10 crazy F1 contract stories

[@cappeb]

Not on the list but Kimi's contract with Lotus is still the weirdest one for me. I still cant belive that someone at Lotus legal team thought that it was a good idea and wouldn't backfire or anything. (For those that dont know Lotus offered Kimi a 50000 dollar bonus for every point that he scored. Well 2 years later he had scored 390 points and earned almost 20 milloin dollars almost bankrupting Lotus)

[@shadowguy128]

And they are still paying it

[@icygt]

I think they underestimated their car and driver

[@Cynderfan35]

@@shadowguy128 The entire amount was never payed but Kimi didn't go after Lotus for it because of reasons more unknown to me. probably to save jobs of people who worked in the team back then

[@shadowguy128]

@@Cynderfan35 its only a rumor

[@maikkeli]

@@Cynderfan35 I believe that Kimi said in some finnish tabloid that he did not need the money as badly as the team and just dropped the case.

[@sameermohideen4913]

Everyone else: Fights for contracts. Kimi: Gets paid by Ferrari to stay home...

[@leeredford1028]

Yeh... but kimis just kimi... got his own style lol... paid too stay home sounds beltin😂😂😂

[@Ravenlord79]

And get lot of money from rally hobby and thet return to f1

[@rock3tcatU233]

He knows what he's doing.

[@nonadeplume1145]

Kimi is his own man and I love it!

[@mamobarker8055]

@@Ravenlord79 And almost bankrupt Lotus with his points score bonues.

[@kiranbabu3426]

Bruh, Kimi's career is honestly the best. Stay fighting at the top for 90% of your career without any pressure.

[@djoetma]

Well fighting... He became a second driver at Ferrari letting his teammates Vettel and Alonso by. He was fighting in the McLaren and that one year at Ferrari. Kimi was certainly good, but he lost it, or missed motivation and seemed basically fine making millions without applying himself.

[@gianniaurilio8163]

@@djoetma he was fighting 2008

[@funfavst1386]

@Some random guy HEY!! 2012-2013 Lotus car was very good as #1 driver

[@funfavst1386]

@Some random guy Yeah RIGHT RIGHT, but this Lotus aren´t Top team were very competitive, much GP fighting with Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren until grown Mercedes

[@the9der352]

Bwoah.

[@hannesgroesslinger]

My favorite F1 contract story is not about a driver but about an engineer: (at least this is a story that i have heard a couple of times, i have no sources to back it up and am not 100% certain this actually happened, but it seems too good not to share) Gustav Brunner was technical director at Minardi in 2001, and was offered the same position at Toyota for 2002. The salary Toyota offered was higher than what he got at Minardi, but Brunner felt that given Toyota's mighty budget and the much higher responsibilities that came with that, he should be paid a lot more than that initial offer. So he negotiated for a considerably larger number. While Toyota raised their offer quite a lot, they simply were not willing to match the number Brunner felt to be acceptable, so he almost walked away from that deal. Only after several weeks of negotiations Brunner realized that while he assumed they had been talking about annual salary, Toyota was actually talking about monthly salary. So all the numbers were actually 12 times as much as he had assumed. Even the first offer was higher than what Brunner really was asking for, and by now he had raised his price a lot higher than that. He took the job and became one of the best paid non-driver personalities in F1 at the time.

[@fireguy6566]

I can imagine him sitting somewhere, drinking coffee, and suddenly thinking: "Oh shit, they've meant monthly salary, that's 12 times the money! And i've increased it! Quick, gotta call those crazy japan boys".

[@ziulcast]

haha thats brilliant

[@rock3tcatU233]

I would literally ejaculate with excitement when realizing that.

[@ChefofWar33]

@@fireguy6566 "Spits coffee everywhere".

[@snifey7694]

Oh my that's a great story

[@maxleitschuh7076]

The best story I've heard was the story of Roberto Moreno getting the Benetton drive in late 1990. He went to the Benetton factory to do them a favor (sit in the mock-up of the 1991 car to help with seating position), hoping to use his time there to beg them for a test drive in 1991. When he got there, the team immediately offered him a race seat for the last 2 races of 1990, since one of the team's drivers had just gotten injured in a helicopter crash! When Moreno called his existing team EuroBrun to get out of his contract, EuroBrun told him the team had folded that morning! Moreno promptly finished P2 in his first race with Benetton, and they then signed him for 1991.

[@danielstark7239]

he ended up losing the drive mind 13 races later

[@psykkomancz]

The injured driver was Alessandro Nannini, which is name you should know definitely, because he was the last Italian in history considered talented enough to possibly win F1 championship. That helicopter crash ended his career.

[@ataorkunoguz5451]

@@psykkomancz what about Jean Alesi? Doesn't he considered as an Italian?

[@maxleitschuh7076]

@@psykkomancz Yeah, definitely know about Nannini, was just trying to keep the story short! There were a couple other parts I left out too, like Moreno's old team threatening to stay in business just so they could force Benetton to pay them $30,000 for Moreno's contract.

[@psykkomancz]

@@ataorkunoguz5451 Alesi if French.

[@vivas8687]

Kimi was paid to stay home.... That's what we need for people still working

[@bastianmann4936]

Fun fact McLaren once had to pay Sauber to sign him, Ferrari paid him for staying at home and later paid Lotus to sign him back.

[@vivas8687]

@@bastianmann4936thx for the fact man

[@mitchellcornett5]

stimulus check in a nutshell

[@monstalova]

50 million!

[@Phenom98]

Another reason to admire Kimi. He was very ahead of its time

[@sota_59]

Fun fact, Bianchi and Sutil also had contract to drive Sauber in 2015

[@OOpSjm]

Lots of drivers claiming to have the money or "potential sponsors" in the pipeline. Ericsson and Nasr could write the big cheques in the end.

[@romanbaranovichi5375]

I'm pretty sure Jules was signed for Marussia/Manor for 2015 with an agreement with Ferrari that he would partner Vettel after that

[@mooreanonumbers]

The whole thing was such a mess. Sauber got off quite lightly.

[@mateuszszymkiewicz4771]

@@romanbaranovichi5375 I don't know how he knew that, but Colin Kolles confirmed that Bianchi during the Japanese Grand Prix 2014 signed a contract with Sauber for 2015.

[@djoetma]

Bianchi didn't. Not sure where you got this from. Sutil apparently did, but we never heard anything about a settlement like we heard around Giedo.

[@Dennizzz119]

Being too French is a valid argument not to want to do something.

[@uRetr00]

Agreed

[@gth77s]

Yes

[@louis-hhr9479]

Oui

[@Undivided-X]

Unless you're a French person named Sebastien driving for Citroën in WRC.

[@louis-hhr9479]

aditya banerjee oui

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

And another: Michael Schumacher leaving Ferrari. Common assumption is that Raikkonen replaced Schumacher; however for those of us who properly remember, Raikkonen was signed to partner Schumacher, as a Di Montezemolo power play to move the team's focus away from the Todt-Schumacher axis, and give him more control. Schumacher then understod that Massa was not to be retained, and; rather than race alongside Raikkonen as a competitor, and see his friend Felipe booted out, he chose retirement - even specifically stating it at Monza: "In terms of timing, the decision I thought it was fair to find a moment that Felipe has a chance to decide his future because I think he is a very great guy. He has been doing a very good job for the team, very supportive, a really great teammate. “There is a moment for him to decide his future and there is no point for me to take my decision any later than his decision had to be taken." Massa was later signed to a 1-year extension for 2007.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Aidan Millward has a great take on this story. Well worth a watch - hell, his channel is well worth a sub!

[@nonadeplume1145]

Schumacher was a true sportsman.

[@theempires5]

I heard about that story. Apparently, Phillip Morris was willing to devote their entire sporting budget, totalling at 1 billion (YES, 1 BILLION) to the Scuderia for a Schumi-Kimi dream team. Of course, that didn't happen.

[@patrickracer43]

Let's be honest, Sauber signed like 20 drivers for the 2015 season, I think at one point I was linked to one of the seats and I've never even been to Europe

[@xwarped83]

“Who is this Edward Irvine?” That made me pinch the upper part of my nose.

[@MephLeo]

Edison? Edison Irvine?

[@SamuelSantos_]

I find it ironic that Michael Schumacher was so livid about Jordan putting team orders on his brother, considering Michael spent much of his career benefiting from team orders. 🤔🖕🏼

[@gamefan56]

Like which? USA 2002 comes to mind, what else? Should I also bring up how he had to play number 2 as well in 1999 when he came back from his injury?

[@gamefan56]

@@Catcrumbs Just realised I messed up in my original comment by saying USA 2002 rather than Austria 2002. Sorry about that. As for France 1999, you are talking about before Schumacher broke his leg and was still in front of Irvine in the championship at that point, of of course it would make sense to keep Irvine behind at that point since he was in a less of a threat to Hakkinen at that point than Schumacher. Of course this is not to mention when they asked Schumacher to hand over his win to Irvine in Malaysia when Schumacher was out of the title race, or when Salo had to give up what would have been his only F1 win in Germany to hand it over to Irvine to aid him in the title quest.

[@arunaswaminathan487]

@@gamefan56 Austria 2001.

[@gamefan56]

@@arunaswaminathan487 1. That was not for the win, Barrichello was only ordered to give up 2nd to Schumacher. 2. Barrichello was already over 20 points away in the championship at that point, meanwhile the driver who won the race Coulthard was just 4 points away from Schumacher in the title race. Of course it made sense to switch the 2 in terms of the championship given Coulthard did look like a threat for the title at that point.

[@gigsawsoljier1408]

he was already hating eddie jordon tbh.

[@alexjomain828]

Ferrari : Kimi, you'll be paid to stay home Kimi : OK, but will i have the drink ?

[@bochijaramillo5708]

alex jomain lol

[@Ravenlord79]

Why queston mark? We finnish drink if thirsty.

[@AlexanderdePooter]

If Damon Hill only knew how good the 1998 Adrian Newey designed McLaren was. Might have provided him another world title..

[@1greenMitsi]

not with Mika as teamate

[@AlexanderdePooter]

Was it Coulthard or Hakkinen’s seat that he would have taken?

[@kermv.7830]

No way he would have beat Mika

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

@@AlexanderdePooter Coulthard, his original deal was running out - hence one reason he was so willing to fix the 1997 Jerez race in favour of Hakkinen.

[@vitoriosouto02]

He wouldn't be capable of beating Mika

[@szczecom8467]

There's another Ayrton Senna contract story with McLaren/Williams back in 1990. While he was negotiating McLaren's contract for 1991-1992 he spoke wit Frank Williams also. Frank wanted to sign Ayrton so much he said to his 2nd choice Mansell to wait when Senna give him a final word. At the end of the day Frank found out Senna used their deal as a bargain to get more money from McLaren and he signed with Nige.

[@danigonzalez4299]

That colides with the story i've read about Williams offering both Senna and Prost a 2 year deal they both declined, went for Alesi and later for Mansell. But I do believe Ayrton's move.

[@szczecom8467]

@@danigonzalez4299 Nige writes about it in his autobiography

[@lv26ks]

Kimi got a double-figures sum to stay at home in 2010. Massa had a lower salary than that sum. With Lotus, Kimi had a base salary + bonuses related to points. It seems that Lotus didn't expect Kimi to score so many points in 2012 and this is one of the reasons why they weren't able to pay him. I wonder if he ever got that money back.

[@Balnazzardi]

Nope he never got all the money he was promised. Kimi said in interview that he could have taken that situation to courts to demand what he had been promised, but let that matter be because it would have turned to be long and ugly process and in the end he wasnt in THAT bad of a need for money. But ye Lotus really underestimated how much success they would get with Kimi and their 2012 car....they really had 2 great seasons together (well except for the very end) if you think about how they were able to challenge even the bigger teams back then for much lower operating costs. In fact relatively speaking Kimi's best results since his return are still from those 2 years.

[@Daxboy16]

Yeah I remember that. Kimi's base salary was 5M but it eventually ended up being somewhere around 17,5M because he got 50K per championship point.

[@yellow_x522]

1. They made a big mistake underestimating the Ice Man 2. Didn't Maldonaldo's crashes cost more than Kimi's unpaid salary?

[@aslamnurfikri7640]

The reason Ferrari kicked Kimi was sponsorship. In 2010 Ferrari got a new sponsor, Santander. Kimi was a good driver but being Spanish they wanted Alonso in the team

[@danielstark7239]

bigest waste of money ever tbf when you realise he ended up team mate to alonso in the ferrari years later

[@AMJazzy96]

Wish I had a brother like Michael.

[@TheVeenmeister]

Senna always wanted to have the best car. That's why he changed teams to Williams. In 1993 McLaren was thinking about to use Lamborghini engines. There was even a white mule car with extended chassis to fit that engine. That performed so well that Senna tought he would even be able to go up against Williams that year. The Lamborghini engine provided McLaren with about 70 more hp, was more stable, and easier on the tires. Reliability of the McLambo was a bit of a thing. The engines tended to blow up in a spectacular way! Never the less Senna wanted to race that car in Japan. Possibly knowing that he would not finish. But he wanted to leave Prost in the dust while his car was working. But Ron Dennis chose to stay with Ford for the remainder of the '93 season. So Senna leaving the team was partially because of the inferior Ford Cosworth engine and knowing to late that Peugeot would be the next works engine supplier. In between there was no faith in that McLaren would be able to fight for the Championship. In the end "car wise" he made a good decision. McLaren wasn't able to compete until 1998 with Mercedes engines. We all know where it unforunately ended as the '94 Williams was such a handful to drive.

[@rich8381]

I've been watching a lot of these old vids lately. Senna was for the most part a little bitch. Guess the nostalgia of him dying has forgotten this. They make him out to be a god, there were plenty of drivers that could go with him no problem.

[@bymafia2606]

Rich83 no there weren’t plenty of drivers, there was one. And that was Prost. Mansell and Piquet weren’t that far behind though.

[@nicklibby3784]

@@bymafia2606 Schumacher? He beat Senna every race in 94 prior to his death.

[@nicklibby3784]

Senna knew McLaren was going to go downhill in 1993 during the 92 season, the engine situation wasn't figured out and he wasn't impressed with Ford. Because of this Senna had a sort of an open contract in 93 that went by a race by race basis so he could've left in 93 whenever he wanted. Senna also offered Frank Williams to drive his car for free in 1993 but Frank said no because Prost was already driving for him and Prosts contract said Senna could not be his teammate, no matter what.

[@cornevangulik6166]

Nick Libby Senna got 3 poles in the 3 races he entered in ‘94. Even though the Williams was quick but rather awful to drive Senna stuck it on pole position when it counted the most. Schumacher is great but perhaps Senna topped him in sheer raw speed, but then again I guess we’ll never know

[@Trihawk7]

Hamilton in 2012 was offered a really low amount like 5m iirc from Ron saying its the best he can get if he wants to continue winning. Then Merc offered 25m? Then Ron countered with 30m but Hamiltons mind was already made up.

[@OOpSjm]

Ron is famous for shafting drivers on salary.

[@anubeia]

That’s the thing with teams. They are closed to what finances others have, and they lowball because it’s an unnecessary expense overpaying.

[@OOpSjm]

Another one is Newey. Supposedly Ron told Newey no technical designer was worth that much money (his new contract) and Newey walked.

[@djoetma]

Wasn't Martin Witmarsh a key player in this? And the fact that Button got a better deal while they told Lewis there wasn't any money?

[@denzel9086]

5m? He was already on like nearly 10m a year by 2012. lol

[@ForestKicks]

Michael Schumacher getting upset over team orders lol

[@mooreanonumbers]

The idea that Senna felt he was missing out on a McLaren-Peugeot is both funny and tragic.

[@simonkevnorris]

The Pugeot engine tended to last not very long. I recall watching the start at Silverstone to see a car in the midfield have it's engine to off like a grenade and explode.

[@SultanOfSlam69]

@@Funeral_Tango They made a test mule, and it was quite fast - Senna loved it. However it was horrendously unreliable, so they decided against it, which is what led to Senna chasing the Williams seat.

[@Blackout201_]

3 drivers at Sauber actually were 5 (maybe 6) drivers at Sauber: Ericcsson Nasr Van der Garde Sutil (who was in a similar position as VDG but didn't sue them) Bianchi (who signed the contract before Japan 2014) Gutierrez (even tho I'm not sure if he actually already had a contract or if they just told him he's fired very late in 2014)

[@UncleBoogieRF]

I remember some publication at the time when Alesi was on the market the reporter wrote, and I’m paraphrasing because it’s 30 years ago “Basically any team that put a contract in front of Alesi, he signed it.”

[@udeeptolodh7218]

So true.

[@mrmactknife]

I seem to remember Murray Walker saying something similar once too.

[@Alexico007]

I'm continually impressed by The Race. It's great that despite having closely followed the sport for years, I am still learning of events I was previously unaware of. Great work.

[@Rosario_Verano]

'' Button to Williams ''. Three words, so many speculations. Also, Senna was quite a diva.

[@oftengone]

if we heard everything Senna said on radio no one would make fun of Hamilton again.

[@paralleluniverse99]

Every top flight pilot is a 'diva', darling, you knowing about it or not.

[@Rosario_Verano]

@@paralleluniverse99 Some are more than others. Darling.

[@paralleluniverse99]

​@@Rosario_Verano Cool, you have a divamomether. Oh dear.

[@FloydsHighHeels]

Senna was a bitch, hilarious that he was dominated by a rookie Schumacher

[@flare_star]

2:35 They only signed Jenson after Kimi decided not to go to Mclaren

[@raencarve4]

The 1998 - 1999 look of the cars were absolutely perfect

[@T43B1GD0G]

How is Kimi's contract with Lotus not in here? That's a crazy story.

[@vijayshelke6565]

What happened

[@obi-wankenobi1173]

@@vijayshelke6565 lotus offered kimi 50k for every point he scored he scored 390 points which ads up to 19.5 million but they didn't pay and he in the end only ended up with half that but I'm not sure on the full story

[@christendombaffler]

One quick thing about Sauber in 2015: FIVE drivers were contracted, not 3. Nasr, Ericsson, van der Garde, Sutil (who never got his money back) and Bianchi (we sadly know how that went). Giedo also didn't "agree" not to have Sauber's assets seized - iirc he was literally threatened by Bernie.

[@djoetma]

Bianchi didn't have a contract. Bianchi was going to sign a contract at Sauber in 2014, but crashed on that terrible day in Japan. Maybe he had a pre-contract or a testing contract (he was a Ferrari youth driver). Vd Garde wasn't trashed by Bernie, he got money paid by Bernie that came out of the pocket from Sauber, a deposit from the money they were going to get anyway. The money was basically what his contract was worth, so I wonder if he could indeed let them seize the assets after having been paid.

[@AlonsoRules]

The Button thing was hilarious. Stayed at BAR for 05 and the car was illegal, with Williams horrible too. Then he got to experience the awful 2007 Honda. It worked out in 2009 for him thankfully.

[@JettXxB]

My addition to the list: Carlos signing to Ferrari thinking he has a chance at winning the championship only to find out he will actually be a backmarker 😭

[@benarram4348]

Well this hasn’t aged well...

[@DrSovertake]

Buuuurrrrnnnn

[@the9der352]

This didn't age well.

[@ritviksingh996]

This aged like milk

[@Balnazzardi]

The thing with Kimi's Mclaren negotioations was not only that Button became available, they were ONLY looking to sign Button after the negoiations with Kimi failed. Essentially the exit sum money Ferrari offered for Kimi for NOT driving was bigger than the money Mclaren was willing to offer for him. Had Kimi gone to Mclaren, he would not have gotten that exit money from Ferrari (or rather Santander, the Spanish Bank behind Alonso), so Kimi used that opportunity to take break from F1 and try WRC that he had always wanted to drive more. Also Kimi really was fed up with all the politics in F1, one part of which was Santander buying him out of Ferrari. had that not happened, Kimi would have atleast followed his contract to the end with Ferrari for 2010.

[@monstalova]

Ralf wasn't faster than Hill in Belgium. It was only because of the safety car that Ralf had any chance. There was a huge gap before the safety car came out between Hill and R Schumacher. Hill took it steady because he knew Ralf wouldn't pass him with team orders put in place. If there were no team orders, I would expect Hill to pull away like he did with ease throughout the previous parts in the race. He was more worried about Ralf trying something stupid to get his first win when the safety came in

[@djoetma]

Well at least you can say that Ralf didn't get the chance to have a go at him. I disagree that Hill would've pulled away. Ralf was the stronger driver at that moment.

[@monstalova]

@@djoetma how was he stronger? He was 12 seconds behind Hill when M Schumacher crashed out. Hill was going extremely easy at that stage and they were even on lap times. Hill showed earlier that he could pull away easy from Ralf. With team orders in place there was no need for Hill to push and risk anything. So maybe that's why you think Ralf looked stronger at the time?

[@brianligat2038]

Hill had been faster than Ralf all weekend, so told EJ that he would fight for the lead if he had to - that would have risked neither finishing. At least Ralf followed orders despite not liking them. It was typical of MS to demand team orders in Schumacher's favour.

[@danieldravot341]

If you go back to Chris Amon's career you'll see he often went to teams just as they had down-turns, or the team he'd just left had finally gotten it right. He's generally regarded as the best driver never to win an F1 race.

[@TenorCantusFirmus]

You forgot to mention the everlasting Senna-Ferrari affair, which even involved the Brazilian signing a pre-contractwith FIAT management in 1990 for the following Season save for being vetoed by both Prost and then-team boss Cesare Fiorio.

[@crusherbmx]

The Button story goes back further to 2001, not sure of the details, but it involved Williams and Benetton/Renault

[@danigonzalez4299]

I would add one more Nakajima's contract with Lotus. He, being a Honda factory driver was imposed to Williams to replace Mansell to keep the Honda Turbo engines in 88 and regular aspirated Honda engines in 89 and so on. So Williams declined that and then Honda being already signed with Lotus, went to McLaren with their brilliant engines at the beggining of 88 which made Williams have no more option than buy Judd V8 aspirated engines and cole from top to bottom That is relevant while that engine would not been gone to McLaren. Yet also makes sense in the 1992 Honds leaving F1 and Senna and McLaren getting issues founding an engine to compete with. They tried hard to repeat the move and get Renault engines but that time it did not ever worked.

[@kashrajput7424]

McLaren would have got the Renault engines if they changed their oil supplier to elf. Since McLaren were using shell as their oil supplier at the time whom which Renault did not want to work with.

[@Sillymarin]

I had to watch this video two times. So many information in so little time,not like others. Thanx!

[@SiVlog1989]

That last thing mentioned about Senna's contract stories, about the Senna having doubts about his move to Williams in 1994 probably explains something he was asked in the post race press conference at Adelaide in 1993, recalled in the documentary "Senna". When he was asked what Ron Dennis said to him upon climbing out of the car after the race, Senna said that Dennis told him, "it's never too late to change your mind,"

[@albertoansaldo2958]

Another interesting story is the contact that Senna signed with Ferrari, but due to the fact that Porst was against it, the FIAT CEO Vittorio Ghidella gave the order not to sign it by Ferrari. And of the story, then Prost left, but Senna was no more among us.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

I'd say John Surtees' Lotus deal is a pretty huge crazy deal.. After just one race, Colin Chapman offered Surtees a race seat in the F1 team for 1960, however on hearing that it meant replacing Innes Ireland (who would have needed to be sacked), Surtees declined, and chose to race with Lola instead. A year on, Ireland won Team Lotus' first F1 victory, but was sacked anyway, in favour of the team fully supporting Jim Clark. Surtees never did end up racing for Lotus.

[@chadmoodley3497]

Obviously michael was angry about ralf not winning with jordan cause he had beef with hill

[@quantum_mechanic]

Why obviously? He can't have just wanted his brother to win the race, given that he was much faster than Hill?

[@MrBlazemaster525]

The beef wasn't with Damon but with EJ

[@danielstark7239]

jordon made lots of money out of schumacher

[@maza19]

@sennadasilva11 I think Michael was his manager

[@IIGrayfoxII]

@@maza19 Did you hear Michael complain when Barrichello was ordered to let Micheal win? No Did Micheal attempt to not pass Barrichello? No. It was obvious Barrichello was lifting. Micheal could have lifted too. he could've driven into the back of Barrichello not only to nudge him but damage his own car to cost ferrari money. Micheal could've stopped on the grid and not moved until Barrichello crossed the line or turn left and go off track. Dont bring up the fact that Micheal returned the favor as its not the same. Barrichello got the lead and kept. He earnt the win. Barrichello didnt need the win handed to him several races later.

[@aslamnurfikri7640]

1:48 today we don't use contracts but James

[@shimeih2287]

Accurate 😂😂😂😂😂

[@aryanjolly1990]

You gotta feel bad for Van Der Garde He properly got messed around when he was in F1

[@MostlyLoveOfMusic]

Yes, and the Jose Maria Lopez / USF1 situation as well

[@thegruffalo5383]

Better add Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Alpine and McLaren to this video. What a shitfight

[@pons500]

About Senna: Cesare Fiorio claimed that in 1990 he and Ayrton met in Sao Paulo during the racing weekend and later in Monaco to draft a contract for 1991. Fiorio claimed that everything was in place but he was sabotaged by Ferrari's president, who at the time was a man controlled by Fiat and didn't like him. So he used the negotiations to take out Fiorio, by telling Prost everything. The Fiat man (Pietro Fusaro) recently said that Prost bypassed any middlemen and asked to meet none other than Gianni Agnelli in Torino at Fiat HQ. After that meeting, Prost told Fusaro that he would race for Ferrari in 91. The stories from Fiorio and Fusaro are a bit different, but the common trait is that a contract for Senna to race for Ferrari in 91 actually existed, the only thing to do was sign. But in the end the top management of Fiat blocked the whole thing. Fiorio said that he still has the contract in his desk and that he would show it in a book he would publish. He said this in 2010 but, as of today, I don't know anything about such book.

[@radityaindera3442]

Michael really take a good care of Ralf. Never knew that.

[@F1wgp7]

The thing about Ralf and Jordan is if you watch the Belgium GP the commentators, Murray and Brundle talk about ongoing arbitration between Williams and Jordan so Ralf can be Williams driver in 99. I think with the passing of time it's been overlooked as The Michael buying out the contract story is better.

[@Gois83]

You forgot (or maybe not) the contract Senna was meant to sign with Ferrari on the very next day after the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. Yeah, that tops all the cases on this list by (very) far!

[@ritwikjs]

senna's 1994 move to williams reads like a shakespearean tragedy. Had he been a bit more patient, he'd have stayed with mclaren, and probably been alive today. Alas, we don't know ayrton's rationale, and what's done is done. Still sad nonetheless

[@chifurbr]

i prefer the raikkonen/ferrari saga in 07 since it envolved schumacher being pushed out and a lot of sory that hasn't been told, also the rumor deal of valentino rossi and ferrari in 07-08

[@vatsaldvora]

Vettel and his “performance clause” at Red Bull

[@romanbaranovichi5375]

Apparently, he drove the car slowly on purpose to push RB down the constructors to force a move to Ferrari. Kind of explains why RIC thrashed him on the track that season. Ultimately, you could say it worked out for Vettel, Ferrari only finished below RB once in 5 seasons and Vettel had undisputed No.1 status for nearly all that time

[@Blackout201_]

@@romanbaranovichi5375 maybe he just can't compete against younger, more talented drivers or with a car he doesn't like as much. Or what team is he trying to reach by losing to Leclerc in 2019? Also there are other ways than losing on purpose. Despite that I don't believe any F1 or racing driver would actually do that if he had the chance of winning a race. Also he wouldn't do that to the team that made him big and with who he had such success for all the years before. There are other ways to get out of a contract if you really want it. And even if there aren't and he did do that then he wouldn't have started in Merlbourne but just later in the season .Anyway its obviously a welcome excuse for him being garbage in 2014 I suppose.

[@ajunta2270]

@@romanbaranovichi5375 Vettel losing on purpose is a pipe dream

[@dev_vadchhedia]

@@WinTech4074 Don't give that excuse. I'm a Vettel fan and I admit he's not very good at adaptation. Plus the reason for his shit first half has to be germany 2018 and the way he lost the championship in 2018.

[@ilovethehelpdesk]

Not sure if it is true, but I remember hearing one of Nelson Piquet's contracts stated he would on;y get paid based on points won. Something similar was mentioned in the video where points augmented his base salary. Side note: it seems Williams loses a lot of drivers right after they win the championship. Piquet, Mansell, Prost all transitioned away after winning.

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

Hill as well

[@ilovethehelpdesk]

@@Duval-In-The-Wall Agreed. Hill was a great driver for them for three years and delivered some amazing performances and, as soon as he was champion they kicked him out. Not a great approach to recruiting and keeping talent.

[@OsellaSquadraCorse]

David Coulthard being forced to race for Williams in 1995 is a big miss! He wasn't offered a full-time deal with Williams (after Mansell's return at the end of 1994, Rothmans wanted Mansell in the car full-time) and so signed with McLaren for 1995. Williams then decided to pick up the option that had with Coulthard, which overrode his McLaren contract. Coulthard refused to acknowledge that Williams had the right to pick up the option, so Williams took the contracts to the CRB, who ruled in their favour, keeping Coulthard at Williams for a year; before moving to McLaren for 1996.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

Much as Williams, the team, has a place in my heart, I get so angry at times with how they often treat (maybe closer to "treated" with Frank in charge) their drivers. The Senna/Prost shenanigans are a good indicator, but they did worse. Despite winning the WC for them, they shafted Hill for HHF who turned out not to be champion in waiting they thought he was. They also did it at a time which prevented Hill from getting a good seat in '97. And then they dumped HHF... This is only a fraction of their bad management of drivers. The only team that shafts its drivers more IMHO is Ferrari (particularly under Enzo).

[@TByrom]

Best contract story: Big Brother helping Little Brother get into a better team! Michael’s extraordinary care for his brother Ralph is pure gold.

[@gigsawsoljier1408]

jordon was better in 99 lol

[@Smart1529]

Im surprise not many people are mentioning Alain Prost. After 1989 he wanted a contract where he would like to race alongside anyone except for Ayrton Senna because of what happened in Suzuka

[@VictorFAmaya]

01:04 So, you are going to mention "trickery" but not explain the story behind that? W T F

[@englandgoals9672]

I bet Ron Dennis used loaded coin for that flip

[@djoetma]

One of the standard accessories in his wallet I bet...

[@rmgaming1990]

Michael getting upset on his brother's behalf because of team orders must be the most ironic thing ever considering Barrichello played second fiddle to him at Ferrari

[@Xs2...]

The one thing between Senna and McLaren (Dennis) I always found interesting was the whole Indy/Lamborghini thing before the '93 season kicked off.

[@xracer5995]

Thanks for the upload 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@pavarottiaardvark3431]

The main thing I learned from this is that Eddie Jordan must have one HELL of a poker face.

[@timhuggins1993]

Good video . How about the little known Michael Schumacher to Toyota in 2005 story contract ?

[@thehuggingsimmy1765]

So where are we putting Ocsar Piastri's story with Alpine on this list?

[@aslamnurfikri7640]

Should be the top. The fact that 2 teams are fighting over a driver is unthinkable until Piastrigate happened

[@FCB001]

@@aslamnurfikri7640 wasn't the first time this happened, the Button contract saga with BAR/Williams was the same

[@seliparjepun3909]

jaguar and lucky strike livery are 🔥🔥🔥🔥 af

[@nicolafox9452]

Hi and thanks for this great to see Jordan first team I supported when seriously getting in to F1, miss Michael, love JB summed up Senna perfectly, enjoyed this little memory lane 😀

[@DapperDill]

10:07 That fact this photo exists makes me so happy.

[@purwantiallan5089]

For me Alonso's return to McLaren Honda in 2015 is the craziest and the most ridiculous F1 contract story.

[@Spido68_the_spectator]

Kimi also did some stock car / nascar

[@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303]

And he still didn't have the drink

[@holisticpersonalcoach4360]

Awesome video thank you!!

[@thesfdoctor3603]

Fun fact: after the negotiations with Kimi and McLaren failed, the latters wanted to have Barrichello as the 2nd driver of the team in a long-term deal (imagine Rubens winning a race in 2010). But Rubens already signed with Williams and he was feeling guilty of leaving them, so McLaren asked Button, thinking it was impossible for him to leave Brawn/Mercedes, yet Button was leaving because he thought the Merc wasn't gonna be competitive in 2010 (and they hired Rosberg, who was leaving Williams for another german, Hulkenberg) Then Williams repaid back Barrichello's loyalty by sacking him for Bruno Senna's money

[@550LMS]

Eddie ''the snake'' Jordan had a lot of money out of Schumacher over time....all from that 1 race! The buyout meant he'd receive a small percentage of Schumachers earnings during his time in F1, but due to the vast amount of Schumacher earned, he did rather well out of it.

[@mrdraw2087]

Didn't know that. I believe Willi Weber more or less called Eddie Jordan a fool for losing Schumacher to Benetton after just one race.

[@RandomGuy-dw7hf]

Anyone else remember in 2015 when Bottas was constantly linked with Ferrari?

[@sp0nge1337]

Now if you want BS contract disputes, what Andrea Moda did to Perry McCarthy in order to get him to leave was near manslaughter.

[@danort17]

Giede van der Garde becoming Giedo Bantergarde was quite awesome

[@djoetma]

Yeah, I'm sure i liked this more than having a legitimate racing career... He's lucky the Dutch don't have many options and has a rich father in law who is in good contact with everything media-related in the Netherlands. But still it took year before he started racing again in decent classes. Because he got blackballed everywhere after what he did at Sauber.

[@FreehhZe]

Didn't know Michael was fighting for his brother like that. That's my favorite story.

[@Obetv01]

In one race I recall, Schumacher slowed down while leading and possibly on the final lap, so that Ralph could unlap himself and get a point. He was always his brothers keeper.

[@onemileperhour]

those early 90s cars look soooo good

[@mrmactknife]

Poor Damon, shafted out of his Williams drive in '97, then turns down that $1M per win deal for '98 from what became the championship winning team :(

[@SilverScarletSpider]

It’s unfortunate that the factory manufacturer Toyota, BMW, Honda, and Jaguar teams never got to shine.

[@zombiedodge1426]

Toyota had a new car ready for 2010 before the team was shit down. Stefan GP bought it to use as its own, but didn't gain entry to F1, so it will go down as a legendary unraced car (like the Ferrari Indy Car, or the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series Dodge Charger).

[@cjsnowdon]

Do one on Engine contracts :)

[@Sp4mMe]

I've lately been curious about whether Michael tried to get Ralf to Ferrari, or how much he followed his brother's career (they always seemed a bit awkward together, but of course that doesn't mean anything when the cameras are rolling). Turns out instead he was trying to get him to a rival team ... interesting.

[@aslamnurfikri7640]

I guess Michael knew Williams-BMW project was coming so he wanted his brother to have good chance

[@danielstark7239]

highly doubt it if michael wanted ralf as team mate im sure ferrari would of said yes

[@Sp4mMe]

The one thing I found was that Todt in 2001 said he could "imagine" Ralf as successor of Michael at Ferrari, but that sounds like the meaningless sort of thing people say when they are directly asked (I mean, he can hardly say "naw, our hero's brother isn't good enough" ...). Ralf himself said he wants to do this own thing and that Ferrari itself held no special appeal. Maybe in the end that's all there was to it ... he didn't want to end up in a team "only" because Michael made sure he had a place there (if Ferrari even would have gone along with it, but Ralf's reputation in 2000/2001 was pretty good I'd say).

[@thesfdoctor3603]

Michael and Ralf on the early 2000's weren't on that good of terms if I remember correctly

[@Sp4mMe]

@@thesfdoctor3603 It always seemed to me like that too, but remember that Michael was generally incredibly reserved in front of any microphone (in his "second" career he explained how that had been the advise to him that he followed, and he somewhat regretted later. He came across much more open and amiable during his Mercedes stint, not because he had changed that much, but because he allowed people to see more of how he really was). Given that he paid to buy Ralf out of his Jordan contract I can't imagine their relationship was bad. But yeah, not sure how personally close they were either.

[@Aleks-yl5hf]

Ferrari had a few Covid10-incidents, so they paid Kimi to stay home, so he would stay healthy to sign in a contract a few years later.

[@tensevo]

Who is this Edmond Irvine we are paying millions of dollars to ? LOLZ

[@carlosvv5594]

2:23 ferrari hired a pay driver named fernando alonso that brought in his sposor santander. That santader money paid kimi to have a vacation for two years and not drive for any f1 team. Ironically, The same santander money that alonso used to bought his ferrari seat was the same money were used to bring back kimi and then kick out alonso for seb, but santander stayed a lil longer while alonso was enjoying his rotting career at mclaren.

[@friggincanvee]

santander made the livery so damn ugly. so much white...

[@bochijaramillo5708]

lmao fernando was never a pay driver. Just glance at 2005-2006

[@SolidSonicTH]

To be fair to Senna he didn't really do anything to get that suspension from Toleman. He was planning on using the perfectly valid $100,000 buyout clause with Toleman to move to Lotus but Lotus prematurely announced the acquisition before he had fully been able to activate that clause. So they suspended him out of spite, even though it was Lotus who jumped the gun. Senna was otherwise within his contract terms.

[@abelardions7600]

Couldn't be the case that Raikkonen was screwed by Mercedes in 2010 and not by McLaren? I mean, Mercedes made his comeback to F1 and got rid of both Brawn GP drivers (Button and Barrichello), which made way for McLaren to sign Button

[@claytonbeilfuss9219]

That isn’t even my favorite Kimi contract story, when he was with lotus they didn’t think their car would be any good so they had a bonus for every point scored, turns out their car was good enough for him to get regular podiums and almost bankrupt the team

[@deshawnseneviratne4544]

If senna stayed at mclaren for 94 who knows maybe he would be alive to this day?

[@sete-xw9lj]

i guess we are all here thanks to piastri

[@michelod.i.y.5202]

I'm pretty sure this is right, at the time Kimi Raikkonen was paid not to drive I think he was the highest paid driver that season.

[@patriciorivera762]

Ayrton Senna in number 1, as it should always be.

[@petran4018]

Had Senna known that McLaren would be using Peugeot engines, he wouldn't have switched to Williams and he wouldn't have died.

[@MephLeo]

Someone would have. Prost wouldn't retire if Senna stayed at McLaren...

[@coolstufftodo5256]

@@MephLeo true the car was flawed only a matter of time

[@tomnewham1269]

Also it needs to be pointed out that when Senna signed with McLaren that he specifically asked to have a certain mechanic work on his car otherwise he wouldn't sign up.

[@gseric4721]

Wow, I had no idea how that went down with Ralph. That's pretty crazy stuff.

[@y_fam_goeglyd]

He wasn't worth the hassle, either. Eddie Jordan was very canny lol. Ralf, unfortunately, thought he was Michael, or at least he could act like him (he certainly couldn't drive like him), and got a rep for being a real diva.

[@RikiNewtonMusicianSongwriter]

Great video !! Full of really interesting fun facts - along with some rather poignant points along the way too. Thanx for compiling this vid for us diehard F1 pundits/fans/hopeless addicts, etc.... Well worth a watch - and for showing your mates too of course !! Cheers bfn. Rxxx

[@jamesreynolds2867]

Ken Tyrell ran the Cooper F3 team in the early 1960s, he arranged to run a test session at Goodwood, to evaluate a then unknown Scot, Jackie Stewart, the works Cooper F1 driver, Bruce McLaren did a few laps to establish a time, then wee Jackie did a few laps, and was faster than Bruce, Uncle Ken then offered a contract, a very generous £10,000 per season, a big sum for F3 in those days, or a percentage of the prize money, Jackie chose the percentage, a wise move as it turned out, throughout the Stewart/Tyrell long and very successful partnership, never once did they have a written contract, such was their mutual trust.

[@geordiejanner1324]

To think if senna had stayed at McLaren for 94 he might still be here now.

[@tem0079]

1:30 That "someone" was Bobby Rahal

[@bumblebity2902]

Aleisi was outsmarted by Mansell in F1 political games. At some point, unknown to Alesi, Williams begin negiotations with Mansell, who unhappy in Ferrari with no. 2 status, this is why anouncement with Alesi was delayed. Later, Mansell made PR stunt with 'retirement' and Williams emerged with signing contract.

[@maxversthappening8166]

1:52 Cursed Image