Formula 1

About the season

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari issued a blatant team order: Rubens Barrichello let Schumacher past in the final corner, and the crowd booed the podium ceremony, where Schumacher defiantly put Barrichello on the top step instead of himself. The backlash led the FIA to ban explicit team orders from the following season, a rule that proved almost impossible to enforce for years afterward. At Indianapolis, Schumacher deliberately slowed in the last corner to let Barrichello draw level: they crossed the line just 0.011 seconds apart, which many suspected was yet another staged result. Ferrari's F2002 was so dominant that the team scored nine one-two finishes, including at each of the last five races, and out-scored the other nine teams on the grid combined in the constructors' standings. Michael Schumacher won the 2002 Drivers' Championship with 144 points (Ferrari), 67 points ahead of the runner-up. Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship with 221 points, 129 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 17 completed races this season, there were 158 retirements. 4 different drivers won a race this season. Michael Schumacher took the most race wins, 11 in total. Schumacher won the season-opening race, the Australian Grand Prix. Irvine made the biggest gain of the season at the Australian Grand Prix, from grid position 19 to finishing 4 (up 15 places). The Australian Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 14 drivers failing to finish. The season's biggest upset win came from Schumacher at the Malaysian Grand Prix, starting from grid position 4. The most dominant win of the season came at the Malaysian Grand Prix, with a margin of 39.7 seconds. The closest finish of the season came at the United States Grand Prix, with a gap of just 0.011 seconds. Schumacher won the Japanese Grand Prix, the final race of the season.