Eleven times F1 World Champions saw red mist on track

Max Verstappen hit the headlines for his collision with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix, but it is far from the first time in Formula 1 that a World Champion has acted out of frustration.

Some of the sport’s biggest names also had moments where their anger would bubble over on track, and following this latest incident, we’ve compiled some of the more famous examples of when previous champions and eventual title-winners have lost their cool in the heat of battle.

Eleven times F1 World Champions saw frustrations boil over on track

James Hunt vs Patrick Depailler (and a marshal) – 1975 Monaco Grand Prix

James Hunt was not yet a World Champion when Formula 1 descended on Monaco in 1975, but he made his anger quite clear after an incident with Patrick Depailler towards the end of the race that saw him forced to retire.

Hesketh driver Hunt, clearly angry at the way his race ended, stayed at the scene of their accident, intending to wait for Depailler to come back around again to make his feelings clear.

Marshals on the scene in Monaco tried to help the Briton away from the circuit, but Hunt refused to budge from the side of his car. While looking to usher Hunt out of harm’s way while stood behind him, the 28-year-old turned and almost hit the marshal in question.

But once Depailler came back around again, an angry shake of the fist from Hunt showed his disapproval at the situation, before he strolled back to the paddock via Monaco’s streets.

Nelson Piquet vs Eliseo Salazar – 1982 German Grand Prix

In one of the rare moments a public fight breaks out between drivers, reigning World Champion, Nelson Piquet was attempting to lap Eliseo Salazar at Hockenheim when, having moved around the outside, Salazar took both drivers out of the race when he tagged Piquet’s rear left tyre.

Already attempting to climb out of his car before it came to a stop, the Brazilian was furious, gesticulating at Salazar as he walked off track, before shoving him in the face and sending punches and kicks in his direction.

While angry in the heat of the moment, Piquet would later apologise to Salazar for that incident.

Nigel Mansell vs Ayrton Senna – 1987 Belgian Grand Prix

In mixed conditions at Spa-Francorchamps, Nigel Mansell looked to overtake Ayrton Senna around the outside of the Fagnes Chicane, but the two collided as they touched wheels, sending both drivers into a spin.

Both were forced to retire from the race as a result, and smarting from his belief that Senna was at fault, Mansell made his way to the Lotus garage where the two exchanged angry words, and multiple reports emerged afterwards that punches were thrown between the pair.

Mansell confirmed this was the case in a 2015 interview with Sky Sports, recalling the anger he felt at the time, but with time being a healer, he was able to see the funny side.

He said: “I got back to the pits, and I had a red mist – one I’d never experienced in my life, actually. I just saw red, like there’s no tomorrow.

“Obviously, I was then like a great big bull in a ring, and anything I saw was red, and I thought: ‘I’m going to go and see my friend Ayrton.'”

Laughing, he added: “We had a very good communication.

“It was very lively and, to my amusement, I have to say, because I had four people holding me down he stood in front of me, and he hit me quite a few times – I didn’t feel a thing.

“But the fantastic thing [was] the FIA didn’t do anything. No one did anything. So there were two big guys going for a World Championship, and we were threatening one another’s lives on the track, and they thought, ‘Well, you know what? Let the drivers sort it out.’

“Sometimes the drivers need to sort it out. You can’t have the officials sort it out all the time.”

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Alain Prost vs Ayrton Senna – Japanese Grand Prix (1989 and 1990)

A two-in-one here, as both moments became title deciders.

The 1989 Japanese Grand Prix was billed as a title showdown between the McLaren duo of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, with the team having been dominant all season long and Prost able to win the title at the penultimate race of the season.

The two were well ahead of the field and, with Prost leading in the closing stages and Senna needing a victory to keep his title hopes alive, he sent an overtake attempt down the inside of the final chicane, accompanied by the now-iconic Murray Walker commentary: “This is the opportunity that Senna’s looking for, and he’s going through… OUT!”

Prost turned into the right-hander with Senna alongside, they clashed wheels and, after wagging a finger at one another from the cockpit, the Brazilian was able to get going again after being pushed by track marshals, with the Frenchman out of the race.

Cutting the chicane to get back on track via the escape road, Senna crossed the line for what he thought was a victory that would take the title battle down to the final race.

But immediately after the race, Senna was disqualified for cutting the circuit to rejoin the race, handing Prost the title. After McLaren appealed, governing body FISA not only rejected their claim, but handed an additional $100,000 fine to the team with a suspended six-month driving ban for Senna.

One year later, Senna lined up alongside Prost, now at Ferrari, on the front row at Suzuka, with the McLaren driver in the box seat for his second title.

Prost got off the line the quicker of the two, but in attempting to take the inside line into Turn 1, the pair made contact again and both went spearing into the gravel, causing an instant retirement for both and handing Senna the World Championship.

Walker commented of the crash at the time: “Well, that is amazing, but I fear, absolutely predictable.”

While the duo eventually reconciled their differences prior to Senna’s untimely death in 1994, these flashpoints represented the nadir of one of Formula 1’s fiercest rivalries.

Ayrton Senna vs Eddie Irvine – 1993 Japanese Grand Prix

While not in title contention this time around, Senna took a superb victory around Suzuka in 1993, but was left riled by a Formula 1 debutant on the day: Eddie Irvine.

Irvine had signed with Jordan for the final two races of 1993, and scored an impressive P6 finish on debut – even unlapping himself in the process against the three-time World Champion.

Angered at this “unprofessional” behaviour, Senna received a suspended two-race ban after he headed to the Jordan garage and, following an argument, threw a punch at Irvine.

Former team principal, the late Eddie Jordan, recalled the encounter when speaking on the Formula For Success podcast in 2023, saying: “After the race, Gerhard Berger would be setting into shots of this schnapps, and he got Ayrton on it.

“Gerhard, just looking for aggravation, which is second nature to him, he kept saying to Ayrton: ‘You need to go down and see that Irvine, [he] is only in his first ever Grand Prix and he dared to unlap himself. I wouldn’t be putting up with that, you need to go and teach him a lesson.’

“So, Ayrton comes down into the Jordan garage and he just starts talking to Irvine. Irvine totally ignores him, knows exactly who he is, [but] Ayrton was getting ratty about this guy, [a] ‘does he not realise who I am?’ sort of thing, and he just lashed out and gave him a smack. It was the biggest publicity Irvine ever got in his life!”

Berger agreed alcohol may have fuelled that intervention on this occasion, recalling to Motorsport.com: “People came back and told us he’d had a fight with Eddie.

“The schnapps was definitely the reason for his reaction! On this day it was the right medicine for the problems he had.”

Michael Schumacher vs Jacques Villeneuve – 1997 European Grand Prix

With the FIA wary of Michael Schumacher’s controversial collision with Damon Hill in Adelaide that coincidentally secured Schumacher the 1994 World Championship, all eyes were on the season finale in Jerez in 1997 as Jacques Villeneuve appeared on the edge of title success.

With then-FIA president Max Mosley having warned of action against any driver to look to influence the outcome of the championship, the title race was decided by another collision as Schumacher appeared to turn into the side of Villeneuve’s Williams, which in turn put Schumacher out of the race.

As the Ferrari driver returned to the pits, then-technical director Ross Brawn later revealed the German has sought to get Villeneuve disqualified for the manoeuvre, but upon viewing the incident as it was, Brawn revealed, as per Motor Sport Magazine: “He came back to the pits and he was telling us, ‘we have to get Villeneuve disqualified,’ and I said ‘Michael, you really need to look at the TV because it really doesn’t look that way I’m afraid.

“He looked, and he went quiet and realised that things hadn’t been quite the way he thought they were from the cockpit.”

There would be repercussions for Schumacher, too. After an FIA hearing, he was found to have deliberately moved into Villeneuve and was disqualified from the 1997 World Championship standings, in what was an unprecedented step by the sport’s governing body.

Michael Schumacher vs David Coulthard – 1998 Belgian Grand Prix

In the pouring rain at Spa-Francorchamps, Michael Schumacher had been approaching the back of David Coulthard to lap him.

After sharing initial frustration at not being allowed past, Coulthard stayed on the racing line and slowed for the Ferrari driver on the downhill run to Pouhon, but with visibility poor and not enough time to react, Schumacher piled into the back of the McLaren, losing a front wheel in the process and Coulthard losing his rear wing.

Schumacher was visibly angered as he returned to the pit lane, storming to the McLaren garage to confront the Scot, with the two needing to be separated by team members in the aftermath.

Sebastian Vettel vs Mark Webber – 2010 Turkish Grand Prix

Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were in title contention in 2010, and tensions had been rising between the two Red Bull drivers.

Their animosity came to a head in Istanbul, while Webber was sitting top of the Drivers’ standings.

With the Australian leading the race, he had a request rejected for Vettel to reduce his pace behind as the duo began to battle for victory.

Heading towards Turn 12, Vettel moved to the inside, grazing the grass as he did so, and when moving back to the right, the two collided – taking Vettel out of the race.

He had his hand out of the car as Webber went past, who himself needed to pit for a front wing change. As he walked away, Vettel lifted one finger and circulated it around his ear – the signal for believing an action was ‘crazy’, while his team-mate eventually took third place on the day.

In the aftermath, Vettel shouted on team radio: “****! What the **** are we doing here?! What a stupid action! I’m going home. **** you!”

Webber was slightly more measured after the race, saying: “It’s the first time in a career I’ve had a problem with my team-mate when so much was at stake, but anyway, hopefully it’ll be water under the bridge at the end of the year.”

Having had a moment to calm down, a massive media scrum awaited Vettel as he spoke after the race, who added: “Not very happy now after something like this happening, obviously, but we were all pretty much same conditions, same speed, same pace and I felt that I was able to go quicker.

“We are a team at the end of the day and we have to respect that fact.”

Vettel would triumph at the end of the 2010 season, however, marking his first of four consecutive titles with Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel vs Lewis Hamilton – 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Ultimately a misunderstanding, but Vettel, now at Ferrari, was following another multiple World Champion in Lewis Hamilton while under Safety Car conditions in Baku.

Having exited the left-hander of Turn 15, Vettel’s speed was faster than Hamilton’s and he ran into the back of the Mercedes driver.

Believing the slow pace to be a deliberate move on Hamilton’s part, Vettel raised both hands out of his car, claimed “he brake tested me” over team radio, drove around to move level with the Briton and banged wheels as a sign of his disapproval.

Replays showed Hamilton did not do as Vettel had accused and the Ferrari driver was handed a 10-second stop/go penalty for dangerous driving.

In a frantic race eventually won by Daniel Ricciardo, Vettel would still finish ahead of Hamilton come the chequered flag, the two title contenders finishing fourth and fifth on the day.

Lewis Hamilton vs Max Verstappen – 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The 2021 season was a campaign filled with flashpoints between the two title protagonists, not least after a high-speed collision at Silverstone and contact that saw Max Verstappen‘s car land on top of Lewis Hamilton’s cockpit at Monza, but the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix played host to a cat-and-mouse game that saw tensions rise between the two on track.

Verstappen, looking to protect his World Championship lead, had been staunch in his defence of the lead of the race against chasing polesitter Hamilton, but after leaving the track to keep his position at Turn 1 on Lap 37, after which Hamilton said “this guy is ****ing crazy, man”, Verstappen was later handed a five-second penalty.

That wasn’t the end, however. The Red Bull driver looked set to let the Mercedes man by heading towards the final corner, slowing on the penultimate straight to do so, while on the racing line, and with a DRS zone coming up to attempt to re-pass Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion slowed to match his speed, and the closing speed between them meant he made contact with the back of the Red Bull.

In a further attempt to let Hamilton by on Lap 42, Verstappen allowed the Mercedes driver to pass before overtaking him once again into the final corner. Third time around a lap later, Verstappen slowed again on the straight, but this time Hamilton took as wide a line as possible into the final hairpin, offering his title rival no opportunity to slip back by as he held onto a dramatic race victory.

While both appeared diplomatic after the race, such a battle in the heat of one of the closest title fights in recent years unsurprisingly saw radio exchanges become heated.

Max Verstappen vs George Russell – 2025 Spanish Grand Prix

In a Red Bull unable to match the front-running McLaren, Max Verstappen was looking to keep hold of a podium in Barcelona.

But after a snap of oversteer in a late Safety Car restart, the Red Bull driver lost a place to Charles Leclerc, and George Russell made a lunge for position at Turn 1.

While alongside Verstappen, oversteer for Russell made him lose slight control of his Mercedes and the reigning World Champion maintained position after taking to the escape road.

However, race engineer GP Lambiase advised Verstappen to move aside for Russell to avoid a potential penalty, but after protesting, Verstappen slowed down on the way to Turn 5.

As Russell went past, though, Verstappen sped up again and made contact with the Mercedes, which resulted in a hefty 10-second penalty and three penalty points on his Super Licence.

Having steered clear of the subject after the race, Verstappen took to Instagram the following day to acknowledge his move was “not right and shouldn’t have happened”, and team principal Christian Horner added his driver had apologised during the team’s debrief.

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