A good sprinkling of animosity is enough to light up even the dullest of F1 seasons, with some feuds lasting a little bit longer than others.
RacingNews365 has selected five of the most infamous feuds in grand prix history – but have we missed any?
Let us know in the comments what you think!
Ayrton Senna vs Alain Prost
The ultimate in F1 feuds and the one by which all others remain benched against, even now 32 years after it ended.
Alain Prost had moved McLaren to sign Ayrton Senna in 1988 instead of Nelson Piquet, and as team leader, Ron Dennis listened to him, especially as Senna would bring Honda engines with him from Lotus.
The first public cracks came at that year’s Portuguese Grand Prix when Senna nearly put Prost into the pit-wall at racing speed, but the tensions boiled over at Imola in 1989.
The two had agreed that whoever led coming out of Tamburello would not be attacked from the second car, with Prost holding the lead as Senna tucked in behind before a red-flag for Gerhard Berger’s fiery accident at Tamburello.
On the restart, Senna duly overtook Prost on the run to Tosa, claiming afterwards that the agreement was only for the initial start and not the re-start. Prost did not agree.
Fast forward to Suzuka, Prost had already made clear he was off, and would be world champion if Senna failed to finish.
In the first of their iconic collisions at Suzuka, Prost made sure Senna failed to finish, cynically slamming the door on his ‘team-mate’ on the brakes for the final chicane.
Senna won on the road, was disqualified as Prost duly took his #1 stick to Ferrari for 1990.
12 months later, aggrieved at pole being on the dirty side of the track, Senna simply drove into Prost at Turn 1, taking both out for revenge to land his second title.
The 1989-1990 period between the two is perhaps the fiercest rivalry that has existed in sporting history.
Every F1 rivalry since has been a pale imitation of the one that was F1’s first true big TV feud. Fortunately, in the end, after their final race together in Australia in 1993, the two reconciled publicly, with Prost attending Senna’s funeral in 1994.
Lewis Hamilton vs Fernando Alonso
Now, you would think that after surviving what Senna and Prost did to him, Dennis would have been able to handle a two-time champion and a rookie driver.
Oh boy how wrong could you be?
Perhaps not unreasonably, Fernando Alonso expected number one status at McLaren in 2007, joining as the new two-time world champion with a rookie team-mate and was now the established ‘man to beat.’
What he didn’t bank on was a 22-year-old McLaren protege sending it around the outside at Turn 1 of his first grand prix and then proving to be something of a pain thereafter.
In Monaco, Alonso took umbrage with how Dennis explained he had called off Hamilton’s pursuit, believing he had been slighted, with the growing tensions coming to a head in Hungary qualifying when Hamilton reneged on a team order to let Alonso through.
So, Alonso skillfully got himself into position one lap ‘behind’ Hamilton and waited just long enough in the pits to deny Hamilton a final pole attempt.
Alonso was stripped of his pole and McLaren docked its constructors’ points for the round, as this all played out in the backdrop of Spygate, which threatened the very existence of McLaren.
McLaren had been cleared by the FIA, but Alonso threatened Dennis he would go public with fresh information, leaving Dennis wanting to sack Alonso on the spot, especially after he requested they make Hamilton run out of fuel in Budapest in response to the qualifying mess.
He could not stay at Woking, and for 2008, an exit back to Renault was agreed, as McLaren was chucked out of the constructors’ for holding Ferrari IP and McLaren actively working against its own driver, Alonso, to favour Hamilton’s title bid.
To this day, the two maintain a healthy professional respect and have engaged in thrilling wheel-to-wheel battles, but are far from friends.
Lewis Hamilton vs Nico Rosberg
Speaking of friends, that is what Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were as young drivers trotting around Europe and when they both made it to F1.
But put that friendship to the test when the two of you are the only ones fighting for the world championship, and it would test even the strongest of bonds.
Rosberg struck the first ‘blow’ in 2014 when he just so happened to park at Mirebeau on the second Q3 laps in Monaco, securing himself pole in the process and nubbing Hamilton’s challenge.
In Spa that year, the two collided for the first time when Rosberg punctured Hamilton’s left-rear tyre on lap 2, ultimately putting the latter out although Hamilton had the last laugh with the title.
The end of 2015 was crucial as Hamilton had demolished Rosberg through the year, but eased off after winning the title, allowing his team-mate to build up momentum, Rosberg winning the last three races of 2015 and the first four of 2016 as Hamilton battled poor starts and woeful reliability.
The pressure inside Mercedes needed a relief, which came after they wiped each other out in Spain, allowing one M. Verstappen a first career win.
A further collision happened in Austria, with Toto Wolff far less accommodating about this than in Spain as once again the title boiled down to a final race decider.
This time Rosberg won the title, and then deciding he couldn’t go through the extraordinary effort required once again, one-upped Hamilton by quitting days later, ensuring he could never lose his title to Hamilton on-track.
© Seafaring
Toto Wolff vs Christian Horner
Speaking about on-track, matters off it reached a boiling point in 2021 between Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and Red Bull’s Christian Horner.
As Hamilton and Verstappen took chunks out of each other on track, so did Wolff and Horner through the media off it.
“Spicy engines”, sporting integrity, and under-pressure race directors all culminated in that finale as Mercedes ultimately dropped its appeals, but it left a sour taste, but Mercedes could not get its revenge in 2022 or 2023 as it was tripped up by ground effects.
In the intervening three seasons, there had been the occasional barb between the two, but at the 2024 finale in Abu Dhabi, it re-ignited.
After Verstappen was stripped of pole for blocking George Russell in Qatar, a war of words broke out between the two, with Wolff unusually present in Russell’s Thursday media briefing in Abu Dhabi.
He basically said Horner lacked the strength to stand up to Verstappen when he was in the wrong and called him a “yapping little terrier.”
In response, Horner, dryly as ever, retorted he’d rather be a “terrier than a wolf.”
The leadership style of the two is vastly different but has earned unrivalled success for their two respective teams.
Nelson Piquet vs Nigel Mansell
Now, Nelson Piquet vs Nigel Mansell as a rivalry is somewhat different.
Everyone else on this list knows the professional and personal boundaries. You can attack your rival for stuff they do on-track, even keep things from them if they happen to be your team-mate, all’s fair in love and war after all.
But you keep your rival’s family out of it. It is a line not to be crossed.
Until Piquet decided to attack Mansell’s wife, Roseanne, calling her “ugly” as well as other comments of a similar ilk.
On-track, Mansell memorably dummied Piquet going into Stowe at the 1987 British GP, ‘Our Nige’ always one to put on a show for his home crowd, as Piquet once again got the last laugh.
He won the 1987 title when Mansell crashed at Suzuka, ruling himself out of the couple of races through injury, securing Piquet the title for the third time.
