Arguably one of the most scandalous events to have happened in the world of F1 racing was when Trudy Coughlan, wife of the chief designer at the McLaren F1 team, was caught with leaked documents from the rival Ferrari team. As luck would have it, Trudy Coughlan had stepped into the copy shop of an avid Ferrari fan, asking him at the counter to copy leaked drawings, reports, pictures, and financial information into two CDs. After Coughlan left, the copy clerk immediately sent an email to the Ferrari team about the encounter—and thus ignited a very public scandal indeed. 

There's something about the adrenaline high that F1 drivers love to chase; but that's not to say it doesn't come at a steep price. Tens of drivers have died on the racetrack—and not all of them have lost their lives during a professional race, some have gotten into fatal accidents during practice. 

In 1994, two drivers—Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna—both lost their lives at the San Marino Grand Prix. Ratzenberger had crashed into the Villeneuve corner going at over 300kph. About a day later, Senna slammed into a concrete wall after failing to negotiate a sharp turn. When officials examined the wreckage, they found Senna had carried an Austrian flag with him, which he had planned to raise in honour of Ratzenberger should he have won. 

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Sporting events will sometimes be accused of being rigged—but in 2008, one particular racer revealed that he had been told to crash on purpose. In the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet Jr crashed into the wall on his 14th lap. He had said that it was a simple mistake at the time of the accident, one that allowed his teammate, Fernando Alonso to win. 

However, he eventually changed his tune when he was dropped by Renault in 2009. He then went on to claim that he had been told to crash by his managers at Renault. Though the company had originally denied the charges, they eventually acceded to the allegations after Renault Managing Director, Flavio Briatore, and Renault Executive Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds resigned. 

Did you know that F1 racing cars can theoretically drive upside down? There's a bit of a debate about how fast a car would need to go to be able to do this (some say upwards of 200kph, others say 140kph) but as long as the car is producing a force equal to its weight, experts say it should be able to achieve this feat. 

The physics of a professional race is no less mind-boggling. The gravitational force equivalent (or G Force) while racing is so extreme that the pressure can feel intense. Braking and acceleration can further agitate this, sometimes raising the G Force to 8Gs. This could mean that something that weighs ten pounds normally would be multiplied and will be made to feel like 88 pounds. In this situation, the driver's body weight while inside the car will feel incredibly heavy when they have to turn a corner, brake, or accelerate. 

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