Toto Wolff once said, “I don’t believe in the saying, ‘win at all costs.'” The Mercedes team principal said that in the context of Red Bull exceeding the 2021 cost cap, which he thought gave the team an unfair advantage over his own. In 2006, though, Renault Managing Director Flavio Briatore said the same thing, just in harsher words and about Michael Schumacher and his dirty tactics during qualifying at the 2006 Monaco GP.

Fernando Alonso in a Renault proved to be the rival Schumacher expected him to be when the Spaniard joined the sport in 2001. Until the 2005 season, they didn’t go head-to-head, but once their battles started, it ended with Alonso coming out on top in both 2005 and 2006, stealing the championships from Schumacher. The 2006 Monaco GP was a particularly interesting entry in their battle journal and left Briatore fuming.

The Michael Schumacher “accident” wasn’t convincing enough

It’s a universally accepted truth that qualifying in Monaco is the most crucial competitive session on the entire Formula 1 calendar. As a street circuit, the room for overtaking is just as small as the room for errors, and starting the race as high up the grid is the best chance drivers have to achieve a good result at glamorous Monaco. In this bid to qualify ahead of everyone else, mistakes tend to happen that cost not only the driver but also everyone behind them. This is what happened with Schumacher in 2006. Or so he said.

After securing provisional pole following his first flying lap, he had his direct rivals behind him for the second. Almost at the end of the lap, he “accidentally” but conveniently parked his car at Turn 17, ensuring none of the drivers behind him—including championship rival Alonso—bettered his lap time. Although he claimed it wasn’t on purpose, everyone else found it hard to believe him, least of all Alonso’s boss, Briatore.

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As quoted in James Allen’s book, Michael Schumacher: The Edge of Greatness, Briatore said, “It’s a disgrace. He is taking everyone for a ride. Someone who is a seven times world champion wants us to believe that he didn’t do it on purpose? It’s fairyland. It was unsporting and against everything.” With him fuming and Alonso outrightly saying the “accident” was “deliberate,” the FIA decided that Schumacher’s actions were indeed unsportsmanlike and demoted him to the back of the grid. Before all this happened, though, drivers didn’t hold themselves back while showing their disapproval of Schumacher.

25-Year-Old Fernando Alonso Accused Michael Schumacher of Nasty & “Deliberate” Track Crimes

Drivers joined Briatore to pile their disapproval on Michal Schumacher

As James Allen wrote it, “[Schumacher] turns into the right-hand Rascasse corner oddly, the car skews left and slows, there is a pause, then very gently, the car hiccups forward into a stall. The nose stops a few feet from the barriers. No contact is made.” The approach to Rascasse is very challenging, seeing as how drivers have to brake from almost 200kmph to 50kmph. Because of this, drivers couldn’t believe there was any way Schumacher could’ve avoided hitting the wall unless he’d known he had no intention of making it in the first place.

As expected, his teammate Felipe Massa believed him, saying, “He stopped the car not to crash, and these things, in Monaco, is always a possibility to make mistakes.” But other drivers didn’t hold back. Nico Rosberg said, “I hope he didn’t do it on purpose because that really would not be a good thing. He’s the president of the GPDA, making all the comments, speaking about fairness, and things like that. He was only speaking about fairness in blocking each other, not blocking 10 people’s lap times at the same time.” Jarno Trulli added, “You just look at the TV and picture, and you can clearly say that he has been parking the car over there, quite clearly. My thought is that he probably couldn’t have parked it better.”

What’s your take on the “accident” Michael Schumacher seemingly had during qualifying?

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