A brake check, also known as a brake test, occurs when a driver deliberately either taps on the brakes several times or slams hard on the pedal when moving in front of another vehicle, with the intention of causing the behind driver to either collide or take evasive action.[1] The term is often applied in the context of auto racing.[1]
In most jurisdictions of the world, brake checking is often considered a crime and falls under laws pertaining to reckless driving, aggressive driving, or stunt driving.[citation needed] The Washington State Department of Licensing includes brake checking as a symptom of aggressive driving.[2] Legal experts in Ontario consider it to fall under that province's stunt driving laws.[3] Chatham-Kent Ontario Provincial Police charged a man in 2018 with the crime of Race a motor vehicle after being observed brake checking another driver on Highway 401.[4]
The concept of brake checking is often seen in auto racing, with several drivers being accused of, or admitting to, brake checking competitors for various reasons. An incident in the 2017 Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel was attributed to Vettel's belief that he had been brake checked by Hamilton.[5]
At the 2006 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, NASCAR driver Robby Gordon brake checked Michael Waltrip during a caution period in what was seen as retaliation for contact both made earlier in the race and for an incident that occurred between the two the year prior at the same track. The stoppage caved in the nose and radiator of Waltrip's car, leaving him stranded in the middle of the backstretch with fluid leaking onto the track.[6]
In 2018, an on-track incident between NASCAR drivers Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin at the spring Martinsville Speedway race ended in what Autoweek's Matt Weaver described as, "Harvick...slamming on his brakes, the resulting contact severely damaging the nose on Hamlin’s Toyota." Hamlin would later comment, "I probably should have brake-checked him in the first place."[7]
In 2021, at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen brake checked Lewis Hamilton after Verstappen was asked to give a place back for previously overtaking Hamilton off track. Red Bull Racing’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey said “I think he got frustrated with Lewis not overtaking him but he still shouldn’t have brake-tested him.”[8]