The controversial weekend that ended an American's dream in Europe

Crashing your 'mate' off the road and trying to get a Donald Trump slogan livery on your car. That sounds like one of those clickbait intros to those videos that are deliberately misleading.

Sadly, that's not the case with the subject of this feature, Santino Ferrucci. These things actually happened.

Ferrucci had a good spell in karting and, unlike most American drivers, the Connecticut-born racer spent most of his junior career in Europe racing in Formula 3 and GP3. After taking 11th in Euro F3 in 2015 with Mucke Motorsport in F3, he spent a year with DAMS in GP3 (finishing 12th) and then took 22nd in the F2 drivers' standings with Trident in 2017 after stepping up midway through the year.

He returned for a full season in 2018 and was joined at Trident by Arjun Maini. It was always going to be a struggle for Ferrucci; Trident managed to perform in GP3 but has struggled to assert itself at a higher level, despite boasting 2006 European and Italian F3000 champion Giacomo Ricci as its team boss.

Fracture signs appeared early, and it became clear something wasn't right between Ferrucci and Maini.

Individually, both are fairly light-hearted, even humorous, but together, it really didn't work. Autosport recalls walking past the pair while F2 officials recorded social media and website content, and it was clear that all was not well.

Awkward, is perhaps the best word used to describe it.

Maini especially suffered that year, and anyone who followed F2 that season will remember his incredible tearful radio outburst at Paul Ricard.

"I swear you guys don't support me at all," Maini screeched. "I do everything every session! You can't do this to me, mate! I don't want to race in this championship anymore! Fuck this!"

Although that outburst must be considered within the context of the then new F2 car's poor reliability, it also underlined what at times had become a toxic environment at Trident.

There were rumours that security guards had to be placed within the team to keep order at the Red Bull Ring round. The F2 regulations state that only 12 people are allowed to work on each car, so two people in the Trident garage that weekend looked fairly out of place...

"The guy is trying to make a career and in the end we don't want to pull the rug under his feet"Gunther Steiner

Ferrucci then proceeded to indulge in a well-publicised series of events at Silverstone.

The lead-in to that was, as Autosport sources indicate, Ferrucci attempting to run with a Trump 'Make America Great Again'-themed livery, which was immediately rejected as the FIA does not permit political slogans to appear on cars.

By now, the Silverstone events are pretty well known.

On track, at multiple points throughout the weekend, there was wheelbanging between the Trident pair, which ended with Ferrucci deliberately crashing into Maini on the cooldown lap after the sprint race.

Earlier, he had driven from the F2 paddock to the main F1 pits without his gloves on and - again, as indicated by Autosport sources - he broadcasted part of this journey on Snapchat. The misdemeanour of driving without gloves earned him a €60,000 fine, and, allied to smashing into Maini, he was subsequently given a two-round ban.

Ferrucci wasn't present for the hearing over his offences as he "had to leave for the airport to catch an early afternoon flight back to the US to attend an extremely urgent time-sensitive family medical issue".

Rumours circulated that Ferrucci was late on his bills at this point; Trident got lawyers involved, and the team elected to drop the driver for the remainder of the season, with Ferrucci moving to IndyCar with Dale Coyne Racing shortly afterwards.

A camera placed on Ferrucci's car overnight after the Silverstone feature race gave the FIA all the evidence it needed to sanction the driver. Perhaps the most amazing part of the whole saga, though, is that after an evaluation period, the Haas Formula 1 team elected not to drop its junior.

Considering the weight of evidence of his sins, it seemed a bizarre decision from the team.

Haas team boss Gunther Steiner said in August 2018: "We will see what he is going to do in IndyCar and stay with that one. The guy is trying to make a career and in the end we don't want to pull the rug under his feet."

After the Silverstone incidents, Trident issued a tweet saying it would show "solidarity and support to Arjun Maini and his family, for the unsportsmanlike and above all uncivilised behaviour that he was forced to endure not only during this last weekend by Santino Ferrucci and [his] father, who accompanied him".

Back in 2019, I remember almost choking on my peppermint tea while watching an IndyCar race after hearing this paraphrased comment from a high-profile IndyCar TV presenter: "Ferrucci may have been hard-done-to during his time in Europe..."

Ferrucci of course shouldn't be vilified for the rest of his career, in the same way Dan Ticktum shouldn't be still slammed for crashing into Ricky Collard during a safety-car period in a MSA Formula race in 2015. We all make mistakes, and Ferrucci apologised for his lapse.

Ferrucci has rebounded in the best possible way and it's good to see a junior driver learn from mistakes. But it's a shame his actions affected another driver

"I want to send my sincerest apologies for my actions on Sunday at the FIA F2 race at Silverstone Circuit," Ferrucci posted on Twitter.

"I used extremely poor judgement at the conclusion of the race getting far too close to my team-mate Arjun Maini and swerved away only to graze his tyre, very fortunately causing no damage or issue to his car.

"There was no intent, premeditation or any type of retaliation by my actions, only anger and frustration as this has been a horrific year.

"I have no excuse other than the fact that I am a 20-year-old Italian American with a deep passion for motorsport, which is a very emotional sport. While there has been much provocation leading to my mental lapse, it is still not an excuse and I will make sure that this does not happen again.

"I realise I have embarrassed many people and I apologise to my sponsors, Trident, my fellow drivers, Haas F1, FIA, FIA F2, my fans, friends and family."

But to declare Ferrucci hard-done-to is laughable. Perhaps it was more symptomatic of how closely some in America follow junior single-seater racing in Europe.

Not only did Ferrucci get off lightly - he could have raced again in 2018 had Trident allowed him back after his ban, and he later contested two IndyCar rounds - he bounced back and scored a full-time IndyCar drive again with Coyne the following year.

If that's hard-done-to, my experience of motorsport doesn't tally.

I always found Ferrucci a pleasant and polite driver to deal with during the 2018 season. He's served his time, so to speak, apologised and reset. I'm glad he's had the chance at a fresh start and he made the most of it as part of an impressive IndyCar youngster class last year. But he was also responsible for his actions.

He's rebounded in the best possible way and it's good to see a junior driver learn from his mistakes. But when such actions affect another driver that's a little harder to forgive.