The Donald Trump's of F1

Calling the ringleader of the F1 circus a divisive figure would be an understatement. He may have built the F1 empire but it didn’t come without black marks against his name. From claiming Adolf Hitler was ‘a man who get things done’ to paying £60 million to end a bribery court case in Germany to supporting races held at venues with questionable human rights records. One does wonder what would happen if you put Ecclestone and President Trump together in a room.

The most successful driver in F1 history had a career punctuated by controversies and when world titles were on the line those moments seem to escalate. 1994 and a title fight at the final race of the year against Damon Hill saw Schumacher collide into Hill, knocking both drivers out of the race and handing the world title to Schumacher by one point. Fast forward three years and history repeats itself, this time with Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez. Schumacher’s Ferrari was too badly damaged to finish but it didn’t matter as race direction threw the rulebook at the German and kicked him out of the drivers’ championship. As well as fisticuffs with David Coulthard in the rain at Spa in 1998, Schumacher got team orders banned when he passed Rubens Barrichello to win the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. What tinged Schumacher’s supreme legacy from his first stint in the sport was when he ‘parked’ his Ferrari at Rascasse to block his rivals during qualifying. Race direction took a dim view and his qualifying times were scratched out and he was told to start from the pitlane.

Perhaps a surprise inclusion on this list but the Spaniard has never been too far away from controversy. His ill-fated McLaren switch in 2007 came to a head in Hungary when he was judged to deliberately block Lewis Hamilton in the pitlane to deny him a final qualifying lap. What followed is believed to be an expletive-riddled argument involving Ron Dennis, Alonso and Hamilton with the Spaniard threatening to reveal details surrounding ‘Spygate’. In 2010, the infamous words from Rob Smedley to Felipe Massa of ‘Fernando is faster than you’ was thought to be a coded message of team orders, which saw Alonso pass Massa to win the German GP. His second stint at McLaren started in a cloud of mystery when a pre-season testing crash ruled him out of the 2015 season opener. Alonso blamed a steering fault but McLaren denied any mechanical problems.

Red Bull’s motorsport advisor and the key man behind which drivers race with which team. The former driver is a divisive member of the F1 paddock, depending on what side you land on in his decisions, but there is no question the man gets results. Since the Red Bull and Toro Rosso set-up has been in action Sebastian Vettel flew through the system to claim four straight F1 world titles while success has also been seen with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. However, patience is a currency in short supply with Marko; Daniil Kvyat, Sebastien Bourdais and Jaime Alguersauri can attest to that.

An infamous face in the recent history of F1, after success in the 1990s with Benetton and Michael Schumacher, the Italian became managing director and team principal of Renault F1 in 2000 while also acting as manager to a number of high profile drivers including Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli. But at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Briatore sealed his own ill-fate by allegedly telling Nelson Piquet Jr to crash in order to fix the race and see Alonso win. The Italian was handed a lifetime ban from any FIA-sanctioned events, but had the ban overturned in 2010 in a French court.

Never too far from a run-in with former Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber during their turbulent relationship (‘Multi-21 Seb’), the four-time F1 champion always seemed be at the centre of driver clashes in 2016. After an expletive exchange with Daniil Kvyat in Russia, Vettel truly sparked controversy in Mexico when he openly swore and attacked Charlie Whiting and Max Verstappen over the team radio. A grovelling apology and admittance saw Vettel escape any penalties.

As well as his famous rivalry with Ayrton Senna, more on that later, Prost’s time with two of the biggest teams in F1 both ended in outrage. Having openly criticised Honda’s engines at the end of 1989 while on his exit from McLaren, Prost was sacked from Ferrari before the final race of the 1991 season after describing the 643 ‘like a truck to drive’. Ferrari politics also played a part but the Frenchman was already well known to be very public about his criticisms of his own teams.

The Brazilian driver’s place on this list can’t be claimed without mentioning Prost as the pair’s bitter rivalry became F1 history. Heading into the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, Prost was critical of Senna’s intimidation racing tactics and the infamous crash between the pair which saw Prost retire and Senna use the escape road to rejoin and go on to win the race, only to be disqualified by race officials which led to conspiracy calls about making Prost champion. A year later at Suzuka, Senna got his revenge at the first turn by running into Prost to take the pair out of the race and claim the F1 world title. Senna wrote off the incident as a racing accident but given the context to win the F1 crown it is an explanation few genuinely believed.