Top 10 F1 Teams That Sabotaged Their Own Drivers
10 F1 Teams That Sabotaged Their Own Drivers
Daniel Ricciardo
10. Red Bull vs Mark Webber (Multi-21)
Red Bull told Vettel to hold position… he ignored it. But the real sabotage? The team wasn’t willing to protect Webber, leaving him feeling like a clear #2 from inside his own garage.
9. Mercedes vs Valtteri Bottas
Bottas was the perfect team player, but Mercedes constantly sacrificed his strategy for Hamilton’s title fights. Wrong calls, late pit stops — he was used as a moving chess piece.
8. Ferrari vs Fernando Alonso
Ferrari failed to give Alonso a championship-level car for three straight years, and horrific strategies (like Abu Dhabi 2010) ruined his best chances. He carried the team, but they never carried him.
7. Renault vs Nelson Piquet Jr. (Crashgate Aftermath)
After ordering him to crash in Singapore 2008, Renault threw Piquet Jr. under the bus when the scandal surfaced. He followed orders — then got blamed for everything.
6. McLaren vs Daniel Ricciardo
The team publicly lost faith in Ricciardo, constantly criticizing him while privately negotiating with Piastri behind his back. Zero support, zero stability.
5. Ferrari vs Charles Leclerc
From Monaco 2022 strategy disasters to mixed team orders and communication chaos, Ferrari repeatedly sabotaged Leclerc’s strongest weekends with avoidable errors.
4. McLaren vs Fernando Alonso (2007)
They promised him equal machinery, then backed rookie Hamilton. The internal war got so bad it helped cost McLaren the championship — and Alonso left immediately.
3. Williams vs George Russell (Sakhir 2020)
When Russell finally got a winning car, Williams' partner team Mercedes messed up his tyres, his pit stop, and his strategy — but Williams also never supported his push for better machinery during his years in backmarkers.
2. Ferrari vs Rubens Barrichello
The team openly sacrificed Barrichello for Schumacher — Austria 2002 being the most infamous example. Barrichello wasn’t a teammate; he was a built-in strategy tool.
1. McLaren vs Ayrton Senna & Alain Prost (1989)
McLaren sparked one of the most toxic in-team wars in F1 history. Internal politics, favoritism, and disputes climaxed with the Suzuka 1989 collision — arguably costing Senna a title due to team-biased FIA backing.
