The telephone call that reached Eddie Irvine as he checked in at Kuala Lumpur airport carried news that would define one of Formula 1's most surreal chapters.
The Irishman had just tasted victory at the inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix, securing Ferrari's crucial one-two finish with teammate Michael Schumacher.
Now, three hours after the chequered flag, he was being told his triumph didn't count.
Ferrari's barge-boards had been found illegal, oversized by a single centimetre. Both red cars were disqualified from the October 17, 1999, race, handing victory to Mika Hakkinen and, seemingly, the drivers' championship alongside it.
"It is nonsense," Bernie Ecclestone declared in his trademark blunt fashion, the Formula 1 supremo making no attempt to hide his disgust at the stewards' decision. "It is bad for the sport."
The disqualification transformed the championship landscape in an instant. Where Ferrari had enjoyed a four-point lead heading to the final race at Suzuka, Hakkinen suddenly held an unassailable 12-point advantage with only 10 points available. McLaren, too, was confirmed constructors' champions.
The timing of the double disqualification added to the chaos. Many within the paddock had already departed Sepang, leaving team principals scrambling to coordinate responses from different time zones. Journalists faced the nightmare scenario of rewriting championship narratives on deadline.
Ecclestone's intervention was swift and pointed. The man who controlled F1's commercial operations made clear his view that such technicalities should not decide titles, stating: "The public wants to see a great finish to a great championship.
"It is a shame if the world championship could be decided by someone quite junior who has made a mistake in the factory."
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Ferrari's appeal hearing on October 23 revealed that the stewards' ruling at Sepang had been incorrect. When the barge-boards were re-examined, the FIA's five-member International Court of Appeal ruled that the dimension in question fell within an allowable 5mm tolerance.
"The court of appeal has decided to overturn the decision of the stewards and therefore the original result of the race stands in its entirety," International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley said.
The reversal was complete and definitive. Irvine and Schumacher were "exonerated", as said by the former, and reinstated to their original finishing positions, returning Ferrari's four-point championship leads and setting up the Suzuka showdown everyone had originally anticipated.
"It was a pure technical matter that the car was legal all along, which is fantastic," Irvine said. "I didn't want people to think that it was political, it was business, or any of that sort of carry on that got us reinstated."
Ferrari's chairman Luca di Montezemolo said the ruling "acknowledged that our cars were perfectly normal". He said the decision also "silenced many unfair interpretations which displeased us so much".
For one week, Hakkinen had been world champion. Then he wasn't. The McLaren driver found himself thrust back into a title fight he thought he'd already won, forced to prepare mentally for a decisive race while Ferrari celebrated their vindication.
Not everyone welcomed the reversal. McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said it was "a bad day for the sport".
He said: "A way has been found... to provide a reason for the appeal to be upheld. Everybody wants to have an exciting race in Japan, but I think that the price we have paid is too great."
Ultimately, however, when the dust settled at Suzuka on October 31, Hakkinen claimed his second consecutive title with victory, while Irvine finished third.
Ferrari secured the constructors' championship, but the Irishman's individual quest fell short by two points.
As for the motorsport governing body, the measurement error prompted the FIA to overhaul its technical inspection procedures.
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