What was the worst incident of Bad behaviour in Formula 1?

[Tris]

Hi all

It is that time of year again where a nicely timed collision could settle the championship ala. 1989, 1990, 1994 and nearly in 1997. Coulthard is trying to wind Schumacher up about it, saying the pressure will get to Schumacher and a collision with Hakkinen could be the result. All this looks like very bad behaviour in comparison to the gentlemanly conduct of the drivers in the 50’s.

I was wondering which driver every one thinks has been most “out of order” and when. For me it has to be Pironi at Imola in 1982. Beating Villeneuve like that was shameful. Also I think Nigel Mansell’s weaving and brake testing to keep Rosberg back at Detroit in 1984 were shameful as was the time he took Senna out of the race at Estoril in 1989 after he had been given the black-flag.

I look forward to hearing every ones opinion.

Tris

[angst]

As soon as I saw this post my immediate reaction was MS shoving Damon off the track to win the WDC '94. Then I read the word Pironi and have had to have a good long think. On reflection it is MS who wins over on this, just. Partly because he attemted the same thing against JV(which failed, thankfully) and partly because the whole thing was compounded by the complete inaction of the FIA. I also believe that Pironi went to the grave with a certain amount of regret for his actions against Villeneuve snr, whereas MS seems to believe he has done nothing wrong.

[slicktoast]

angst, I concur! At least Senna had enough sense to be sneaky about it.

[Billy_Hunt]

Surely TGF would'nt dare this year

[TimD]

Hmm, not a terribly edifying subject, but what the heck!

My nomination is Nelson Piquet at Hockenheim, in (I think) 1982.

Leading by a country mile in his Brabham, he tripped over Eliseo Salazar's ATS entering a chicane, with the result that both cars hurtled into the tyres.

Piquet's response to the incident was to call Salazar every name under the sun, then to push him about, then kick him, punch him - then realise to his cost that beating Salazar around the head is going to be of no help at all while Salazar still has his helmet on...!

And all under the gaze of the world's television audience.


Other nominations for welterweight bruiser include James Hunt at the '77 (I think) Canadian GP, who decked a marshal for trying to get him to step behind a crash barrier...

Colin Chapman who made the mistake of hitting an Italian policeman at Monza in the early sixties, and was only let out of jail when every single team threatened to pack up and go home the night before the race...

Ayrton Senna, administering a swift right-hook to Eddie Irvine after the 1993 Japanese GP, after Irvine had the nerve to unlap himself...

But my award goes to Piquet for sharing it with the TV viewers.


Incidentally, Tris, in the light of your note about the drivers of the 1950s, some of the men who raced against Giuseppe Farina might take issue with you there!

[TimD]

Oh, just thought of another one.

1984 Monaco GP, Alain Prost busily making signals to the race controllers in the pouring rain, desperately trying to get the race stopped. The fact that the rain had been worse earlier in the race seems to have been overlooked, as the red and chequered flags came out, and Prost took the win.

Two laps later, and Ayrton Senna (in an overweight, uncompetitive Toleman) and Stefan Bellof (in an underpowered, uncompetitive Tyrrell) would have been all over the McLaren like a ton of bricks. As it was, these two brightest stars in the firmament were denied the chance by the chequered flag.

As it was, Prost's win only counted for half points (4.5 in those days), as the race did not cover the required distance. And at the end of the year, Niki Lauda beat Prost to the WDC by a half a point. Prost would have been champion even if he had finished second at a full-length Monaco GP.

[Ralf's Girl]

Well I can't remember as far back as some of you, but in my memory it's TGF and his appalling displays at Adelaide in 1994 and Jerez in 1997.

[greigmur]

Pironi YEAH DIRTY RAT !!!!!!

But what about Senna on Prost at Suzuka that was pretty low.

[R]

Originally posted by TimD
As it was, Prost's win only counted for half points (4.5 in those days), as the race did not cover the required distance. And at the end of the year, Niki Lauda beat Prost to the WDC by a half a point. Prost would have been champion even if he had finished second at a full-length Monaco GP.

I wonder if he has regretted doing this later, realising he could have been WDC if he hadn't played dirty tricks.

What Piquet did sounds hilarious. He must have been extremely embarassed afterwards. Or was he?

[TimD]

In the red corner, Nelson Piquet. In the blue, Eliseo Salazar.

Amazing what you can find on the net....

[chow wei hsien]

i don't think all these are doing formula 1 bad at all.
i have been influenced by Bernie.

but i think all these make Formula 1 more popular and make more motorsport fans aware of formula 1


just look at Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna,... if they had a very gentleman and clean fight during their times,
do you guys think that when people reflect back to the history ...it wouldn't a very interesting story to read.
But their World War 3 rivalry makes more impact than a clean fight between ayrton and Alain,

So when Schumacher retires, people are going to think of him as a genius who use track bully tactics, someone who will ram his oppenents off the track in championship deciding races, someone who swerves and so on... i think when people think of Michael that way, it would be nice!
i love Michael Schumacher when he becomes rough!!

[neutral]

I agree with your last point chow.

[Tris]

I think the funny thing about the Piquet / Salazzar incident was the fact that Piquet engine would have let go a few laps later, Salazzar had saved BMW's face in front of their home crowd.

Come to mention it I thought the way that Renault sacked Prost at the end of 1983 was more than weak. Just beacuse they had not done as much development work as BMW. Prost told Renault that BMW were catching them....

Tris

[Valve Bounce]

Jerez. TGF made two movements towards Jacques, not one. He pulled out of the first one as it would only involve banging wheels. He steered away quickly, then jerked the steering wheel back so that his front wheel hit the Williams between the front and rear wheels of the Williams. Jacques was very lucky his car was not launched into the air as it would if his rear tyre caught the front tyre of the Ferari. For those who disbelieve me, check the video on freeze frame. The in car shots from above TGF's helmet shows this very clearly.

[Ralf's Girl]

What's ironic is that, had TGF stayed where he was, Villeneuve would have hit him, they would probably have both gone off and TGF could have blamed JV.

And he would have had a nice shiny WDC trophy too...

But that's life...it's a *****, isn't it???

[Dhru]

My friend who was a JV fan, gave me a ring seconds after that incident and laughed in my face. Not nice. I got my own back the next season, when JV was struggling to get a point. And the next season...ahh '99 was great for ****ing her off, until Silverstone anyway.
I think the best after-incident incident was when Hill knocked Michael of in '95 (Monza or Silverstone I think) and three marshalls had to pull Michael away as Hill sat in his car with his helmet on, trying to wriggle down to the bottom. Oh and post '98 with Michael storming to the McLaren garage after DC. It was miles better than seeing Mika weep in the Royal Forest. That was just depressing, after all he spilt th milk, there was no use crying over it.
Dhru.

[Carla O]

Originally posted by TimD
Oh, just thought of another one.

1984 Monaco GP, Alain Prost busily making signals to the race controllers in the pouring rain, desperately trying to get the race stopped.
(...)
As it was, Prost's win only counted for half points (4.5 in those days), as the race did not cover the required distance. And at the end of the year, Niki Lauda beat Prost to the WDC by a half a point. Prost would have been champion even if he had finished second at a full-length Monaco GP.

This is one of the classic F1 moments for me. Also 84 was the year i started watching F1 properly... and I guess i disliked Prost even more than Sc... TGF... so Well done Lauda in 84

xxx
C

[Liz]

Well, according to Niki Lauda and others, the reason Prost was sacked by Renault had a lot more to do with the Team Manager's Wife than it did with anything that was SUPPOSED to be going on in the garage.

Pironi has to be my nominee for the most evil of all F1 behaviour, because his callous disregard of the "slow" decree led directly to the death of his teammate - and he lied about it until he left F1, if not to his dying day. Senna at least admitted--eventually--that he had been lying for 2 years about what he did at Suzuka. IMO it is a worse sin to commit an outrage in front of the cameras and deny it unless you are absolutely insane and do not realise you did it at all.

As for Senna and his pop of Irvine, Eddie himself admits it was the best boost his career could have gotten. No one would have remembered his rookie year except for that!

[Tris]

Personally I have the feeling that Senna knocked Prost off at Suzuka in 1990 as revenge over the sports governing body. I admit that there was the huge personal rivalry between Prost and Senna but I can not be the only one who thinks that Senna wanted revenge over Balestre for 1989 as much as he wanted revenge over Prost.

As for Alain at Renault I knew of the rumours, it’s always the quite ones you have to watch.

Does anybody know where I can find a transcript of the interview that Piquet gave to Brazilian playboy in 1988? I am dying to read it!

Tris

[garcia]

I do remember Schumacher punting Damon Hill off in Australia-angst but perhaps Damon should of held back- he knew Schumacher had crashed and was out of the race for sure but Damon still went up the inside of him when Schumacher crawled back on the track- it was inevitable that a desperate Schumacher was not going to sit back and watch Damon win the World Championship. I would of probably done the same- a slight swerve would be all to tempting with such stakes involved.

Angst we cannot be biased when it comes to Damon- Damon was no angel boy himself. I know Schuhmacher punted him once but how many times did Damon punt off Schu! I will tell loads-remember the British GP of 1995 remember Belgium GP of the same year and there were other incidents- so Damon isn't as innocent as some people like to make out.

[Ralf's Girl]

Damon never took anyone off deliberately. TGF did.

[Cyprian]

TBT(damon hill) - i'm allowed to start my own sad nick names, if he never took off anyone on purpose he must be plain s_hit then!

[White Van Man]

Shyte perhaps, but not a cheat... I know which i'd rather be.

Worst behaviour in F1 ? hmmm... here's a top three...

• Schumacher - Jerez 97
• Schumacher - Spa 98
• Schumacher - Adelaide 94

[Ralf's Girl]

Originally posted by Cyprian
TBT(damon hill) - i'm allowed to start my own sad nick names, if he never took off anyone on purpose he must be plain s_hit then!

If you're referring to 1995, if you knew anything you'd know that in 95, Damon wasn't looking at his racing properly. He concentrated so hard on trying to beat TGF that he lost sight of the task he was there to do. Which is why he made so many mistakes.

And how many sh*t drivers do you know who have become champions?

Answer me that and I'll admit defeat.

[R]

What Ralf's Girl said.