The Biggest Corruption Scandal in Formula 1 History

on the 19th of January 1981 hidden in this building in the eighth arandis SM of Paris a group of 30 men agree on multiple under the table deals these deals stinking of corruption lifted one team to continuous Victory prestige in hundreds of millions of dollars in profit through manipulation threats and straight up changing the rules midseason to guarantee they'd win this is the story of the biggest corruption scandal in F1 history Ferrari when you hear that name those letters what's the first thing that comes to mind after all it's arguably one of the five most

recognizable brands in the world and of course the most successful team in Formula 1 history of course it's been a while since we've seen any success box now box box now box for hard stay out stay out stay out why not I but next year is our year right their last champion was Kimmy reiken and back in 2007 and they haven't won a Constructor title since 2008 but since then they've come close to winning a handful of times but they never really had a winning car oh huge disappointment for man and toosi and of course

any team no matter how big can have rough patches but did you know Ferrari has gone through much much tougher times most Die Hard F1 fans will remember it but mostly for how they bounced back cuz on their way to the top the Italian team went Way Beyond the bounds of sport and morality doing whatever it took to get out of their mess it all started in the ' 70s that decade was all about Technical and aerodynamic Innovations with new teams like McLaren Williams and tyell leading the way and stealing the spotlight but in 1975

Ferrari who hadn't won a title since 1964 introduced the 312 T the first modern e one car to break the 500 horsepower mark it also brought in the use of low Wings in a special front spoiler with guys like Maro forier and jaako malli behind the project the 3122 was the backbone of Ferrari's cars for the next few years and turned out to be an incredible success the team won the driver's championship in 75 and77 with louder and of course the constructors in 7576 and 77 but while Ferrari kept making upgrades Lotus launched ground effect

in 1977 which totally changed the game using the air that passes underneath this car channeling it through the side pods trapping it with these reversible skirts and passing it out to the back in a manner in which uh it beds the car down onto the track so improving the traction and the road holding the principle is very Loosely called ground effect they won the title in 78 in teams like Williams and lier not only copied the idea but made it even better and just like that ground effect became the key to winning that's when Ferrari

who were years behind and was still sticking with Enzo's famous aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines finally released the 312 T4 in 1979 finally adding ground effect to their previous model and even though the 312t wasn't designed with ground effect in mind it actually did surprisingly well in 79 Against All Odds they snagged both the constructors and drivers titles with jod shea funnily enough a major reason for their success was that their car was nearly three times more reliable than the rest of the Grid in 1980 they kept trying to upgrade their 312t

but it was running out of steam after all it was a car launched over 5 years ago and everyone else was bringing in big Innovations and upgrades the 180° V12 engine in the 312 T5 was just way too wide to make ground effect work properly and well the season couldn't have gone any worse to be honest basically Ferrari went from dominating F1 to becoming the joke of the grit oh that's Jody sha Ferrari are in deep trouble with a car that couldn't be any slower Shea andv nerve definitely not a talent issue couldn't do much

they only racked up eight points that season and the team ended up 10th in the Constructor Championship Shea was so shocked he said game over and just quit F1 completely whilst Panic set in and rumors were hinting at Ferrari leaving F1 to focus on other Motorsports they were actually working on a new car the 126 CK which would have a brand new turbocharged V6 engine even though it seemed like a promising project the truth was most people saw it as a desperate last attempt with the team at rock bottom and a project up in the

air Ferrari's top XX got to work but not on track they took advantage of the chaos in Formula 1 back then to pull off the biggest secret Ops ever with Enzo Ferrari being at the center of it all desperate to get his team back to the toping ra at the end of the 70s a war broke up between foca and fisa and it was intense quite a lot of fans thought this was going to be the end of F1 but context is crucial here so here's the short and simple explanation of what went down foca

was a union that represented private teams mostly British ones like Williams Lotus McLaren and tyell it was led by Bernie eklon owner of the Bron team and Max Mosley who later became the FIA president as his legal adviser almost every team on the grid was part of foca except for the big manufacturer owned teams like Ferrari Renault and Alpha Romeo these bigger teams were aligned with the fisa which was the sporting arm of the FIA basically foca was set up to protect the smaller teams as the fisa was mostly protecting slh helping the big boys

this was during the same period where many of the Innovations were coming from smaller teams yet every time they gain any substantial Advantage from their Innovations they'd get penalized I believe the French have interfered with the rules unconstitutionally and they've done so for the benefit of their own racing team so that they after 10 years of trying might eventually win a world champion this is where we really started to see into the cracks of what was happening behind the scenes especially with Ferrari over time foca gained more control over the commercial side of F1 making

many deals with circuits that the fisa wasn't too happy about things got even worse when Jean Marie bellestri became fisa's president in 1978 basically aiming to be the dictator of Formula 1 to kick things off he wrote out some pretty controversial rules he announced that the famous sliding skirts for ground effect would be banned starting in 1981 but while ballestri was trying to regain control the foca wasn't backing down threatening to boycott races like the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix and even to start their own championship to top it off goodye threatened to leave F1 if

this circus wasn't sorted out rapidly F1 became a complete mess and no one really knew what was going to happen and just as it seemed all hope was lost one man stepped up and changed everything January 1981 Marinello Enzo Ferrari fed up with everything that had been happening in F1 over the past few years got all teams together both the fisa and foca squ squads and wouldn't let anyone leave until they had sorted their issues they started agreeing on different compromises for everyone foca agreed on a permanent GP at IMA which was Enzo Ferrari's dream

fisa agreed to let foca host the South African GP in February even though they were strongly strongly against it at first the gr pre racing world has gathered uneasily here in K Army in the transv and as a result of that there are no Ferraris no Alpha Romeos and no Rena they also agreed on the US West GP in Long Beach which foca had brought in looks like a colossal investment how much money is involved um close on $10 million at the moment finally it looked like everyone was on the same page but on January

19th everyone met again in this building in the eth arandis M of Paris at plas Concord to familiarize what they had discussed it was a secret meeting with no Outsiders knowing meaning they basically divided up the future of F1 according to each party's interests corruption was everywhere after 13 long hours of negotiations they finally reached an agreement that laid out the basics of F1 as we know today they had just signed the Concord agreement fisa took full control of the championship setting up season long schedules like we have now on the other hand FCA snagged

the role of Soul negotiator with tracks which was the key for eckl's later success as the big boss of F1 and of course all teams would now get a cut of the money made from TV deals they agreed on unanimous decisions for future changes to avoid another Power struggle and set up a proper process for rule changes ditching bel's habit of changing the rules whenever he felt like [Music] it so basically the Concord agreement laid out how Formula 1 worked both on the sports side and the money side and well let's just say the Concord

agreement didn't completely end the war the drama kept going into 1981 and 82 with some foca teams boycotting the 82 San Marino Grand Prix as they still disagreed on some aspects of the regulations instead of a full grid of 26 cars there are only 14 because the bitter political wrangling which has dominated Grand Prix racing this year has continued here the mainly British Formula 1 Constructors teams have almost all withdrawn from the race if you want to know more about it I go into detail in this video which I made recently and while it didn't

totally end the drama it did make things a lot calmer and set Formula 1 on a better path for the next few years but there's one thing I haven't mentioned yet the Concord agreement set up how much money each team got the payouts were based on how well they did in the championship so if a team finished higher up they got more cash than if they ended up last makes sense right this way teams worked harder to improve and their position in the championship mattered financially as well except for one team in his quest to

fix all problems in F1 Enzo Ferrari managed to manipulate both the fisa and foca remember Enzo was the Puppet Master behind this meeting and he wasn't about to walk away with the same conditions as the rest he asked more like demanded both organizations for special bonuses being the only seem to race since the very first season in 1950 to the CSI that Formula 1 is Ferrari was his who was H been Ferrari had done more than anyone to make Formula 1 what it was this special bonus was something that obviously no team wanted but while

fisa and foca were stuck trying to figure out what to do and so Ferrari made a move that they couldn't Backtrack on if his demand weren't met Ferrari would leave Formula 1 everyone acknowledges the fact without Ferrari there wouldn't be Formula 1 and Mr Ferrari knew that Formula 1 without Ferrari can you truly imagine it Ferrari was too big and brought in too many fans to just leave the sport the losses would be huge for F1 and TV ratings would drop through the floor so what could they do even though it was incredibly controversial to

put it lightly they really had no other choice they just couldn't let Ferrari leave Formula 1 they fell right into his trap and handed the team a very special bonus for their historical importance but that wasn't all from the very early days in fact Mr Ferrari had insisted was included in our agreements that they had a veto have over any regulations that would damage their company absolute Insanity it was pretty much what he'd been doing through the fisa before and what the whole turmoil was about at the end of the day what really mattered to

people like bellestri eckelstone and Mosley was the money so yeah Ferrari now earned a much bigger part of the pie than basically the right to change rules at any point however they'd see fit making them by far the most powerful team in formula 1ed after that terrible year in 1980 Ferrari brought out the 126 CK with a V6 turbo engine in 1981 and even though they didn't reach the top jville neres scored two wins and another Podium finish the next season was another tough one V nerve passed away after that horrific crash at [Music] Zelda

it is to inform you about the tragic um news we received today Jilla vilner passes away after the injury sustained at the Zer circuit and his teammate Dido Peroni who was by far the favorite to win the title by the way had a career-ending accident in [Music] Germany and even with all these tragedies Ferrari ended up winning the constructor's championship and in 1983 the team won the constructor's title again Ferrari went from Rock Bottom to being back on top right after that meeting in Paris but some how Ferrari didn't win any more titles in the

80s or '90s even though they came close many many times go through the inside and it's happened immediately this is amazing Cent goes off at the first corner but what has happened to frost he has gone off two how do you feel about being world champion it's not a bad feeling at all is it congratulations and while a lot of things changed one thing never changed Ferrari's historical bonus and their veto power in the early '90s Ferrari used their veto right to keep their V12 engines even though everyone else was moving to V10 which were

the future this way they not only avoided failing like in 1980 but also kept on improving in the following years with F1 getting more and more popular plus the rise in professionalism and new tech costs went through the roof and some team simply couldn't handle it even though they'd been very successful in the past they just had to call it quit the reason we have chosen to sell however is primary Financial but Ferrari even though they weren't performing much on track could still keep going with more control over the sport than anyone else I think

most of us would agree Ferrari messed up the competitive balance in F1 they weren't just threatening to leave when they didn't get exactly what they wanted but the Italian team had pretty much locked in a lifetime spot and I don't know if you realize but they went 20 years without winning but somehow still stuck around and while teams like McLaren and Williams helped propulse the sport in so many ways it was still Ferrari reaping in the majority of the rewards with a solid team that knew how to make the most of these perks led by

Jean Todd and with top Engineers like Ross Brun and Rory Baron plus Michael Schumaker joining in 1996 they finally used their extra resources the right way Ferrari was back in the game the crowd BLS and he wins the briish B free Schumaker couldn't quite beat the Williams of Hilton Ville nerve in 96 and 97 or hackin and's McLaren in 98 however in 99 it looked like he could pull it off got a problem look over the line victory for Sher and Ferrari but a crash at silverston sidelined him for half the season has he hurt

his legs I don't think he should have done struggling to get out of the car a little bit I wonder if he's hurt his legs this look from front left off still with Eddie Irvine stepping up as team leader Ferrari snagged the constructor's championship finally another title and then in the year 2000 Ferrari was really back when I went into my new car I immediately felt this is the car out Victory and he's D super this car is unable sher's going to outbreak the 2000 Japanese th free and the world championship for the third time

to give Ferrari and a bad dream 10 wins and 11 more podiums and from here on Ferrari the most powerful team off track became Unstoppable it's given it the victory unprecedented dominance Five drivers titles and six Constructor championships with a car and driver that was Second To None Ferrari had just kicked off the most dominant era any team had ever had and of course Schumaker with seven championships becoming the most successful driver ever the Italian team was finally back to being what it used to be Ferrari they not only saved their legacy but took the

entire brand to new heights how much influence did their little perks have on this dominance I'll let you figure that one out for yourself after their Golden Era they grabbed one more driis Championship with Kimmy in 2007 and another constructor's title in 2008 and then they entered a phase that's still going on today almost 20 years without a title so what are their exact perks nowadays in the latest Concord agreement signed in 2021 and Lasting until 2025 teams split 50% of f1's profits with that percentage going down if more Revenue comes in in 2023 for

example Revenue topped $3 billion and the team split 45% of that including bonuses for things like winning the championship of course Ferrari on the other hand gets an extra 5% if the total money for teams is under $ 1.1 billion and it jumps to 10% if it goes over $1.6 billion so basically as the money pool gets bigger the teams get less and Ferrari gets more what the actual but that's not all they've used their veto power a few times recently the FIA regards smaller budgets as essential if the sport is to survive in these

difficult economic time in 2009 they used it to block a budget cap the FIA wanted to put in place to cut costs and help smaller teams this is a row about money and power teams don't like the idea of having budget caps imposed upon them from above generally speaking they find it very difficult to agree on anything what's your next step right well the next step we're going to take because trying to take something which isn't yours is not really in accordance with the law so next week we will be issuing legal proceedings against against

Ferrari and also against fot then in 2015 they blocked another proposal to limit the price of engines for customer teams it's true they haven't won in a while but they've never sunk as low as other big historic teams like Williams or McLaren who've spent years at the back of the grid I mean with all the resources and political pugs it's close to Impossible right but what if they lost their FIA granted rights would they sink and leave the sports or would they just stick around in F1 hitting rock bottom like in the80s it's more than

clear they have have an unfair advantage over anyone else and the craziest part is how secretive this all is sure if you're a Die Hard fan you'd know about this but most people have no idea but this is by far not the only time we've seen corruption manipulation and cheating in F1 so make sure you watch this one next and as always thank you for watching