The 8 Most Awkward F1 Team Mate Collisions

Undoubtedly the most famous contact between two team-mates in Formula 1, Senna and Prost’s incident at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix ultimately decided the championship. Senna fell behind Prost at the start and on lap 46 made his move into the final chicane.

The two inevitably collided, with Prost abandoning his stalled McLaren. Senna used the escape road to re-join and eventually took the chequered flag in first place. However, he was later disqualified, with Prost being crowned champion.

Tensions at Red Bull were high even before the iconic ‘Multi 21’. At the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, Vettel and Webber were battling for the lead of the race when, on lap 40, they made contact on the back straight. Vettel retired instantly but Webber continued and finished third.

The most recent incident on this list. Hamilton and Rosberg were fighting over first place on lap two of the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix when the former was tagged by his team-mate into Les Combes. Oops. We wouldn’t want to be listening to the team radio at Mercedes after that. Hamilton suffered a puncture and dropped back before retiring, while Rosberg pitted for repairs and finished second.

This crash doesn’t feature big name drivers, but was certainly pretty spectacular. The two Minardi drivers made contact on the run to the finish line at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix, with Fittipaldi’s car backflipping into the air. Amazingly his car landed the right way up and he managed to take the chequered flag in eighth, minus a right-rear wheel.

Another McLaren team-mate collision, this time involving Hakkinen and Coulthard at the 1999 Austrian Grand Prix. Fighting for the race lead on the run to Turn 2, Coulthard dived for a gap that was always going to close and pitched Hakkinen into a spin. They managed to finish second and third.

These two make it onto the list for crashing into each other in two consecutive races. Heidfeld collided with his Prost team-mate at the 2000 French Grand Prix after a failed overtake, and Alesi then tipped the German driver into a spin at the next round in Austria. Awkward.

We can imagine the kind of language that was uttered by Montoya after he was hit by Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher early in the 2002 United States Grand Prix….

8. Nico Rosberg vs Mark Webber

Here’s another Williams incident, this time at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix. Rosberg, in his debut F1 season, ran into the back of Webber at Turn 3 and crashed heavily later in the lap.