They were F1 teammates for a record-breaking 104 races, and they never crashed

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McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri collided at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend. It was an incident that many had seen coming.

Norris had a clear advantage over Piastri when their partnership began in 2023, but the Australian has now wiped out – or maybe even overturned – the deficit. The stakes have increased too, with the championship on the line rather than just podiums or wins.

As a result, McLaren knew their two drivers would ‘tangle’, even though their relationship appeared to be good. Norris and Piastri went wheel-to-wheel on lap 67 in Montreal, and that Briton tried to squeeze through a non-existent gap on the pit straight.

He crashed into the pit wall and sustained terminal damage, which meant a five-second penalty had no impact. Piastri was able to continue and finished fourth.

Norris immediately took responsibility over the radio, helping Andrea Stella to prevent any fallout. But their 56-race run without a crash is over.

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello never crashed at Ferrari

Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello raced alongside one another 104 times at Ferrari between 2000 and 2005. That record still stands to this day.

Schumacher had joined from Bennetton in 1996 and partnered Eddie Irvine for his first four seasons. But at the turn of the century, Ferrari let the Northern Irishman go to pick up Barrichello from Stewart.

Ferrari and Schumacher won the next five world championships, the most dominant run the sport has ever seen. Barrichello was initially told he’d receive equal treatment, but was later relegated to the German’s number two.

With a clear but controversial hierarchy in place, Ferrari played a key role in preventing any collisions between their two drivers. It was a similar story at Mercedes between 2017 and 2021, where Lewis Hamilton was the team’s priority rather than Valtteri Bottas.

Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, third on the teammate leaderboard, came together at the 1999 Austrian GP. Hakkinen led a McLaren one-two, but Coulthard tagged him at the start and sent him to the back of the field.

Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber infamously crashed in Turkey 11 years later. Vettel would later defy team orders to pass Webber in Malaysia in 2013, their final season together.

The huge punishment Ferrari received for Rubens Barrichello team orders controversy

It wasn’t always clean between Schumacher and Barrichello. There was a run-in between the two drivers at the 2010 Hungarian GP, when the former was racing for Mercedes and the latter was at Williams.

Schumacher nearly ran Barrichello into the pit wall on the main straight as he defended his position with the maximum aggression. The Brazilian called it the ‘most dangerous manoeuvre’ any driver had ever attempted against him.

As teammates, the biggest controversy came at the 2002 Austrian GP. Barrichello was told to cede victory to Schumacher and moved over on the approach to the chequered flag.

Ferrari were fined a whopping £800k for the team orders. While perfectly legal today, they were banned in that era.