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Controversy Corner - Benetton

Published on 19 Jan 2016 20:50
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By: Matthew Gannon

Controversy Corner - Benetton
For the first article in the F1 controversies section see here: http://www.f1today.net/en/news/205001/at-this-race

The 1994 season is one that goes down in F1 history, and not for good reasons, arguably the greatest driver of all time Ayrton Senna departed this life at round 3 of the season and left a title battle to unfold without him. Michael Schumacher won the first of his seven titles and begun the infamous legendary tale that will forever go down in Formula 1 folklore. His team Benetton won the constructors championship with there car the Benetton B-194 Ford. Like all seasons the tides of success didn't run smooth as controversy about the legality of the car raged throughout the season, the slightest match exploded like an inferno of petrol (literally in one case we will get to later.) Firstly an issue with traction control saw the Benetton team name brought into serious disrepute, the traction control, ABS and active suspension were all banned for 1994, and for the first time since 1983 however refuelling was back.

After spinning out of the race in Brazil, hometown hero Ayrton Senna and his Williams team felt the Benetton crews pit stops were too quick for the amount of fuel in the car. One race later, Ayrton's final, he retired again from the race but stood to watch the cars drove past, Benetton's vehicle however raised his suspicion as it sounded illegal. More traction control suspicions were raised when from third on the grid Schumacher overtook Hill and Mansell to lead into turn 1.

The fuel system was next to cause controversy when in a pit stop in Germany the teams number 2 driver Jos Verstappen suffered minor burns in a refuelling incident, a "foreign body" was responsible for the fuel filter closing at a slower rate. The system reducing fire risk was found to have been removed and as a result a 12.5% fuel flow increase led to a seconds advantage with every pit stops.

Schumacher was then disqualified from the Belgian Grand Prix after his plank was 1.6mm under the legal tolerance and 2.6mm under what the rules stipulated. The next rumours were about Schumacher leaving the Benetton team, something which never happened and despite rising media attention he would be out before the seasons end he stayed until the end of the following 1995 season.

Schumacher was handed a two race ban for the disqualification in Britain losing his second place finish missing his home race in Germany, the German appealed and raced his home Grand Prix however the ban was only postponed after the FIA rejected the appeal prompting J.J.Letho to replace his for the two races he was absent from.

At the end of the season in Adelaide, Australia the controversy arrived for one final time, a title deciding collision between Schumacher and Hill led to Schumacher wrapping up the title. The German was cleared of any wrongdoing after his suspension broke in the collision with the wall and as a result his steering was compromised and avoiding Hill was impossible. Had Hill not have made the move into that corner and waited he would have ultimately been World Champion of 1994, as it was Schumacher was the champion and the rest as they say is history.