McLaren Legend & Lewis Hamilton’s Idol Accused of Smoking in the Paddock Against F1 Rules

The 2002 Australian GP remains one of the most thrilling races in F1 for multiple reasons. The season opener started off with a big pile-up that took 8 drivers out of the race. Later on, owing to mechanical failures and other problems, 6 more DNF’d. This all played beautifully in the hands of a small team of the yesteryear called Minardi. Their team boss Paul Stoddart recalls how nerve-wracking the race was for him and, while doing that, spills the beans on a man who holds a special place in the heart of Lewis Hamilton.

Just seconds into the start of the race, Ralf Schumacher ran into the back of Rubens Barrichello and instantly took off into the air. The incident quickly ended the race for both drivers and the resultant pile-up also took out Giancarlo Fisichella, Jenson Button, Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa, Olivier Panis, and Allan McNish who were cruising behind. This gave Mark Webber the perfect chance to score points on his debut in front of his home crowd. However, his team boss, Stoddart, was doing everything he could to keep his nerves calm.

In a recent episode of Beyond The Grid Podcast, Stoddart revealed, “The only three people I know that used to occasionally sneak a cigarette on the pit wall was Flavio [Briatore], good ol’ Niki Lauda, and me. And, we all really didn’t do it often, like we really didn’t. That day, there’s a lot of shots with me with my head down. Luckily, you can’t see the cigarette smoke but I was so nervous.”

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Back then, only the top 6 drivers would score points. Mika Salo was hunting Webber in 5th and that raised the heart rate for quite a few present at the venue.

When Michael Schumacher felt ignored despite winning the race

Salo kept on gaining over Mark and each time they went past a crowd, a roar of cheer would erupt. Just as Salo was about to overtake the Australian, he spun around and that sealed the deal for Webber. The fans from down under had a new hero and that showed during the podium celebrations.

Stoddart recalls his meeting with Michael Schumacher when they invited him and Webber to the Ferrari afterparty, “Michael said, ‘do you know what, for the last three laps, I thought the race was over, the crowd were on their feet’. And he said, ‘I was just catching the diamond screen and they’re just focused on you Mark, nobody cared. When I won the race, I went up on the podium and yes, there’s hundreds, maybe a thousand people in front of me. I look left down the pit lane and there were tens of thousands of people down the end with you Mark.'”

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In 2019, fans voted the 2002 Australian GP as the best Australian GP ever. No wonder why.