But an official championship in F1 since 1950 you can imagine there are quite the amount of psyops to find in the history of the sports.
Some examples and then I wanna take it to the current things going on in the sports (are there more racing fans here beside me?).
1. Crashgate 2008 - an insight in the corruption and active meddling with race results
The Renault Formula One crash controversy, dubbed Crashgate by some in the media,[1][2] was a sporting scandal caused when Renault F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr. [the son of 3x world champion Nelson Piquet and the brother-in-law of current champion Max Verstappen] deliberately crashed during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to give a sporting advantage to his Renault teammate, Fernando Alonso.
On 28 September 2008, on the 15th lap of the Singapore race, which was close to the expected pit window for everyone's first stop, the Renault R28 driven by Piquet Jr. crashed into the circuit wall at turn 17, necessitating a safety car deployment. Alonso had previously made an early pitstop, and was promoted to the race lead as other cars were running out of fuel and were forced to pit under safety car conditions, resulting in a penalty, or shortly after the safety car period, which pushed them several positions behind the now compact pack. Alonso subsequently won the race after starting 15th on the grid. At the time, Piquet Jr. described his crash as a "simple mistake", excusing himself with how hard the car was to drive with heavy fuel.
After being dropped by the Renault team following the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Piquet Jr. alleged that he had been asked by the team to deliberately crash to improve the race situation for Alonso, sparking an investigation of Renault F1 for race fixing by Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), Formula One's governing body. After an investigation, Renault F1 were charged with conspiracy on 4 September, and were to answer the charge on 21 September 2009.
On 16 September, Renault stated that they would not contest the charges, and announced that the team's managing director, Flavio Briatore, and its executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, had left the team.
On 21 September, it was announced that the Renault F1 team had been handed a disqualification from Formula One. The disqualification was suspended for two years pending any further comparable rule infringements. Briatore was banned from all Formula One events and FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely, whilst Symonds received a five-year ban.[4][5] Their bans were subsequently overturned by a French court, although they both agreed not to work in Formula One or FIA-sanctioned events for a specified time as part of a later settlement reached with the governing body. Briatore would ultimately return to F1 in 2022 as an ambassador, while Symonds would return to the sport in 2011 as a technical consultant for Virgin Racing.
Wikipedia - Renault Formula One crash controversy
2. Spygate 2007
Curious that they don't mention the suicide of Stepney in this article. They sacrificed 1 "pawn" and the poor guy had no life afterwards anymore. Not ye typical "celeb (which he wasn't) gets new identity"...The 2007 Formula One espionage controversy, also known as Spygate and Stepneygate, was a set of accusations among Formula One racing teams that confidential technical information had been passed between them. It involved the McLaren, Ferrari and Renault F1 teams.
The original case involved allegations made by the Ferrari Formula One team against a former employee (Nigel Stepney), a senior McLaren engineer, Mike Coughlan, and his wife Trudy Coughlan concerning the theft of technical information. These allegations were the subject of legal action in Italy and an Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) investigation. A High Court case in England was dropped after Ferrari reached an agreement with the Coughlans.
An FIA hearing into the matter took place on 26 July 2007 but did not result in any penalty for McLaren. However, a second hearing took place on 13 September 2007, and by then, compelling evidence resulted in several penalties for the team. The most important of these were the team's exclusion from the 2007 Constructors' Championship and a record-breaking fine of $100 million. However, it was estimated that McLaren would pay closer to $31 million. As of 2022, this remains the largest fine in sporting history. Following information from McLaren, allegations were subsequently made during November 2007 by the FIA against the Renault F1 team regarding information they were found to have in their possession concerning the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars. These allegations were also the subject of an FIA investigation, with a hearing taking place on 6 December 2007.
Wikipedia - 2007 Formula One espionage controversy
Or maybe it was murder?
3. Abu Dhabi 2021 - Wikipedia - the FIA actively setting up the famous final of this race against the rules pitting defending champion Hamilton directly to contender Max Verstappen. A (clearly deliberate, even suggested in some media, though in other of course rejected as "conspiracy theory") crash by outgoing grid filler Canadian, son of dairy giant, Nicolas Latifi led to the safety car leading to this moment.Stepney was killed on 2 May 2014 in a road traffic incident on the M20 motorway at Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom. The exact circumstances of his death have not been established. According to police, his vehicle was parked, and he appeared "to have [entered] the carriageway and was then [subsequently] in collision with an articulated goods vehicle". He was pronounced deceased at the scene. A subsequent Coroner's inquest "concluded it was a suicide" also said they had "found no reason for Mr Stepney to take his own life", and recorded an open conclusion.
Wikipedia - Nigel Stepney
The conspiracy lies in the fact that the FIA did not follow their own race rules and allowed Verstappen to overtake the lapped cars such that him and Hamilton would have 1 lap (!) to decide the nailbitingly exciting season of 2021; they were equal in points, so whoever would finish before the other would win the championship.
It is still talked about, especially by the English content creators, both private and media.
In the next post I will outline what is currently unfolding, it's quite interesting imho.