WHAT A PLANK! The Story of the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix and 'Plank Gate'

Here before the bots. Git fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

I remember a newspaper headline at the time as "Schu Planker!"

Plank's a plank. Another reason we can't have nice things, any time the rules are applied in a dominance spell, no gives a fig. In a title battle, then it's 'politics', 'bias', 'conspiracy', 'revenge', whatever other words. 1994 cannot be analysed in any meaningful way for this reason with all of the fighting and the factionalism, and because it is inevitably overshadowed by the demise of Senna. This was one of the only normal things that happened, a simple technical DQ, in a season that was one big dumpster fire.

A video digging into the long running Brundle-Alesi beef could be interesting.

Years ago i read an article where Pat symonds talked about this. He said that in the event of a team breaching the worn plank rule of 1mm of wear that the team could request the plank be removed from the car and weighed...if it was 90% of its original weight it was deemed legal....the process was in place to cater for incidents like spins, slow punctures or suspension issues that could impact ride height and therefore wear on the plank This had happened seversl times already over the previous few races but on this occasion the FIA refused to weight the plank and just declared it illegal and Hill the winner....i was hoping this might get mentioned in video. In any case i think its fair to say Benetton and the FIA were on a full war footing by this point in the season so i could see that happening although on other hand it could be said Pat Symonds is maybe not the most trusted character in F1 history.

I kind of miss the days before widespread internet, when you'd watch a live Grand Prix, think that a particular driver had won, and you'd only find out when watching the highlights later on Sunday evening that said driver had been yeeted out of the results.

Still makes me think of Ed, Edd and Eddy. I wish one of the mechanics would draw Plank on their plank, just for chips and gizzards.

OOOooof. My memory is going. I always remember that being JJ Letho in the fireball that was a Benetton that day. I remember my dad waking me up in the wee hours of that sunday morning, still dark outside telling me be quiet as mum was still in bed and going downstairs to watch Damon, the Son of Graham win a world championship... First time any kind of sport broke my heart! That was the first year I was kinda old enough to fully grasp what was goin on and followed it with Dad the whole year. Early mornings for all the races on the other side of the world. Great childhood memories. Thanks for taking me there in such detail man. One love

13:15 is anyone else picturing one of those white CSI tents but with a big FIA Logo on the side 😂

I went to the BTCC race at Brands the following day (Bank Holiday Monday) and the commentators were joking about how advanced F1 cars were...."and now they have planks of wood under them. Sometimes even the right size". As it happens, it was a double win for Jo Winklehock, so German fans at least had something to cheer motorsport-wise.

Don't ever change your intro music. I never knew 1994 was that crazy.

Geoff Crammond, what a legend! Me and my mates have the odd linked up stunt car racer for nostaligic lols.

Schuey wasn't as short as a plank. I seem to remember that on the slowdown lap, he was all over the kerbs trying to smash the plank.

Never knew the plank was actually worn in more than one place. Actually learned something today. Still maintain Schumacher's penalty for Silverstone was excessive. Retaliation for option 13.

The same thing happened to Porsche at last years Watkins Glen 6 hour when their planks were worn out as well.

Spa 94 was my first foreign GP. Wonderful memories of my dad driving us there in his Corrado VR6. We camped up the hill from the hairpin and it chucked it down on Saturday and our campsite (small patch of grass) was washed out. Slept in the car on Saturday night and woke up to glorious sunshine on Sunday morning. Put our sodden camping gear on the bonnet and headed to the circuit. Came back to bone dry sleeping bags and all was well. Then we heard about “the plank”. Good times!

"Sort it the f*** out America..." Don't ever change Aidan!😅

Fantastic! I love these obscure stories of the going-ons back then as well. Remember that internet fad called "planking" from circa a decade ago? Turns out Benetton did it twenty years earlier. (It's not the same thing though.)

Another absolutely fantastic video! Keep up the great work 👍👍

Excelent video, knew a little bit about this but not all of the deatails here