When Formula 1 Teams Get Caught CHEATING

Formula 1 has a BRILLIANT history of cheating. Sometimes teams and drivers only JUST push the limits. Other times, entire plans are orchestrated and executed to perfection like something out of a heist movie.

Drivers have literally cut corners to snatch pole, crashed into each other to win championships and even risked massive explosions to score points.

So we’re going to go over some of the most genius cheats that you probably haven’t heard of. Let’s go!

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Michael Schumacher, back in his Ferrari days, found himself in a tough spot at Monaco. He was one and a half race wins worth of points behind Fernando Alonso.

He NEEDED to win the Monaco Grand Prix to equal Ayrton Senna’s record of six wins in Monaco and give himself a shot at his eighth world title. On a track where it’s almost impossible to overtake, Ferrari were DESPERATE for pole position.

After setting the fastest time in Q3, he bizarrely “LOST CONTROL” of his car at 10 miles an hour at the Rascasse corner. Meanwhile, Fernando was on his hot lap, and two-tenths of a second up on Michael.

Schumy had clumsily “parked” across the track and triggered a yellow flag, forcing Alonso to abandon his lap.

Nearly every other driver on the grid called out Schumy on his “dirty tactics”. The FIA agreed with them; they denied him pole position and he was made to start from the Pit Lane.

Well, that backfired.

He drove an EPIC race on Sunday to finish 5th, while Alonso cruised to a comfortable victory and went on to claim the championship that year.

But while Fernando Alonso nearly got a rough deal in this incident, he was no stranger to benefitting from controversy.

📺 F1 Driver’s Technique Explained

📺 F1 Engineering

Freezing fuel, flexible front wings and hidden fuel-tanks - F1 engineers always find a clever way to push the limits of the rules.

Sometimes they get so close to the limit that it could be considered cheating, however, more often than not - they find an ingenious solution to forge new limits for their designs.

🏎️ Track & Racing Driver!

🏁 Sim Racers!

#F1Cheats #Formula1 #Driver61

[Driver]

Which was your favourite cheat? Got to admit, some of them are GENIUS 🤯

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[digit]

Surprised you didn’t mention the jump start at the 1999 European GP when a bunch of teams hacked the start procedure to tell their drivers when to go. Then Charlie Whiting found out and trolled them into jump starting. Such a funny story.

[khoiapham]

technically these are some of the worst cheaters bc they got caught. the best cheats we would never know of

[chrissdevano]

Alonso when he saw the yellow flags at Monaco: “No Michael No! That was so not right!”

[paulmckinstry]

My favourite fact about that Hans Heyer incident is that he was also officially disqualified from the race, meaning that his race weekend result was an unprecedented DNQ+DNF+DSQ.

[brianvogt]

Ferrari's fuel rate cheating must be the most brilliant in history. Precisely picking intervals of 0.45 of a millisecond seems insanely difficult.

[digit]

This type of insane engineering is why I love F1 as a whole. It’s such a shame that people are so toxic about “my driver is the best ever and your driver is an absolute moron not fit to be a taxi driver”.

The true heroes are the engineers that understand these incredibly complex machines to this extent. Obviously it should be punished but that 2019 Ferrari engine thing is nuts!

[mclarenscca]

Ferrari's fuel pump cheat was brilliant, just as Red Bulls way to expose them!

[chrismuz]

Hans Heyer, the true GOAT, with an unbreakable record: he managed to DNQ, DNS, DNF und DSQ in a single race.

[michaelisaacson]

That's the first time I heard an explanation of what Ferrari did to the fuel flow rate. I didn't know it had been figured out. It was sure kept quiet on Sky commentary!

[DeeSeaAreEss]

My favourite cheat was the 81 Brabham. F1 had introduced a minimum height check. Gordon Murray reasoned that this could only happen in the pits so he developed a suspension system that crushed down under aero load and stayed compressed until a slow down lap returning the car to the legal height.
Then he stuck a box (maybe a flask) with wires coming out. All the teams wondered how he was getting pace and what the box was all about.
A “cheat” and a distraction.

[skidude]

Great stories! The last Ferrari one still blows me away that the engineers could come up with something like that to work so consistently.

[albundy]

I knew about the Ferrari being able to bypass the sensor, but I didn't know the details. So, they programmed the fuel pump to know when the sensor wasn't looking (and it looked a lot - 2, 200 times per second) and then ensured the engine could take a 'gulp' as you put it, at that precise moment! GENIUS!

[venukrithish]

I forgot how dirty Schumi can be. I can't imagine how he would be judged with current social media era

[_NoDrinkTheBleach]

I remember arguing with people about Piquet's Singapore crash at the time. It was strange how many folks thought it wasn't intentional.

[mahadevovnl]

You forgot the biggest cheat of all time, the Spygate of 2021: Max touching the Mercedes wing. OUTRAGE!

[GonzoDonzo]

Thats just incredible that someone figured out u could take advantage of those gaps in the fuel flow sensors polling rate. I cant even begin to imagine the complexity involved in pulsing extra fuel at the correct timing to beat it. Just fantastic

[turbofrayer]

Imagine outsmarting cheaters that outsmarted anti-cheat sensors lol

[bence.gabor.slezak]

Crashing to gain or give advantage from the safety car is just disgraceful, but beating the control equipment with engineering is always very impressive. And "smuggling" your car onto the track is just incredible.

[DiktaturenF]

You need some praise for the production quality mate. It's an absolute pleasure to watch your videos!