- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
It wasn't really a conspiracy - it was just cheating.
One I initially thought of was the 2001 Pepsi 400. There were rumors about the race being rigged so Dale Jr. would win, fittingly at the first Daytona race since Dale Sr passed away. I guess nothing was ever proven, but I've got to say, it looked suspicious how superior his car was to the others, with it being a restrictor plate race and all. It was even stated in the race coverage that he had to only hold the throttle about 75% so he'd maintain speed with the back and not get too far ahead, which would put the others in prime position to leapfrog past him.
I don't like Hamilton that much but I despise his fans.I'm surprised that the Hamilton/Rosberg conspiracy from 2014-present hasn't arised yet. It arises every single race Hamilton doesn't win.This only comes up because of the stupid fanboys on social networking.
[/QUOTEThe conspiracy above was a joke.
I wouldn't call that a conspiracy. It would be a conspiracy if Mercedes developed a car powered by Twitter likes and the other car makers suppressed it. I would just call that stupidly-dedicated fans unable to accept that someone is capable of beating their idol on merit.I'm surprised that the Hamilton/Rosberg conspiracy from 2014-present hasn't arised yet. It arises every single race Hamilton doesn't win.
Read the Disclaimer.I wouldn't call that a conspiracy. It would be a conspiracy if Mercedes developed a car powered by Twitter likes and the other car makers suppressed it. I would just call that stupidly-dedicated fans unable to accept that someone is capable of beating their idol on merit.
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the demise of Group C yet.
In 1991, the FIA introduced new regulations for Group C, which required naturally-aspirated 3.5 litre engines, as in F1. For the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season, old Group C cars that didn't conform to this formula were allowed to run alongside the new Group C cars, with the Porsche 962 and Sauber Mercedes C11 putting up a decent fight, scoring several podium finishes.
For 1992, the old cars were no longer allowed to compete. Grid sizes plummeted in that season. Whereas 17 cars entered in the 1991 season finale at Autopolis (and 44 at that year's Le Mans race!), this shrank to 12 for the 1992 season opener at Monza. 30 showed up for the 1992 Le Mans 24 Hours, but this included 14 cars that weren't competing in the World Sportscar Championship. The final race, the 500km of Magny-Cours, saw just 8 entrants. The Peugeot 905 was all-but-untouchable, taking five wins from the six races of that season, and were only denied victory in the 500km of Monza after crashing out two laps from the finish.
It has been widely believed that the new engine regulations were forced on Group C because Bernie Ecclestone feared that they could compete with F1, and to be honest, I agree with this conspiracy theory.
I've always subscribed to this as well. Who knows how different sportscars in the 1990s could have been had its popularity kept increasing over F1?
Trouble with that is every time it does get popular someone with F1 in his blood does something to 🤬 it up. Nothing is allowed to compete with F1.
Poor Eddie. One year later...I'm not really sure that this would be considered a conspiracy, But in the 1963 Indy 500. For the last 20 laps Parnelli Jones who was leading was supposed to be Black flagged due to an oil leak and constant smoke from his car. An oil leak which caused another driver Eddie Sachs to spin out.
It's believed that the USAC officials didnt black flag Parnelli because they didnt want Jim Clark to win. They were biased towards the American Parnelli. As Jim Clark would have been the first Non-American driver to win the Indy 500 and The Lotus would have been the first ever Rear engine car to win.
However if it was a conspiracy to keep Clark and the Lotus from winning, It didnt work for long as He and the Rear engine Lotus Won in 1965.
Did McLaren sabatoge Michael Andretti's lone F1 season?
It makes me with the old F1 Rejects site was still up, because one particular reader did one heck of a job analyzing Andretti's season in F1. Same with Nigel Mansell's last year in F1, which kind of mirrored Andretti's in many respects (Gets a ride because of marketing opportunities, clashed with the team, no real results on-track, gets fired before the season ends etc. etc. ).
David Coulthard
Links added, you're welcome
I honestly wonder why McLaren kept Coulthard around for as long as they did. He was always a second-tier driver, there to keep banking points and support WCC bids, but I don't think that he ever really accepted it.Coulthard talks extensively in his book about how unfavoured and pushed aside he felt
It makes me with the old F1 Rejects site was still up, because one particular reader did one heck of a job analyzing Andretti's season in F1. Same with Nigel Mansell's last year in F1, which kind of mirrored Andretti's in many respects (Gets a ride because of marketing opportunities, clashed with the team, no real results on-track, gets fired before the season ends etc. etc. ).
I honestly wonder why McLaren kept Coulthard around for as long as they did. He was always a second-tier driver, there to keep banking points and support WCC bids, but I don't think that he ever really accepted it.
From what I have heard, the relationship between team and driver simply fell apart. Frank Williams apparently wasn't convinced that Hill could lead the team in the long term.
I honestly believed that Hill went to Arrows on his own accord, Arrows offered him an opportunity to completely develop a car around him including enough rope to hang himself, who knows...
Arrows were the only team that were willing to give Damon Hill a one-year deal and Hill was told that he was out of a drive at Willlaims late enough in the year that no other team had open seats available anyway. McLaren were allegedly very interested in Hill's services for '97 (Ron Dennis was already looking for a way to fire David Coulthard after 1996), but they would only pay him on a results basis and he would've been relegated to official #2 behind Mika Hakkinen.
Hill supposedly took one look at their contract and said "No thank you" (Or words to that effect).