Why Lewis Hamilton was once disqualified from a Formula 1 race for lying to race stewards

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The 2009 Formula 1 season will always be remembered for the fairytale ending with Brawn GP, but it was also a year that drew a lot of controversy behind the scenes.

Whether it was the arguments over the legality of the double-diffuser, crash-gate coming to light, or the Max Mosley press case that led to him stepping down as FIA President, it was a year filled with scandals.

One of the less talked about ones is ‘Lie-gate’ which took place during the opening race in Australia 15 years ago.

It was the first race in which the new aerodynamic rules were used which simplified the car’s aero platform and enabled them to run closer to generate more overtaking.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Both Ferrari and McLaren turned up on the back foot, having spent most of their resources in 2008 developing their cars in an attempt to win the championship that year. They were the only teams who used the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) in the early stages, banking much of their performance from that.

It turned out to be the wrong choice, as both the F60 and MP4-24 proved to be unreliable and dramatically off the pace. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton did well to finish third on the road, having overtaken Toyota’s Jarno Trulli after a late Safety Car.

Trulli had gone off track and rejoined, meaning Hamilton legitimately took the position. But what followed was a dramatic turn of events after the race.

Lewis Hamilton and McLaren caught lying to the FIA stewards

The reason the Safety Car came out was due to a crash between Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica.

Trulli was in third and Hamilton fourth at this stage, before the Toyota went off track due to a mistake and their positions swapped.

Radio transcripts then show McLaren had informed Hamilton to let the Toyota back past, which Hamilton did exiting Turn 4. This was classed as overtaking under Safety Car by the stewards, who handed Trulli a 25-second time penalty post-race.

This was based on the evidence provided by McLaren team manager Dave Ryan, who claimed the team did not instruct Hamilton to let Trulli back past and was attempting to rectify their error in letting the Toyota driver take the podium.

The aftermath of ‘lie-gate’ and how Lewis Hamilton nearly quit F1

At the following round in Malaysia, Hamilton gave an interview with the media which contradicted the statement made by Ryan to the stewards and the transcripts were unearthed by the FIA stewards.

After finding out that Ryan and Hamilton had lied to the Australian GP stewards, the FIA disqualified Hamilton from the Australian GP and handed McLaren a suspended ban providing no similar incidents happened again.

As for Ryan, he was later sacked by McLaren for attempting to mislead the stewards while Hamilton issued an apology to media and the FIA.

Hamilton would later go on to admit that he almost quit F1 in the aftermath when speaking to The Telegraph: “There was a lot to take on board after what had gone on. I care about how people perceive me. It was a feeling of ‘shoot, maybe I shouldn’t be in the sport’ rather than not in my team. This is my dream team and I am fortunate to have been here from the beginning.

“I never had a desire to drive for anyone else. So it was not a desire to leave the team, just to stop racing. For a split second it was ‘this is too much to take. How do I recover from this?'”

The whole incident nearly led to the sacking of then-McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who was at the mercy of the team’s engine partner Mercedes who faced yet another cheating scandal following ‘spy-gate’ in 2007.