With the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, the double disqualification of McLaren’s title-challenging pair, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, for excessive skid-block wear caused a huge twist in the Formula 1 season.
Defending champion Max Verstappen was the big winner here, now only 26 points behind Norris for the championship lead and tied with Piastri with two rounds left.
Disqualifications from a Grand Prix race are rare but not unheard of, with a total of 46 as of the official results of the Vegas race.
And it has happened on rare occasions when drivers saw their chances completely crushed by the harshest penalty that race control can impose.
The first example? One of the defining moments of the greatest Formula 1 rivalry.
1989 Suzuka: Senna disqualified after Prost crash
One of the most dramatic moments in F1 history, if not the most? You saw this one coming if you know the sport relatively well.
Ayrton Senna v Alain Prost. The two legendary champions formed Formula 1’s most intense rivalry as they fought for championships in the late 80s and early 90s, with the pair dominating the field as McLaren teammates in 1988-89.
That 1989 season was forever marked in infamy for the Japanese Grand Prix, the penultimate round, as the titanic tussle reached its climax.
With a commanding 16-point advantage for Prost heading into the race, Senna had to win to push the battle to the finale in Adelaide.
Despite the Brazilian scoring pole, it was the Frenchman who took the early lead and set the pace, keeping Senna at arm’s length and approaching the title with each passing lap.
Embed from Getty ImagesAs the race entered its final stages, Senna managed to close in enough to attempt a lunge into the Casio Triangle chicane, only for the two MP4/5 cars to collide.
While Prost retired due to suspension damage and a stalled engine, Senna restarted the car with the marshals’ help, cut across the chicane, and recovered after a pitstop to win the race, keeping his title hopes alive…
…Only to be disqualified post-race for cutting the chicane after the crash with Prost. A controversial penalty that created a war between McLaren and the FISA (now known as the FIA).
Thus, Prost was crowned the 1989 Formula 1 World Champion, right as he departed for Ferrari. A failed appeal from McLaren left the team in disbelief and Senna hungry for revenge.
And he did get that revenge one year later, but that’s a story for another day…
1989 Estoril: Mansell madness wipes out Senna
The 1989 season had another controversial moment before the Suzuka clash, though this incident was more about ignoring the disqualification than the actual penalty itself.
With four rounds, Prost’s advantage over Senna was 20 points entering the Portuguese Grand Prix, nearing a third championship before departing McLaren at the end of the year. But Senna, ever the racer, was hot on his heels.
Enter Ferrari’s Nigel Mansell, the future 1992 World Champion and a familiar face to F1’s legendary title tilts. Only this time, he messed with a battle he was not part of.
In a fast but unreliable Ferrari 620, the Brit was far outside the title picture against the McLaren. Still, it took control of the early stages of the race in Estoril ahead of teammate Gerhard Berger and Senna.
Mansell came into the pits but overshot his team’s box, hastily reversing back so that his pitcrew could go to work.
Amazingly, Mansell kept racing despite the black flag being waved at him every single lap, eventually catching Senna for second. The pair diced before colliding, crashing out at the first turn of Lap 49.
Senna and Mansell were both out, gifting a surprise second place for Prost, and a race ban for the following round in Belgium for the British driver, due to his moment of madness.
Crucially, this cost Senna at least 6 precious points in the championship, which meant that Prost increased his lead to 24 points, when it could have fallen to 16.
Had Mansell obeyed his penalty, Senna would have gained points on Prost and kept the title battle going until the finale at Adelaide, even with the Suzuka debacle that followed.
1991 Estoril: Not again, Nigel…
As if one disqualification was bad, Mansell suffered again two years later at the very same venue. Only this time, it wasn’t his own doing.
Now back at Williams, the man with the outstanding moustache was chasing Senna for the title in this scenario, but was 18 points down on the Senna-McLaren combo with four races left.
Back at Estoril, things looked promising as Mansell jumped into the lead early on ahead of Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese, and, crucially, ahead of Senna.
Then came the first pitstop. Sound familiar?
Embed from Getty ImagesThankfully, Mansell learned his lesson and didn’t overshoot the pit box, allowing the Williams crew to fuel the car and change his tyres.
As the number 5 car was given the OK to leave, disaster struck mere seconds later. The right rear tyre suddenly fell off the car, leaving Mansell stuck in the middle of the pit lane.
The Williams mechanics rushed towards the car to perform the emergency tyre change with a spare, breaking multiple rules in the process. While Mansell was able to resume his race, he was later disqualified in the midst of his charge back through the field.
This fiasco all but ended the title battle, as Senna secured second behind Patrese to extend his lead to 24 points, sealing his third and final championship in the following race at Japan.
A complete reverse situation from 1989, where Senna was then the loser of Mansell’s luck, only to become the beneficiary in 1991. In a way, one could say life was making it up to the Brazilian for cruelly damaging his hopes before.
Mansell, who already had suffered plenty of bad luck that ruined past title challenges, would thankfully get his long-awaited title a year later, though 1991 was another missed chance.
2007 Montreal: Massa hits red light trouble
The story of 2007 was Kimi Raikkonen snatching the Drivers’ Championship from the clutches of the tumultuous McLaren pair of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.
Lost in the background was the fourth challenger, Felipe Massa, who dropped out of the hunt before the final two races.
The Brazilian was in the conversation for most of the season, winning three races, and matching Ferrari teammate Raikkonen for 3rd behind the McLarens. While he couldn’t muster the consistency of the other three, a controversial moment earlier in the year harmed his chances massively.
The chaotic Round 6 in Montreal witnessed the first Grand Prix for a rookie Hamilton, while Alonso and Raikkonen had off-colour performances. Massa was the closest title rival to the young Brit, running in third until the lap 23 Safety Car.
Massa came in for his first stop, only to leave the pitlane while the red light at the exit was still on, as the pitlane was closed due to Safety Car conditions.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter a lengthy investigation, the Brazilian and Giancarlo Fisichella (seen above) were black-flagged on Lap 51, costing him a likely podium and valuable championship points.
While these extra points wouldn’t have helped Massa win the title, they could have impacted his teammate Raikkonen’s hopes in the process.
The Brazilian and Finnish drivers were very close in the points table for most of the season, until Massa faded as Raikkonen hit the peak form that saw him win 3 out of the last 4 races.
With the additional points, could Ferrari have opted to prioritise Massa over Raikkonen? It’s a definite possibility, as Hamilton looked uncatchable. It’s more of a ‘what if’ scenario, but one that could have altered Formula 1 history as we know it…