By Graham Duxbury
Formula One from the Inside
Damned if you do,
damned if you don’t
Graham Duxbury is a former
racing driver, champion and TV
commentator. He is featured in
the Hall of Fame at the Daytona
Motor Speedway in the USA.
Here, in 1984, he made history
by winning the famous 24-hour
sports car race in an all-South
African team, partnered by Sarel
van der Merwe and Tony Martin.
‘Team orders’ are currently two of the most emotive words in the Formula
One lexicon. Race fans are divided on whether a team should be able to
decide the outcome of a race based on orders from the pits, or if drivers
should compete with no holds barred.
A
t the Belgian Grand Prix this year,
the Mercedes-Benz team came
face-to-face with the dilemma. By
permitting their drivers, Lewis Hamilton
and Nico Rosberg, to race unfettered by
team orders they allowed the pair to ‘have
at it’ with dire consequences. Their much
publicised ‘touch’ on the second lap which resulted in a puncture for Lewis and
a damaged front wing for Nico - effectively
handed the race victory to Red Bull’s
Daniel Ricciardo.
In stark contrast, team orders are implicit at
Ferrari where a hierarchy – either imposed
or natural – has always seemed to exist
between the Italian team’s drivers. During
the Michael Schumacher championshipwinning era (2000 - 2004), fans became
bored and frustrated as the two red cars
often circulated in formation at the head of
the field with Rubens Barrichello playing a
dutiful number-two role.
However, at the Austrian GP of 2002, a
possibly-disgruntled Rubens left it to the
last possible minute to heed the team’s call
to back-off and let Michael pass for the win.
His obvious manoeuvre, within sight of the
finish line and the chequered flag, certainly
smacked of frustration and was loudly
jeered by fans who derided the cynical
execution of Ferrari’s order.
Bowing to pressure from all quarters, F1’s
governing body (ineffectively) outlawed
team orders as of the 2003 season.
They were thereafter surreptitiously
delivered behind closed doors or in code.
In the 2010 German GP at Hockenheim,
Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley radioed this
brusque but all-too-obvious message to
his driver Felipe Massa who was leading
the race: “Fernando [Alonso] is faster than
you. Can you confirm you understand that
message?” Massa then allowed his teammate to overtake and win. After the race
Ferrari were fined $100,000 for breaching
the ‘team orders’ rule, but the race result
was allowed to stand. The ban on team
orders was then quietly lifted as r V