Oscar Piastri isn’t the first Formula 1 championship leader to suffer a nightmare weekend with multiple mistakes.
In Baku, Piastri crashed into the wall in both qualifying and the race and jumped the start; three major errors for a man who so rarely makes one during a weekend.
That’s rare for a points leader, but not unheard of, as McLaren team boss Andrea Stella pointed out, even the best drivers in history have had off weekends.
So here’s a list of some championship leaders who had (self-inflicted) terrible weekends:
Felipe Massa - 2008 British Grand Prix
Felipe Massa headed to the 2008 British Grand Prix leading the world championship after leading a Ferrari 1-2 in the French Grand Prix. His weekend started badly in the first free practice session, crashing heavily at Stowe after going off on oil left by Fernando Alonso’s Renault engine failure. He had at least already set a time good enough to top the session, but that was as good as his weekend got.
In Q3, Massa had produced a bad lap on his first attempt but was denied the chance for a second thanks to Ferrari battling a stuck wheelnut. That left him ninth on the grid, but the worst was to come in Sunday’s wet race.
He was up to seventh on the first lap when he spun exiting Abbey and dropped to near the back, ahead only of Mark Webber’s Red Bull. He then spun again at Woodcote on lap three, on the approach to Maggots on lap 36, at Woodcote for a second time on lap 46 and for a fifth and final time coming out of Abbey on lap 48.
Unsurprisingly, he finished last of the runners in 13th and two laps down – losing the championship lead, albeit only on countback, to race winner Lewis Hamilton. - Edd Straw
Michael Schumacher - 2004 Chinese Grand Prix
It’s fair to say Michael Schumacher didn’t show the best of himself when F1 made its debut in China. He was not only leading the world championship heading into the weekend, but had long since sealed it, meaning his three errors at least didn’t prove costly in the big picture.
Schumacher had prime position for the single-lap qualifying 2 session and took to the track last, only to carry too much speed into Turn 1 and spin into the gravel. That left him 19th, which became a pitlane start when a water leak was discovered that forced an engine change.
On heavy tanks, Schumacher finished the first lap in last place and started to make progress, but a late dive up the inside of Christian Klien’s Jaguar at the hairpin led to contact on lap 11. That misjudgement cost him a little time, but he emerged unscathed. However, he then spun coming onto the back straight on lap 15.
He ultimately finished 12th after a race in which he was quick at times but made uncharacteristic errors, not helped by picking up a left-rear puncture on lap 35. By contrast, Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello won. - ES
Sebastian Vettel - 2018 German Grand Prix
With hindsight, Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari dream died in the gravel trap at Hockenheim at the 2018 German Grand Prix.
Vettel came into the race leading Hamilton by eight points in the championship and he was leading the race on home soil and on course to extend that gap until he slid out of the lead with just 15 laps to go.
It was in treacherous, slippery conditions but Vettel had a comfortable advantage and could have afforded to take it far easier.
“F*** sake, sorry guys, ah s***” was the radio message from an obviously emotional Vettel who lost an F1 points lead he’d never regain in his career again.
Hamilton and Mercedes turned up the heat in the second half of the season and Vettel and Ferrari made further mistakes, but this was the most galling and you can’t help wondering how different the season - and Vettel’s Ferrari legacy - plays out, without it. - Josh Suttill
Mark Webber - 2010 South Korean Grand Prix
Speaking of title dreams dying, Mark Webber lost his grip on the 2010 title fight when he ran wide onto the grass and speared into the wall at a wet maiden South Korean Grand Prix, collecting Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes for good measure.
Webber had a 14-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Vettel and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari heading into the weekend and had even spoken pre-event that “you still need to finish all three races and this is what I’m planning to do”.
But while running second Webber made that costly race-ending error and flipped the balance of power in the title race in Alonso’s favour - after Vettel also retired from that race while leading with an engine issue.
Had Webber finished on the podium that day in Korea, it’s highly probable he’d have taken the title two races later. - JS
Fernando Alonso - 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
Having taken victory on the streets of Monaco on paper, it appeared that Alonso’s big McLaren move was starting to pay off.
He arrived in Montreal in the lead of the championship - tied on points with rookie team-mate Hamilton - but with two wins from five races.
However what followed was probably the biggest gap in execution between the two McLaren drivers all season long.
Hamilton had beaten Alonso to pole position by four tenths of a second and in the race Hamilton dominated from start to finish while Alonso couldn’t stop leaving the track.
He went skating across the grass at Turn 1 on the opening lap and repeated that error multiple times during the race, struggling with his brakes and the damage picked up from the initial off.
Alonso also picked up a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for pitting under the safety car - although that was more a fault of the rules than Alonso.
He continued to struggle thereafter and was even passed around the outside of the final corner by Takuma Sato’s Super Aguri.
Alonso finished seventh, lost valuable points in the championship and a further blow to his fracturing relationship with McLaren had been struck.
But more than anything else, he’d been somewhat humbled by his much less experienced team-mate and a Super Aguri that would never score points in F1 again. - JS
Damon Hill - 1996 Spanish Grand Prix
Damon Hill’s 1996 title campaign had started very strongly with four race wins in the first six races - and only an engine problem in Monaco meant he wasn’t able to make it five.
But the 1996 Spanish GP that’s far better remembered for Michael Schumacher’s heroics was a disaster for Hill.
Hill dropped from pole to third off the line and on lap five, he was off into the grass on the slippery Barcelona circuit.
He recovered from that off and another trip into the gravel shortly afterwards but on lap 12, Hill lost control of his Williams out of the final corner and spun to a terminal halt.
It was a race in which many drivers made mistakes but Hill making three major errors within 12 laps stands out as far more ‘Hill 1995 spec’ versus the ‘Hill 1996 spec’ that would deliver a world championship. - JS
Lewis Hamilton - 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix
Hamilton’s 2007 Chinese Grand Prix would be the obvious pick here for a Hamilton-focussed entry, but his race (and title) ruining mistake could partly be explained by McLaren getting its tyre calls wrong, which left Hamilton with a hopelessly minimal amount of grip as he entered the pitlane.
The much clearer poor Hamilton weekend was the 2015 Hungarian GP which he labelled “one of the worst races” of his career.
Hamilton had a 17-point margin over title rival and Mercedes team-mate Rosberg but a disastrous race at the Hungaroring threatened to obliterate that margin.
A poor launch dropped Hamilton from first to fourth place and things went from bad to worse when he ran through the grass on the first lap after a dice with Rosberg into the chicane.
He mounted a decent recovery thereafter, only to drive into Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull at Turn 1 and pick up a drive-through penalty.
That should have spelt a big points loss to Rosberg, but fortunately for Hamilton he too collided with Ricciardo and ended up dropping behind his team-mate.
Still sixth place in what was comfortably that year’s fastest car was the result of an unfittingly scrappy weekend in an otherwise vintage Hamilton season. - JS
Alain Prost - 1983 Dutch Grand Prix
Alain Prost had a few contenders for this list - not because he was an error-prone driver - but simply one who led the championship in so many different F1 seasons (10 if you’re wondering).
We could have picked his horror show in Monaco in 1993, but that was partly explained by the clutch problem Williams found after the race.
He also crashed out in Long Beach and spun out at Zolder while leading the 1982 championship for Renault and made some mistakes during his first two title-winning years for McLaren.
But we’ve gone for one at Zandvoort during his final year with Renault in 1983, where he loses control under braking into Turn 1 and slams into title rival Nelson Piquet's Brabham.
That sends Piquet straight into the wall, with Prost joining him in retirement as his broken Renault went into a wall further around the lap.
"It was my fault, but for me it was not a big risk to pass him in this corner", was Prost's verdict afterwards, while Piquet wasn't massively fussed - "Everybody is a human being, everybody can do mistakes".
It meant neither driver scored, but given Prost only lost out on the title that year by two points, had he completed the move cleanly and won the race ahead of Piquet, he'd have won that year's title and be a five-time world champion. - JS
Max Verstappen - 2022 Singapore Grand Prix
This is tricky because Max Verstappen has had so few off weekends since he first led the F1 championship after winning the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix.
You could argue that Verstappen hitting the wall in qualifying and losing his cool in the race should put Jeddah 2021 on this list, but we’ve gone for Singapore 2022.
He was unlucky in qualifying as Red Bull ordered him to back off from a lap easily good enough for pole position because it realised he wouldn’t have enough to give the mandatory fuel sample.
But he had a mistake on his banker lap that left him vulnerable to a scenario like that, so he ended up eighth on the grid.
He had an “incredibly messy” race thereafter that started with an anti-stall off the line that dropped him to 12th.
Verstappen charged back to fifth place, but then ruined his progress by locking up while trying to overtake Lando Norris’s McLaren and went down the escape road and had to pit for a set of tyres because of the vibrations from the flat-spot.
He still came home seventh, but his team-mate Sergio Perez inflicted a rare intra-team defeat with his second victory of the season. - JS
Ayrton Senna - 1988 Italian Grand Prix
Senna’s 1989 Japanese Grand Prix will have kept him up at night more, but he has to take more blame for the Italian GP one year prior, in which McLaren lost its chance to take an unprecedented clean sweep of victories that year.
Fuel consumption was marginal in this race and having gone toe-to-toe with team-mate Prost earlier in the race, who then retired with an engine problem, Senna was running light and having to fuel-save.
The never-confirmed rumour goes that Prost, knowing he was going to retire, suckered Senna into a battle to ensure he’d be marginal on fuel once Prost’s race was done.
Either way, Senna was vulnerable to the chasing Ferrari of Gerhard Berger in the closing laps, which may explain his haste to pass the backmarker Williams of Jean-Louis Schlesser, who was standing in for Nigel Mansell.
Schlesser locked up into the first chicane and as Senna tried to pass him around the outside, the duo collided and Senna’s race and McLaren’s 100% record was done.
It’s a matter of opinion whether Senna was at fault, but he certainly has to take some responsibility for not leaving more room for a driver making their race F1 debut. Schlesser does climb over the kerb in what appears to be an attempt to stay out of Senna’s way.
It ruined a perfect run of four straight wins and made the path to Senna’s first title rockier than it needed to be. - JS
Jenson Button - 2009 European Grand Prix
We could have gone for the weekend when Jenson Button last led the F1 drivers' championship - the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix - where he speared into the back of Narain Karthikeyan's HRT as part of a "horrendous" race.
But picking a race from his mid-2009 wobble feels more appropriate. Button still scored points in every race bar Spa - where he was blameless in being wiped out by Romain Grosjean's Renault - but the second half of his championship-winning year was properly patchy.
We've gone for the European Grand Prix in Valencia as the low point as Button made a mistake in qualifying and ended up fifth and then had a messy race that included being bullied by Vettel on the run to Turn 1.
He ended up finishing seventh while Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello took his first victory of the season, 35 seconds ahead of Button.
It was a complete role reversal of when Button had been doing all the winning at the start of the year, taking six wins out of seven races, and ramped up the pressure on a previously comfortable cruise to the title. - JS
Carlos Reutemann - 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix
The curious case of one of the limpest title deciding drives in F1 history as Carlos Reutemann, one of the greatest drivers never to win a title, drove limply from pole to eighth and a lap down on his race-winning Williams team-mate Alan Jones.
Reutemann never properly explained what went so wrong. Unlike the other entries on this list, there was no obvious incident or explanation for the nightmare weekend.
But he came into the weekend as the championship leader by one point and left as the championship runner-up to Piquet's Brabham by a single point. - JS
