17/10/2025 14:15
The telephone call that reached Eddie Irvine as he checked in at
Kuala Lumpur airport carried news that would define one of Formula
1's most surreal chapters. The Irishman had just tasted victory at
the inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix, securing Ferrari's crucial
one-two finish with teammate Michael Schumacher. Now, three hours
after the chequered flag, he was being told his triumph didn't
count. Ferrari's barge-boards had been found illegal, oversized by
a single centimetre. Both red cars were disqualified from the
October 17, 1999, race, handing victory to Mika Hakkinen and,
seemingly, the drivers' championship alongside it. "It is
nonsense," Bernie Ecclestone declared in his trademark blunt
fashion, the Formula 1 supremo making no attempt to hide his
disgust at the stewards' decision. "It is bad for the sport." The
disqualification transformed the championship landscape in an
instant. Where Ferrari had enjoyed a four-point lead heading to the
final race at Suzuka, Hakkinen suddenly held an unassailable
10-point advantage with only 10 points available. McLaren, too, was
confirmed constructors' champions. The timing of the double
disqualification added to the chaos. Many within the paddock had
already departed Sepang, leaving team principals scrambling to
coordinate responses from different time zones. Journalists faced
the nightmare scenario of rewriting championship narratives on
deadline. Ecclestone's intervention was swift and pointed. The man
who controlled F1's commercial operations made clear his view that
such technicalities should not decide titles, stating: "The public
wants to see a great finish to a great championship. "It is a shame
if the world championship could be decided by someone quite junior
who has made a mistake in the factory." The measurement that
changed everything — for a while Ferrari's appeal hearing on
October 23 revealed that the stewards' ruling at Sepang had been
incorrect. When the barge-boards were re-examined, the FIA's
five-member International Court of Appeal ruled that the dimension
in question fell within an allowable 5mm tolerance. "The court of
appeal has decided to overturn the decision of the stewards and
therefore the original result of the race stands in its entirety,"
International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley
said. The reversal was complete and definitive. Irvine and
Schumacher were "exonerated", as said by the former, and reinstated
to their original finishing positions, returning Ferrari's
four-point championship leads and setting up the Suzuka showdown
everyone had originally anticipated. "It was a pure technical
matter that the car was legal all along, which is fantastic,"
Irvine said. "I didn't want people to think that it was political,
it was business, or any of that sort of carry on that got us
reinstated." Ferrari's chairman Luca di Montezemolo said the ruling
"acknowledged that our cars were perfectly normal". He said the
decision also "silenced many unfair interpretations which
displeased us so much". For one week, Hakkinen had been world
champion. Then he wasn't. The McLaren driver found himself thrust
back into a title fight he thought he'd already won, forced to
prepare mentally for a decisive race while Ferrari celebrated their
vindication. Not everyone welcomed the reversal. McLaren team
principal Ron Dennis said it was "a bad day for the sport". He
said: "A way has been found... to provide a reason for the appeal
to be upheld. Everybody wants to have an exciting race in Japan,
but I think that the price we have paid is too great." Ultimately,
however, when the dust settled at Suzuka on October 31, Hakkinen
claimed his second consecutive title with victory, while Irvine
finished third. Ferrari secured the constructors' championship, but
the Irishman's individual quest fell short by two points. As for
the motorsport governing body, the measurement error prompted the
FIA to overhaul its technical inspection procedures.
