Genuinely banning team orders is impossible. Even if you do, there’s nothing to stop a team strategising (or accidentally forgetting to bring out the tyres) one car in front of the other. So personally there should be set guidelines as to when team orders are allowed and when they’re not as opposed to the current ‘not allowed’ rules stance.

I agree. The practice is as old as the sport itself. Austria 2002 was obviously cynical and unsporting, so a few guidelines or a punishment could be implemented for that type of behaviour. Having orders banned will just mean that we’ll continue having daft incidents like we saw at Hockenheim.

The problem here is similar to Austria 2002, where it can easily be argued that it wasn’t necessary. The big difference between the two is that this time, Alonso was trying to catch up rather than have Schumacher’s gigantic lead.

My biggest problem is Ferrari’s denial. They then went on about it being ‘right’ and ‘just’ and various other pompous words their media department could come up with. All of which neatly ignored that it was against the rules.

Genuinely banning team orders is impossible. Even if you do, there’s nothing to stop a team strategising (or accidentally forgetting to bring out the tyres) one car in front of the other. So personally there should be set guidelines as to when team orders are allowed and when they’re not as opposed to the current ‘not allowed’ rules stance.

Surely if the man had any concept of consistency he should be insisting on Ferrari allowing a Brazilian equality steward into their garage to make sure Felipe gets equal treatment.

The other worrying side to all of this is that Fernando Alonso yet again is embroiled in another controversy, but is close enough to the periphery of it to wash his hands of it.

It seems as though this man has no qualms winning at any cost – he doesn’t care what happens to his reputation or his legacy so long as he wins.

As Sir Jackie Stewart says “Winning is not enough” – just because you might win all the races does not mean you are a champion if you act in an unsporting way…

So they want to drop the rule because it hasn’t actually changed behaviour. This is a bit like saying, “everybody breaks the speed limits from time to time so lets stop having them”.

To the people who made a bet I ask this question; what would have happened if Massa had “woken up with the ‘flu” and Ferrari had put another driver in the car? (Like Toyota did at the end of last season.)

You have to factor chicanery into Formula 1 results I’m afraid which is quite a sad indictment on the sport.

Thoroughly enjoyable read Stuart, especially as you tell it like it is without all the melodrama. If anything good is to come out of this maybe we will get clarification about what is and isn’t allowed as a team order, they all do it I’m sure, just some are more successful at hiding it in coded messages.

JZ :
Team orders have always been a part of the sport, and aren’t the post-Austria 2002 rules unenforceable regardless? Was everyone so up in arms when Felipe gave way to Kimi at Interlagos in 2007 to give the title to Kimi? Is the difference between then and last weekend the fact that it’s only mid-season, that it was arguably unnecessary?

Interesting few words on the comparison of 2007 Interlagos and 2010 Hockenheim on Adam Coopers blog:

One Ferrari man told me last night that Felipe understands the rules and if he doesn’t like it he can leave, just as someone else – Rubens Barrichello – did a few years ago. He pointed out that just as Massa had helped Raikkonen in 2007 so Kimi had helped Felipe in 2008.

Both those incidents of course occurred in the last or next to last races of the season. When the team order rule was introduced by Max Mosley it was made clear that it would not apply in that situation, and everyone has always understood that. The whole point was to stop this sort of thing happening in the middle of the year. Massa was (and is) still in the title fight, albeit only mathematically.

It looks like the teams and FIA should have some mutual understanding when it is OK and when it is not to orchestrate finishing order of their drivers. There perhaps is some unwritten part of the rule. If that is the case, fine. But it can only work of all the parties involved follow that unwritten part of the rule…

As for the fans who hate it, will they actually stop watching? How many of them will be able to do so? And will this outnumber the people who are just starting to watch F1?

It is time the WMSC taught Ferrari that Max has gone and they are no more important than any other team and will be treated exactly the same as any other team.

But when Gracia says that they’ve already been punished with the fine and should not be punished twice, will this really happen? It seems they do believe Ferrari is more important than all the other teams.

Speaking of checking on facts and dates of races long past, I wonder what Peter Collins’ fans thought of him giving up his car–and the championship–to Fangio at Monza in 1956? They wuz robbed, I tell ya! ROBBED!!!

They would’ve been fine with it – that was Peter’s decision, not the team’s order.

Speaking of checking on facts and dates of races long past, I wonder what Peter Collins’ fans thought of him giving up his car–and the championship–to Fangio at Monza in 1956? They wuz robbed, I tell ya! ROBBED!!!