When F1 team-mates crash: Our ‘needle rating' on the biggest flashpoints

Telegraph

5 hours ago

The biggest no-no in motor racing is crashing into your team-mate. The problem is that if a team has two talented and competitive drivers in equal machinery, they are often going to end up fighting over the same piece of track. We saw that again in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix when Lando Norris crashed into McLaren team-mate and championship rival Oscar Piastri.
They are not the first and certainly will not be the last team-mates to collide. We have compiled a list of 10 of the most memorable occasions where the intra-team rivalry has soured on track. Our needle rating is not assessing the severity of the clash, but of the whole situation. How high were the stakes? Did pre-existing tension make it inevitable? What were the consequences? Was there more animosity?
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list – so please feel free to offer any suggestions in the comments section below.
10. Piastri vs Norris, 2025 Canadian Grand Prix
For a few races this season, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown had talked about the inevitable collision between the two title contenders. In Montreal, Norris did almost everything he could to make it likely, by trying to put his McLaren into a non-McLaren sized space. It is impossible to rate this as much more than 3/10 – despite the championship battle – because Norris made a wholehearted apology in record time.
Needle rating: 3/10
It's happened again to the McLaren F1 team! 🫣 Button vs Hamilton: Canada 2011...Piastri vs Norris: Canada 2025! pic.twitter.com/0FZpm3WTym
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) June 15, 2025
9. Button vs Hamilton, 2011 Canadian Grand Prix
When the two McLarens collided on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve pit straight on Sunday, many would have recalled the same happening (in much wetter conditions) in 2011 (see video above).
Again, McLaren had a line-up of two of the finest drivers of their generation in champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. In 2010, both men competed for the title, but by this point in 2011, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was walking the championship.
The limited visibility certainly provided some form of excuse for Button, who, sticking to the racing line, appeared to squeeze Hamilton towards the grass, the pit wall and ultimately out of the race. It was an uncharacteristic moment from a pair who generally worked well together in their three years at McLaren.
Needle rating: 5/10
8. R Schumacher vs Fisichella, 1997 Argentine Grand Prix
A lot of these entries are between drivers battling for a championship. That is clearly the highest stakes in F1, but for Jordan in 1997, winning a single grand prix would have been like winning a title. With a bit of luck, the Jordan 197 could have been the car to deliver their first race win.
Round three of the season in Argentina was a decent chance. But a silly crash between Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella ended any hopes of that. It was a race that the team's former technical director Gary Anderson, thought they could have won.
'It's the ifs and buts of motor racing. By the two of them hitting each other we definitely weren't going to win it – without them hitting each other there was a chance. I think we could have been in competition to win it, and that's the annoying fact,' he recalls.
The pair also crashed in the Luxembourg Grand Prix later that year.
Needle rating: 6/10
7. Gasly vs Ocon, 2023 Australian Grand Prix
Has a current driver on the F1 grid – or indeed ever – crashed with his colleagues more than Esteban Ocon? Perhaps it is just something about the colour pink. In fairness, this was not Ocon's fault. Many of those collisions came with Sergio Perez at Force India but it is his crash with Pierre Gasly at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix restart that makes it in for two reasons.
Firstly, because of the amount of carbon fibre strewn across the Albert Park track. Two, because the pair were close childhood friends who grew up and competed together in Normandy, before their relationship frosted over. Unfortunately, this loses a couple of points because the frostiness thawed at Alpine over the next couple of years.
Needle rating: 6/10
6. R Schumacher vs Montoya, 2002 United States Grand Prix
It was a surprise that Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya at Williams did not crash into one another more often at Williams. Both men were aggressive, super-fast, highly driven and uncompromising. Perhaps, equally. It was always, at some point, going to end like this.
It did so in Indianapolis in 2002. Heading into turn one, Schumacher was committed to the inside line, Montoya the outside. The move was nearly clean, but Schumacher lost the rear of his car, spinning into Montoya, dislodging his own rear wing.
Williams were quick in 2002, but where this falls down against other intra-team clashes is that the Ferrari was so dominant that season that Schumacher and Montoya were battling for the Scuderia's scraps, so there was less on the line.
Needle rating: 6½/10
2002 USA
Williams-BMW team-mates Ralf Schumacher & Juan Pablo Montoya collided on lap 2, resulting in the German losing his rear wing & lost 2 laps requiring repairs.
The Colombian clinched p4 & Ralf limped home in p16 and last #F1 pic.twitter.com/mORgGmv2lE
— F1 Icons That Go Hard (@CrystalRacing) September 29, 2020
5. Vettel vs Leclerc, Brazilian Grand Prix 2019
By the time Charles Leclerc started at Ferrari, there were mounting questions about Sebastian Vettel's racecraft and ability. That increased in 2019 – this was only Leclerc's second season in F1, yet he outclassed the four-time champion regularly.
In the early part of the season, Ferrari had made a mess of team orders, favouring Vettel. By the Brazilian Grand Prix in November, it was clear Vettel was yesterday's man at the Scuderia. The contact on the second straight that led to this collision and both Ferrari cars retiring was not enormous. But it was a part of the wider narrative that defined that year and the German's latter career.
Needle rating: 7/10
It was a disaster for Ferrari in Brazil!😩 @KarunChandhok takes a closer look at the collision between @Charles_Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, that left Ferrari with two DNFs.💥
Who is to blame?🤔
Powered by @awscloud #F1Insights pic.twitter.com/mi4VKvZrWG
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) November 18, 2019
4. Vettel vs Webber, 2010 Turkish Grand Prix
Most team-mate crashes come with a wider story of a power struggle within a team. It is a universal truth in F1 that the first person you want to beat is your team-mate, ideally handsomely. In 2010, Red Bull had become a title-contending force, six years into their time in F1.
Mark Webber had been with the team since 2007, but now had the prodigious Vettel to deal with. Heading into round seven in Turkey the pair were level on points at the top of the standings. Inevitably, something had to give and it did so in dramatic fashion at Istanbul Park.
The two Red Bull cars collided at high speed, a puncture ending Vettel's race. Webber finished third, to lead the standings. Yet seven months later, it was the German who was crowned champion.
Needle rating: 7½/10
Teammate trouble in Turkey! 💥
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber came together at the 2010 #TurkishGP! 🇹🇷 #SkyF1 | #F1 pic.twitter.com/j820KLN4T8
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) August 25, 2020
3. Ricciardo vs Verstappen, 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Like Turkey in 2018, this almighty shunt in Azerbaijan came in the context of an Australian trying – and failing – to remain top man at Red Bull in the presence of an astonishing talent. Few would rank Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen all that closely in a list of all-time F1 drivers but they were still fairly evenly matched in 2018. Indeed, at the point of their collision in Azerbaijan, Ricciardo was coming off the back of a win in China and had twice as many points as Verstappen.
What happened here, though, was characteristic of this period of Verstappen's F1 career. Blindingly quick, yes, but prone to causing damage and a hint of moving under braking in close combat.
Ricciardo rear-ended Verstappen at the end of the super-long pit straight after a closely fought battle. Neither man accepted responsibility. What happened next? Ricciardo left Red Bull for Renault for 2019, while Verstappen established himself as one of F1's greats at the team.
Needle rating: 8/10
2. Rosberg vs Hamilton, 2016 Spanish Grand Prix
Nico Rosberg deserves enormous credit for taking the fight to Hamilton in their three seasons together at Mercedes. Sometimes literally. While a fine driver, Rosberg was not quite as fast as Hamilton (and perhaps knew so), which meant he had to be (or chose to be) combative with his tactics both on and off the track.
There were several instances of contact between (Belgium in 2014, Austria later in 2016) but this was by far the most significant and dramatic. It was another season where Mercedes dominated, meaning the champion would be one of their two drivers.
At the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, Rosberg did not want to cede the lead, forcing Hamilton on the grass. The Briton then spun into his team-mate, taking them both into the gravel and out of the race. Hamilton held his head in his hands. The context of a third consecutive title fight (Rosberg eventually won), a former friendship turned sour and both cars crashing out in dramatic style means this can only be beaten by one other...
Needle rating: 9/10
1. Senna vs Prost, 1989 Japanese Grand Prix
After a couple of years of simmering rivalry at McLaren, this supreme partnership erupted in controversy towards the end of their two seasons together.
As far as the actual collision goes, this is the tamest of the 10 we have here and at the lowest speed. Heading into the Japanese Grand Prix in 1988 Senna needed to win to keep his championship hopes alive. As they entered Suzuka's final chicane, the Brazilian put his McLaren up the inside but Prost did not back out, the pair collided and Prost retired. Senna was then disqualified for rejoining the track illegally and the Ferrari-bound Frenchman won the championship.
The fallout was as bitter as it gets: Senna alleged the outcome was 'manipulated' by the sport's international governing body in Prost's favour. He was almost banned from competing in F1 in 1990. He was not, though, and the pair crashed again the following season at the same track, driving for different teams. Will this ever be beaten?
Needle rating: 10/10