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!!!

I really don’t understand how a fine is a penalty in this case. Ferrari have exactly the result they wanted and it cost them peanuts.

I never really objected to team orders when they were normal but they are illegal and should stay illegal. Anyone who objected to that rule has had years to try and have it altered but now Ferrari have been penalised for it all of a sudden it is a bad rule.

This incident follows hot on the heels of Ferrari’s abuse of the filming day rule to test new parts on the car. 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.

So, let’s decide once and for all that F1 really is a team sport and a team sport alone – it’s the team that calls the shots and the drivers, while important cogs in that team machine, are no more important than other the cogs – designers, engineers, technicians, managers and so on – who pool their talents to win or lose each GP and each season, and yet are not individually lauded for their efforts with separate championships. They mark their balance of profit and loss solely by the Constructors’ Championship table. Why should the drivers be any different?

Good point – something that needs to be factored into any rational discussion of this issue at the rule-making level.