This weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the 22nd race of the Formula 1 season, but one thing is for certain, the first 21 count for very little in the increasingly bitter title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
For the first time since 1974, two drivers enter the final race of the season level on points. The last nine months have done nothing other than to determine that Verstappen holds the advantage should the title be decided by countback, by virtue of having won nine races to Hamilton’s eight.
Last weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix saw the third significant on-track collision between the pair this season, following crashes at Silverstone and Monza, along with countless other minor skirmishes.
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After the race in Jeddah, Hamilton accused Verstappen of being “over the limit” and noted they could easily have clashed more often this season.
“I’ve avoided collisions on so many occasions with the guy. I don’t always mind being the guy that does that. Because you live to fight another day, which I obviously did.”
World championships ending in controversy are nothing new. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost twice resolved a title by collision, firstly in Prost’s favour when they were McLaren teammates in 1989, while a year later Senna claimed the championship by simply driving Prost’s Ferrari off the road in Japan.
Many still argue Damon Hill was the rightful winner of the 1994 championship that was decided on the streets of Adelaide, when Schumacher, having left the road and damaged his car against the wall, rejoined and collided with Hill at the next corner, eliminating both men and giving the German the first of his seven world titles.
Should Verstappen and/or Hamilton end up in the fence on Monday morning (AEDT), you can be sure the fallout will continue for weeks, if not months to come. The two drivers are a class above the rest of the F1 grid, but there’s every chance this title will be decided in a courtroom by teams of lawyers representing Mercedes and Red Bull.
That’s because of a precedent from 1997, yet another year when an altercation in the final race marred an otherwise thrilling title battle.
On that occasion, Michael Schumacher, in a Ferrari, held a one-point lead over Williams driver Jacques Villenueve heading to the European Grand Prix at Jerez.
Remarkable, Schumacher, Villeneuve, and the second Williams driver, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, all recorded the same qualifying time of 1:21.072, meaning the grid had to be decided by the order in which they set the times.
The two championship combatants would share the front row, and they ran first and second for much of the race, apart from when they pitted for tyres and fuel.
On lap 48 of the 69-lap finale, Villeneuve went to pass Schumacher on the inside, only for the Ferrari to turn in and collide with the Williams.
Schumacher was beached in the gravel trap, out of the race, while Villeneuve was able to nurse his car to the finish line and claim the world title.
The German was immediately condemned for a cynical attempt to take Villeneuve out of the race and win the championship, as he had with Hill in 1994. Such was the outcry, that even after the stewards had decided no punishment was necessary, the FIA was obliged to step in and summon Schumacher to a hearing in Paris the following month.
It was the outcome of that investigation that sets the precedent for what could occur this weekend between Hamilton and Verstappen. Schumacher was stripped of his second place finish in the 1997 championship, a penalty that means little in the overall scheme of things, particularly for a driver who finished his career with seven titles. Earlier this year, Sebastian Vettel famously named the 70 world champions in reverse order, but it’s unlikely even an F1 nerd like Vettel could name the 70 runners-up.
Doubtless it was easy for the FIA to exclude the second-placed finisher from the results, but would they have the intestinal fortitude to strip a champion of his title?
“It sends a message to all drivers at all levels of the sport that, if you do something you shouldn’t do when the championship is at issue, you will be excluded from that championship,” then-FIA boss Max Mosley said.
“You cannot possibly gain anything by engaging in an illegitimate act.”
But as Autocourse editor Alan Henry wrote in his introduction to the 1997 yearbook, Schumacher would hardly have been losing any sleep over the punishment.
“Certainly the FIA World Motor Sports Council took a lenient view of Schumacher’s alleged malfeasance. Despite expectations of draconian fines, possible race suspensions or even his starting the (1998) season with a negative points total, FIA President Max Mosley announced that he would be stripped of his second place in the championship and required to carry out some road safety campaign work.
“Most observers regarded this as little more than a slap over the wrists, but Mosley explained that it was intended as a deterrent aimed at anybody who had a mind to transgress the rules in the future.”
How this weekend plays out is anybody’s guess, but with everything to play for, there’s every chance Hamilton and Verstappen will be paying a visit to the stewards room at some point.
And if that happens, the only winners will be the lawyers.
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