Five of the biggest flash points between team-mates in F1 history: Hamilton, Verstappen and more

Formula 1 can be a funny sport. For while two drivers may be driving for the same team, only one of them can win the Drivers’ title come the end of the season.

This season, the title looks only likely to go one of two ways and with the Constructors’ wrapped up, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri may now start to land some punches on each other.

For Andrea Stella, he has to ensure his drivers compete fairly for there is a lurking Max Verstappen in the background but teammates have not always been known to play nice.

Here are five examples from F1 history of teammates turned title rivals getting a little too close to one another:

No.1 – Hamilton v Rosberg – Spain 2016

One of the most memorable teammate clashes of them all came during the 2016 season when the ‘Silver War’ bubbled over.

Mercedes was the dominant force that season meaning the title would go to either Nico Rosberg or Lewis Hamilton but by the time of the Spanish GP, it was the German who had built a commanding lead and had just under more than half the points that his teammate Hamilton did.

In Spain, Barcelona, Rosberg put his car on pole but his race started disastrously when he left the engine in the wrong mode and gave Hamilton an opportunity to pounce from P2.

By the time they reached Turn 3, the two drivers were within touching distance of each other and as they headed towards Turn 4, Hamilton attempted to go up the inside but Rosberg shut the door, moving his car onto the only available tarmac.

Instead of backing out, Hamilton kept his foot on the floor and onto the grass he went. Soon enough, his car was travelling sideways across the turf and his front right tyre collided with Rosberg’s rear left, sending both of them into the gravel and out of the race.

Hamilton launched his (very expensive) steering wheel out of the cockpit as a furious Toto Wolff looked on from the garage.

While the stewards deemed it a racing incident and Wolff said there was no one to blame 100%, behind closed doors, Mercedes felt the drivers were getting near to a breaking point.

The drivers were scolded with Hamilton in particular being criticised by one of his idols Niki Lauda, who said he should have been more patient given his engine advantage. After the events in Spain, the season remained highly competitive but they at least avoided crashing into each other for the rest of the campaign.

No. 2 – Hakkinen v Coulthard – Austria 1999

The 1999 title fight was shaping up to be a four-way fight between the McLaren duo of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard alongside Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, but when the future seven-time World Champion broke his leg at Silverstone, four became three.

The next race after Schumacher’s injury was Austria, with Hakkinen leading the title chase, and the Flying Finn then put it on pole ahead of his team-mate Coulthard in P2.

The Scotsman, though, was in no mood to wait for his teammate to win and looked to dive down the inside of Turn 2 on the very first lap.

In doing so, he clipped Hakkinen and sent both of them spinning across the track, and even if they were able to resume, Ferrari’s Irvine went on to win the race.

Unusually, Coulthard owned up to the mistake and apologised to his team-mate, calling it a “nightmare scenario.”

“Today was my nightmare scenario,” he said. “Not only did I take my team-mate off, but we came second to our opposition.
“I am very sorry for what happened with Mika — I completely misjudged the second corner and hit him.

“Then, I was unable to put in quick laps just after my stop as I was caught in traffic, and this meant that Irvine was able to get ahead of me.”

No.3 – Senna v Prost – Japan 1989

One of the most famous examples of teammate rivalries turned ugly came in the 1989 season and again with McLaren.

While it was not quite the dominance of the 1988 season, 1989 was another strong year for McLaren and its duo of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. The Brazilian won three of the opening four races before Prost took a trio of his own meaning that come the final stages of the season, they were the only two title contenders left.

With 16 points separating them, the job for Senna was simple – beat your teammate to keep your championship hopes alive. He set about it in the right way, finishing 1.7 seconds ahead of his teammate to take pole in Japan but Prost had an incredible start to snatch the lead.

The Frenchman dominated the first half of the race but a change of rubber for Senna put him on the charge. Pretty soon, all Prost could see was the yellow-and-green of Senna’s helmet and with the laps remaining, the Brazilian sent it.

Heading into the chicane, Prost hit the brakes but Senna dived down the inside into a space that was never really there. The two made contact and their wheels locked together, causing both engines to stall.

For a moment, the pair remained in their cars, looking at one another with Senna giving a sarcastic thumbs up to his rival who had in that moment clinched the world title.

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No.4 – Verstappen v Ricciardo – Azerbaijan 2018

While 2018 would go on to be a title battle between Ferrari and Mercedes, in the early stages, Red Bull did look like an outside bet, but that became a fool’s bet following the events of Baku.

After Daniel Ricciardo had produced one of the drives of his career to win in China, Red Bull arrived in Azerbaijan with momentum, as Ricciardo and Max Verstappen qualified one spot away from each other.

As the race went on, it looked to be only a matter of time before an incident occurred, with the two Red Bull drivers neck-and-neck battling for P4.

That flashpoint finally arrived on lap 40 when Verstappen went one way, opening the door for Ricciardo, only to move under braking and cause Ricciardo to crash into the back of him.

As a furious Adrian Newey picked up his notebook and left the pit wall, Christian Horner sat with a gobsmacked look on his face, with neither driver willing to accept full blame.

But it was at this time that arguably Ricciardo’s Red Bull career ended, as he felt the team did not rightfully back him up and instead protected the ‘golden child’ Verstappen.

No.5 – Hamilton v Alonso – Hungary 2007

The flash point between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso is unique because it did not actually happen during a race but instead on the day before in qualifying.

Tension between the two McLaren team-mates had been steadily climbing throughout the year but by the time of the race in Budapest, it was at near breaking point.

Just two points separated them but Alonso took matters into his own hands when he felt Hamilton had ignored team orders during qualifying. With McLaren attempting a double stack, Alonso waited 10 seconds in the pit box in the hope of disrupting Hamilton who was stuck behind him.

Alonso would go on to start his lap with two seconds to spare while Hamilton missed out by five seconds and team principal Ron Dennis was seen angrily throwing his headphones after Alonso’s antics.

The incident was the lighting of the blue touch paper. The stewards determined that Alonso had done it on purpose and gave him a five-place grid penalty, pushing him down to sixth. McLaren were also punished and not allowed to score Constructors’ points during the Hungary race but the real damage happened behind closed doors.

As this was happening, McLaren were facing allegations that one of their engineers had copied Ferrari’s technical information.

While Dennis was trying to keep a lid on that storm, Alonso went to him on the morning of the race and threatened to leak email exchanges which he said had damaging information.

Dennis believed it was an empty threat but it was the end of any kind of future for Alonso at McLaren. The season saw the two drivers end level on points with Kimi Raikkonen taking the title and Alonso leaving on mutual terms to rejoin Renault.

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