What is ‘liegate’? When Lewis Hamilton was disqualified for lying to the stewards

Even though Lewis Hamilton is considered one of the best F1 drivers in history, he has been part of several controversies in his long career in racing. One of them was famously known as ‘liegate’, which occurred back in 2009.

This was one of the more bizarre and shocking ones since Hamilton lied to the governing body of F1 and was disqualified from a race. Not only that, Hamilton’s former employer McLaren was punished with a three-race ban from the world championship as well.

The entire story of the 2009 ‘liegate’ fiasco which led to a disqualification for Lewis Hamilton

In the 2009 F1 season opener, the Australian GP, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica crashed into each other, bringing out the yellow flag and safety car. Overtaking under a safety car is not allowed, so every car needs to be in a single line and slow down.

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was having a brilliant race as he moved from 15th to fourth place and was behind third-placed Toyota driver Jarno Trulli. During the yellow flags, Trulli accidentally went off track, which forced Hamilton to overtake the Italian driver.

Both drivers spoke to their respective teams, and McLaren, through its team radio, commanded Hamilton to give back the place to Truli. As the Briton slowed down, the Toyota driver went past him.

The move was done under a safety car, which was technically against the rules. Truli was essentially forced to pass Hamilton since the latter slowed down quite a lot. This bit of information was also conveyed by Truli to his team.

After the race, the race stewards gave Truli a 25-second time penalty, which cost him his podium finish in Australia. When McLaren and Hamilton were summoned by the stewards, they said there was no communication between them regarding letting Truli pass under a safety car.

A few days later, before the 2009 F1 Malaysian GP, the FIA stewards found out that Lewis Hamilton admitted to the media how McLaren commanded him to give back the place to Truli, something he and his team representative denied previously.

The FIA investigated the team radio and found out that both the team representative and Hamilton did discuss letting Truli pass by slowing down.

As a result, Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian GP, and McLaren’s constructors’ points from that race were removed. McLaren’s Dave Ryan, one of the main representatives who reportedly forced the lie, was suspended and eventually sacked from the team.

In late April, the FIA pressed charges against McLaren for breaching the International Sporting Code, which resulted in the British team getting a suspended three-race ban.