What does the term “liegate” mean? When the stewards disqualified Lewis Hamilton for lying
Despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton is viewed as one of the most mind-blowing F1 drivers ever, he has been essential for a few discussions in his long profession in hustling.
One of them was broadly known as the ‘liegate’, which happened back in 2009. This was one of the more unusual and stunning ones since Hamilton deceived the overseeing group of F1 and was precluded from a race.
In addition, McLaren, Hamilton’s former employer, was disqualified from the world championship for three races.
The entire story of the 2009 “liegate” incident that resulted in Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification. During the Australian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica collided, bringing out the safety car and the yellow flag for the 2009 F1 season. Every vehicle must move in a single line and slow down because it is illegal to overtake a safety vehicle.
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was having a splendid race as he came from fifteenth to fourth place and was behind third-set Toyota driver Jarno Trulli. Trulli went off course during the yellow flags, forcing Hamilton to overtake the Italian driver.
Through their respective team radios, both drivers communicated with their teams, and McLaren instructed Hamilton to give Truli the position back. The driver of the Toyota drove by him as the Briton slowed down. The move was finished under a wellbeing vehicle, which was in fact contrary to the guidelines. Truli had no choice but to pass Hamilton because the latter had slowed significantly. Truli also shared this piece of information with his team.
Truli was penalized 25 seconds by race officials after the race, which cost him a podium finish in Australia. When the stewards summoned McLaren and Hamilton, they lied and claimed that they had not spoken about letting Truli pass under a safety car.
The FIA found out a few days later, just before the 2009 F1 Malaysian GP, that Lewis Hamilton had reportedly admitted to the media how McLaren had ordered him to give Truli the spot, something he and his team representative had previously denied.
The FIA looked into the team’s radio and discovered that Hamilton and the team representative did talk about letting Truli pass by slowing down. McLaren’s constructors’ points from the Australian GP were wiped out and Hamilton was disqualified as a result. Dave Ryan from McLaren, who was one of the main people who told the lie, was suspended and then fired from the team.
In late April, the FIA squeezed charges against McLaren for breaking the Global Brandishing Code, which brought about the English group getting a three-day race boycott.
