
but he stands on top of the podium,
tears in his eyes, looking proud.
And, you know, I thought a lot of Felipe Massa for that,
but now he's brought his court case.
And it's kind of unclear what he wants from it.
I don't think he's trying to get himself
declared the 2000 World Championship.
He's absolutely, I think he said specifically
that he's not doing that.
I think he wants official recognition
that he should have been champion.
And compensation for the loss of earnings
that would have come to him, had he done that.
Yeah, which is a nonsense.
It's a nonsense.
And I'll be gutted if anything comes of it in Massa's favor.
And that's, you know, I don't wish him ill at all,
but we can't go and rewrite history like that.
I think his point is that the Singapore Grand Prix
should have been declared null and void,
in which case he probably wins the championship.
But, you know, that's,
there were two or three Grand Prix between that
and the final round of the championship.
Events change, events, events change outcomes.
You know, we can't say that everything
would have been the same.
I think how many other championships
would then be called into question?
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree.
So, well, I mean, the court case is running right now,
so we'll see what comes of it.
Hopefully, with respect to Flima Massa,
hopefully nothing.
They said they're going to reserve
judgment to a later date.
So it's possible by the time this goes out,
we'll know what happened.
But without it, I think it'll still be deliberating.
Yeah.
Can I do a couple of quickies?
Go on then.
89 and 90, because this sort of speaks to,
we mentioned in last week's podcast about
Piastrian Norris and our McLaren favouring
one over the other.
Yeah.
And this was Prost and Senna.
Yeah.
Which came down to Suzuki,
penultimate round,
and Prost, by this stage, believed
that McLaren were favouring Senna.
Oh.
And he said that if Senna tried to overtake him,
he shut the door.
Guess what?
He tried to overtake him, he shut the door.
Now, actually, all that did was eliminate Prost.
OK?
So you think Senna's going to be world champion?
Except Senna gets going again,
and Jean-Marie Ballestra decides to disqualify him
because he says he missed the chicane in the incident.
Despite the fact that lots of other people
had missed the chicane during the same weekend.
How is that a disqualification?
And, well, because you didn't complete that lap.
Yeah.
And lots of other people had done it,
and there had been no penalty.
And this thing feeds directly into 1990,
where, at the same race, they switched pole.
So Senna was on the dirty side of the track.
Yeah.
Ballestra did this, yeah?
And so Senna went to the stewards
and said, that's not fair, move it back.
And the stewards said, well, actually,
yeah, we completely agree with you, we'll move it back.
And Ballestra went, no.
And Senna decided that if Prost was ahead at the first corner,
he was going to do it, and that's what happened.
So yes, I just want to mention both of those
because they were both essentially championship deciding
events.
It is a shame for a championship to be decided that way,
isn't it?
Awful.
It's awful.
It's such a pity.
Talking of which, 2021.
Oh, blimey.
We have to go there, don't we?
We do.
We do.
So it should be remembered as the single best
season of the modern era, I think.
Two all-time greats, OK?
Verstappen was younger then, not yet a world champion,
but certainly an all-time great now.
In more or less equal machinery,
Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Red Bull, and Mercedes,
who had the faster car?
Well, it swung back and forth,
but average it out over the course of the year,
probably even.
I think Adrian Newey said the Red Bull was faster.
Maybe, but it's probably as close as it's going to get.
Just imagine you've got 1,000 people building a car here
and 1,000 people building a car here.
And that is how close they turn out to be.
It is extraordinary.
And there were so many flash points throughout that season,
like Silverstone, Lewis, frankly, punting Max
into the wall at Popset.
I'm putting Max in hospital.
Yeah, goodness knows what speed.
A massive accident.
And then Max landing his car on top of Lewis's car
at the chicane at Monza.
Thank God for the halo.
That horribly bad-tempered Saudi Grand Prix.
Do you remember that one?
No.
It's just the two of them out front,
and they're just taking lumps out of each other.
Max, he does, he break tests Lewis
and Lewis drives into the back of him,
damages his wing.
He's so lucky that it didn't damage it anymore,
such that he would have to come in for a front-wing change.
Hamilton won that race.
Also, Lewis' disqualification from qualifying in Brazil
over the slot gap test, the DRS lap,
it was fractionally bigger than it should have been.
No competitive advantage, but the rules are the rules.
And it seemed like that was the championship all over
because Max had a reasonable championship lead
by that point.
But in the sprint and then in the race,
Lewis fought back from the very back of the pack
through to actually win the Brazilian Grand Prix that year.
And they went into the final Grand Prix tied on points,
which in the 25 points for a win era, that is amazing.
And if they both retired, who would have been champion?
Would have been Lewis, wouldn't it, I think?
I think it's Max on,
I think he had one more win at that point.
I think he did.
But whoever won the race would be a deserving world champion.
That's the way it looked.
And it was Lewis who took charge, he took the lead,
he built a comfortable lead over Verstappen.
He was world champion.
Despite Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez,
despite his best efforts.
And that was the best of Verstappen's in Paris drive.
Yeah, he was flawless there.
And he actually allowed Verstappen to get right back
onto terms with Lewis.
But still, Lewis built another comfortable lead.
Such that Christian Horner came on the sky
and left one broadcast and said,
we need a miracle now.
Yeah.
With five laps to go, Nicholas Latifi crashes.
That brings the safety car out.
Red Bull pit Max for new tyres,
because they've got nothing to lose,
nothing at all to lose at that point.
And this is when the race director, Michael Massey,
this is my interpretation of it.
He begins interpreting the rule book,
the way a competitor would looking for loopholes.
But he's the referee.
He should be applying the rules as written.
And when there's a gray area,
he should apply the spirit of the rules.
He's the referee.
That's his job.
Instead, he does two things in contravention of the rules.
He allows only some lapped cars to overtake the safety car
and get back around to the pack.
Yes.
That's never happened before.
It was basically all the cars between Max and Lewis.
Yeah.
So that puts Max directly on Lewis' tail.
On brand new tyres.
On brand new tyres.
Yeah, brand new soft tyres, Lewis on old hard tyres.
A complete mess match.
Seconds of it.
Later Lewis is sitting duck.
That's what I've got here.
Absolutely a sitting duck.
And then the safety car comes in a lap earlier
than it should have done.
If Massey had applied the rules properly there,
they would have stayed out for another lap.
They would have finished under safety car conditions.
Lewis would have been champion.
Now I do think Massey had reasonably noble intentions here.
I think he just didn't want what had been
a phenomenal season to end under safety car.
I think he felt that was going to be a bit of a let down.
However.
Sorry.
He shot his job.
Exactly.
He should have known that making those two decisions,
actually that was determining the title.
Yes.
If you work on the basis of the lesser of the two evils,
one is, it's unfortunate that the season ends
under a safety car,
but everybody would have forgotten that
really quite quickly.
Relocating the drivers world championship.
From the bloke who in all spirit, as you say,
should have been world champion
and giving it to someone who by the same deal
shouldn't have been.
And I imply absolutely in that particular race,
no criticism of Red Bull or Max Verstappen at all.
They did what they had to do.
And they didn't, there was no dirty driving.
There was no gamesmanship.
They just ran the best race that they could.
But Michael Massey determined the outcome
of that championship.
And I think it is injustice, if not technical law,
the greatest miscarriage
that there has been in Formula One history.
It is.
And actually it cost him his job
and the regulations were changed so it couldn't happen again.
Well, it should have cost him a job.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It absolutely should have cost him his job.
One of the real shames for me is that
no one needed to interfere there
because we know Max went on to dominate
in the ground effect rules era.
Yes.
And Lewis hasn't had a competitive car since.
So actually, do I still feel angry about it
as a huge Hamilton fan?
Maybe a little bit, but what I think now is that
this is sport, right?
And if you like Lewis, if you compete for a championship,
actually 12 or 13 times,
you're gonna get lucky with some, unlucky with others.
And at some point,
there's probably gonna be some injustice in there.
And I actually just think,
it's a horrible term,
but you look at the tapestry of Lewis Hamilton's career,
I think that's just part of it.
But five years on, which we'll be next year
when Lewis will still be in Formula One,
that is still playing out.
I have no doubt in my own mind
that if Lewis had won his eighth title in 2021,
he would not be in Formula One now.
This is the other great pity.
It denied him the perfect retirement.
When your eighth, record-breaking eighth world championship,
call it a day.
You've gone toe-to-toe with the best of this next generation.
Come out on top, call it a day.
You are the goatiest goat of all time.
Yeah, and he would have looked like a genius, wouldn't he?
With the Mercedes the following year was a pig.
And they haven't been championship winning cars ever since.
And he's still trying.
And I think the body,
probably the big body of public opinion now
is that he's not gonna do it.
Yeah, well, you need the car first of all.
You need the car, but even if you've got the car,
you've got to beat one of the fastest people in Formula One,
who is whatever he is, 15 years younger than you.
It's hard to see.
Right, quickly 1984,
because it has the distinction
of being the closest numerical championship
that there's ever been, half a point.
Between Prost and Lauda in the McLarens.
And it came down to half a point because of Monaco,
where Prost basically got the race stopped.
Because he was about to be done over
by this bloke called Ayrton Senna and I think all the Tolman.
Does our friend Belastrup make an appearance here again?
Well, not really.
But I mean, the fact that Prost was French
and Monaco was in not quite France.
No, the person who actually did it.
It's Jackie X, wasn't it?
It's Jackie X, he's a Belgian.
Yeah, yeah.
And, you know, Jackie has been,
he gets quite stroppy on the subject
if anybody brings it up, I've never had the nerve.
But anyway, half points now.
And Prost, so yeah, so he gets half the points
he should have done for Monaco
and he loses the championship to Lauda by half a point.
And so in your head, you think,
well, if he hadn't done that, then it was his own actions
trying to get that race stopped
which cost him the championship.
But of course, had he not got Monaco stopped,
Senna would have overtaken him
and he would have got even fewer points.
But in that streaming weather,
who knows how long that tall man would have lasted.
It might have got to the end.
It might not have got to the end.
But I mentioned it only because it is.
So, you know, the decider came down to Esterel,
Prost had to win it and he did,
but Lauda drove to P2,
which is what got him that half point win.
But had it not been for Nigel Mansell,
so Mansell was out there
and Nicky had to come second
and towards the end of the race,
Mansell was second and wasn't going anywhere.
But Mansell had asked Peter War at Lotus
to change the brakes on his car.
He didn't like the brakes he had in Peter War
because Mansell was leaving the team.
Told him to shove it.
And he retired from brake failure.
And so, Lauda managed to nip through into P2
and win by half a point.
I think what-
So it is the closest, numerically speaking,
championship there has ever been.
Or frankly, will ever be,
because you can't, I suppose,
you know, I've never heard of quarter points
being awarded, but no.
I think what I've realized from this episode
is that what's the expression?
Fate turns on the thinnest of threads.
It takes a championship.
I've got one more, which is,
which makes that look like a big fat thread.
Go on then.
Let's make it the last one
and then we'll wrap this one up.
Okay.
So we're going to go, where are we going to go?
We're going to go to 1964.
Okay.
Oh, I remember this one.
You remember this one?
Yeah, are we in Mexico?
We are in Mexico, well done.
Yes.
So there are nine points for a win.
Yeah.
And Hill is on, Graham Hill is on 41 points
and John Sertes is on 34 points
and Jim Clark is on 30 points.
So Clark, theoretically, can't be champion
because he's 11 points behind.
But-
But, oh, it gets complicated, doesn't it?
Well, a little bit.
You have to basically drop your two worst scores.
Yeah.
Okay.
And Graham Hill would, if he won the race,
would have to drop Spa where he got two points,
which would then put him equal on points
if Clark won the race on 39 points.
But Clark would have won more races in the season.
So Clark would be world champion.
Okay, so that's the context.
And in the middle of it,
there's this bloke John Sertes in the Ferrari
who's gone from absolutely nowhere.
The entire season has been Graham Hill versus Jim,
Graham Hill in his BR in versus Jim Clark in his lotus.
That's been the whole season
and suddenly out of nowhere.
This bloke, John Sertes,
who'd done one Formula One race before he,
or he'd made one, one Formula One race before he got there.
So he was almost a complete rookie.
But anyway, you get to where you are
and all three of them technically can do it.
But at the start, Jim Clark just buckers off.
He's in his lotus.
He's in a class of his own.
He's having a great time.
He's out front.
He's not going anywhere.
And both Hill and Sertes for different reasons
cock up their starts and they are way back down.
And it takes them the first sort of 10, 15 laps
so we can get back into contention.
And so lap 11, Hill is P3, Sertes is P5,
but Sertes teammate is in P4, Lorenzo Bandini.
Bandini decides he wants to overtake Graham Hill,
Carl's touch, Hill spins.
And the car isn't really damaged,
but his exhaust pipes, which stick out, have got flattened.
Yeah.
So he has to go back to the pits
to have his exhaust pipes sawn off.
And so he's now out of the picture,
but Jim Clark is still over the hills and far away.
So that's absolutely fine.
But on the last lap, the last lap,
Clark's engine expires, seizes solid, okay?
But it's still all right.
Clark is still world champion.
Oh no, so Hill is now world champion again,
despite being completely out of contention
because Sertes has to finish second
and he's in P3 and he's got no chance of getting second.
So Graham Hill is world champion,
except the car he has to overtake is his teammate,
Lorenzo Bandini again.
And you've got to find this really hard to believe,
but Bandini has a problem.
Does he?
And there's, but there's this terrible misfire.
The car's just not performing.
Oh, I'm losing lots and lots of time.
Just enough time for Sertes to knit past.
And Sertes maintained to his dying day
that that is what happened.
And nobody else believed it.
So yeah, so basically it became a championship
between two people, which was Hill and Clark,
became between three with Hill, Clark and Sertes,
but was decided by a fourth with Bandini.
And it was the outsider who won.
And it was the outsider who won.
It was John Sertes who became and remain to the state
most famously the only person to win one
championships on both two wheels and four.
Yeah, gosh, that is amazing.
Crazy, huh?
This is why we love Formula One, isn't it?
Because they're not all like this.
And I know there'll be great championship battles
that we haven't mentioned here.
We can't do them all.
And often Formula One looks like a foregone conclusion
and it's not that exciting, but we live in hope, don't we?
We watch in hope that it's like this.
I haven't done 1976, hunt louder
because I think everybody knows that story, haven't they?
1981, Breutemann lost it by a single point
because he basically in the last race,
which is at Caesar's Palace, just gave up.
Really?
He just, he gave all the appearance
of just not wanting to drive very fast.
And 1970, okay, Jochen Rint did become world championship.
He won every race he finished.
So his record for that season was if he finished the race
he won it, and he won five races in six
and then tragically got killed at Monza.
And Jackie X won three of the final five races
but didn't quite manage to do it.
So I'll just leave quite any others on my list
and I think we'll leave it there.
But let's hope we have another one this year.
I know, well there's time, isn't there?
And then we've got a totally new rule set for 2026.
I'm excited about that rule set
because I think I've had enough
with these current cars.
I just don't enjoy watching them race really.
No, I know what you mean
but I would temper your enthusiasm
and I'm being a bit sort of eorish about this
but the cars, I know they're a little bit lighter
and they're a little bit smaller
but I don't think it's gonna make it.
They're still gonna look like elephants at Monaco.
They're still not gonna be able
to overtake at the Hungara ring.
And I just hope that we don't have a situation
where one bloke, bloke is terrible things to say,
one team figures out something that nobody else does.
I know.
And steals a march not just for that season
but like Mercedes did with the engine
for an entire generation of Formula One cars.
That's all the jungle drums say, isn't it?
So we'll see.
Well, let's wrap that one up.
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About this episode
Dan Proser and Andrew Frankel dive into the thrilling history of Formula One's greatest championship battles, discussing iconic moments from 1950 to the present. They analyze pivotal races, controversies, and the fierce rivalries that shaped the sport, including the dramatic 1994 clash between Schumacher and Hill, Hamilton's near-miss in 2007, and the infamous 2021 season finale. With engaging anecdotes and insights, the hosts reflect on how fate and strategy intertwine in the pursuit of the championship, making for a captivating exploration of F1's legacy.
Original notes
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel debate Formula 1's most exciting drivers' championship battles. From the 1950s to the modern day, these are the most thrilling and fractious title fights F1 has ever seen. Highlights include the 1994 contest between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill, the 2007 season that very nearly saw a rookie Lewis Hamilton win the championship, and the combustible 2021 fight between Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
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The Intercooler
Dan Prosser and Andrew Frankel
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