Team orders, anyone?
Fernando Alonso won a very contentious German Grand Prix at Hockenheim yesterday. The Spaniard was given the lead of the race by his team mate Philipe Massa after a coded message was relayed to him over the pit radio. This breaking of the rules gave interest to an otherwise boring race (bring back the old layout, I say).
Sebastien Vettel came third (and probably happy to be a bit part player after Silverstone), with Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button a distant fourth and fifth. Marc Webber, hamstrung by oil consumption problems, rounded out the top six. Oh, and Mercedes were awful. They'd have been better off using one their vans! The days of Schumacher dominating all he surveyed are now very distant.
Team orders are nothing new and were never seen to be wrong until that infamous day in 2002, when Ferrari management ordered Rubens Barrichello to let Michael Schumacher through to take the win on the last corner. Barrichello had been inspired all weekend bested his German team mate in the race, yet was expected to slow right down and let him through. It was such an obvious and cynical move that the FIA banned team orders.
Unfortunately that was a knee-jerk reaction and now stops team managers from being able to give orders to their drivers. A simple order to instruct the number two driver to keep his position behind the team leader to maximise their championship chances, is no longer allowed. So through the utter cynicism and disregard for sportsmanlike behaviour, the Ferrari team got an important part of team management banned, therefore making it a underhand practice.
And yesterday it came back to bite them on the backside.
