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Lewis Hamilton intentionally sabotaged his title challenge in 2017 to keep his word to Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Mercedes had already dominated the sport for the last three seasons at that point. However, the 2017 F1 season finally saw a potent challenge, and it came from none other than the most successful team in F1 history. Coincidentally, the team had the most successful driver on the grid in Sebastian Vettel.
At the time, Vettel had four titles to his name while Lewis Hamilton was still a three-time world champion. The race and situation that we are talking about here is the 2017 F1 Hungarian GP.
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The exciting championship situation heading into the race
The championship situation was as close as it could get between the two drivers. Sebastian Vettel led the championship by one point over Lewis Hamilton.
The two drivers had traded wins earlier in the season. Ferrari's smaller wheelbase car was more agile in the slow-speed sections while Mercedes' longer wheelbase machinery was better in the fast-speed sections.
Heading to Hungary, a track that is notoriously termed "Monaco Without the Walls," Ferrari was expected to hold the advantage. As expected, the red car held the advantage in qualifying as Sebastian Vettel secured pole position by posting a lap time almost two tenths quicker than Kimi Raikkonen, his teammate.
Behind the all-Ferrari front row, we had an all-Mercedes second row with Valtteri Bottas in P3 and Lewis Hamilton in P4. On a track where overtaking is not too easy, the race was going to be a long one for the Mercedes drivers as they tried to make up places against the Ferraris.
What happened in Budapest?
In the race, both Ferrari drivers made good starts and held positions. After a first-lap collision between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo brought out the safety car, the field was bunched up. On Lap 5, the safety car came in and the race resumed. However, Sebastian Vettel complained about his steering pulled left on the straights.
His steering suffered damage due to his running over the kerbs. Vettel was told to stay off the kerbs as he continued to be hounded by his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. After Raikkonen was told to hold station and not attack Vettel, the race neutralized.
Raikkonen had the two Mercedes drivers behind him. While he could not attack Sebastian Vettel, he was also facing an attack from Valtteri Bottas. With Raikkonen acting as the rear gunner, Vettel was able to pace himself throughout the race as he tried to control the proceedings at the front.
The race order read: Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen, Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton. With 10 laps left in the race, Bottas was ordered by the team to let Lewis Hamilton through and take a chance at attacking Raikkonen and Vettel.
How did Lewis Hamilton sabotage his championship?
Valtteri Bottas was promised that Lewis Hamilton would give his place back if he was unable to pull off an overtake. After being unleashed by the team, Hamilton tried everything but Raikkonen did not budge.
On the last lap of the race, it became clear that Sebastian Vettel was going to win the race and the Mercedes driver made no impression on Kimi Raikkonen. At that point, Lewis Hamilton was told to give the position back to Bottas.
The Mercedes driver could have easily ignored the team order. He could have exercised his rights as the team leader and Mercedes would not have said much. He was looking at a major six-point swing against him if he gave up his position to Bottas.
However, a promise had already been made and Hamilton complied. He gave up his position to Bottas and finished the race in P4. As a result, the championship points gap got even bigger. After the race in Hungary, we were looking at a 14-point gap between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.
What did eventually happen in the championship?
Despite giving up his position to Bottas in Hungary, Lewis Hamilton was able to defend the world title and win his fourth championship. The driver overhauled the 14-point advantage that Vettel had and ended the season 46 points clear of the German in the championship.
The race was one of the cornerstones of the relationship that Hamilton and Bottas had at Mercedes until the Finn was replaced by George Russell in 2022.
