The ones you’ve all been waiting for…

2. The Whole Field (Nearly), 1998 Belgium

Now normally these lists all end with this almighty smash; the most iconic of the modern era which saw the entire mid field taken out following the start of the Belgium Grand Prix.  But you may have noticed at F1 Badger, we like to do things slightly differently (for good reason of course); I hope you’ll agree we were justified in our decision. 

During this crash at Spa in 1998, it’s quite tricky to evaluate what exactly was happening on track because of the rather extreme weather conditions, but what makes this event all the more extraordinary is that no driver was killed in the mêlée of carbon fibre and flying wheels.

Contravening usual procedure, race organisers despite the heavy rain decided to start the race at normal time without the safety car.  With Hakkinen in pole, the 3 cars of Villeneuve, Schumacher and Fisichella emerged from the start spray.  A perpendicular Coulthard slid from the first corner after making contact with Irvine’s Ferrari and the Scot’s Mclaren touched the barrier (notice a pattern?) causing him to rebound across the track, which resulted in a massive pile up of the mid field.  Several cars emerged from this catastrophe but the race director called a restart after four teams lost both their cars in the incident.  The restart saw more intense action, involving a collision between Hakkinen, Herbert and Schumacher, and the highly controversial and bitter incident between Coulthard and Schumacher on lap 25.

Please let us know what this music is, it’s very good.

1. Irvine, Verstappen, Bernard and Brundle, 1994 Sao Paulo

In his debut Grand Prix, Jos Verstappen made a splash.  It’s a clip that’s always present in crash montages, but it has that rare quality of being a spectacularly catastrophic classic.  I’m sure some of you will have plenty to say about this choice, especially its position on the list, but consider it in the context of theatre.  Maybe it’s the way that an innocuous event like tyres touching snowballs into a much larger event that collects four drivers.  Yeah that’s like Spa, but we see a much more animate performance, it’s more expressive than just tyres and wheels flying everywhere… 

OK I jest, no in all seriousness, it’ a good crash, it’s really good, but you know what makes this Badger’s best crash?  It’s this; Eddie Irvine, yes you know him Bleachy Norn Irn man, well he was found guilty of causing this whole charade and was disqualified from the next race.  Now if that’s not funny enough for you, Jordan appealed the decision and Irvine was made to miss the next three races!  

Worst. Commentary. Ever.