In the long history of Formula 1, team orders have always existed and many teams have made use of them, in a more or less obvious way. Few cases, however, have had a greater media coverage than that which occurred during thel 2010 German GP between Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso, teammates in Ferrari at the time.
The context – On 25 July 2010, the 11th GP of the season took place in Germany, on the Hockenheim track. The championship includes 19 rounds and, after the Silverstone race, the title race seems to be an internal affair for the four drivers of McLaren and Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton leads the world championship with 12 points over teammate Jenson Button. Behind them are the standard bearers of the Milton Keynes team: Mark Webber (at -17) and Sebastian Vettel (at -24 from the top). The ‘first of the others’ is Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, 47 points behind Hamilton.
The race – The Asturian at Silverstone saw the race ruined by a controversial penalty against him and fell back in the general classification. On German soil, however, Ferrari flies. Alonso loses pole position on Saturday by just two thousandths, while Massa is an excellent third. The Brazilian, however, does his true masterpiece at the start, when he uses the space left by Vettel – intent on crushing the Asturian against the wall – to take command of the race. Alonso, however, despite Vettel’s closure ‘a la Schumacher’, manages to pass the German at the first corner, finishing second behind his boxmate. After the first stop we understand that the victory will be an all-red question, but – according to the classification – the ‘wrong’ Ferrari is winning. Massa has no longer won a GP from Brazil in 2008 and in between there was also the dramatic accident in Budapest 2009. Allowing the Brazilian to play his cards would perhaps be ‘morally’ right, but there is a need to try a comeback. in the standings with Alonso, all the more so since the two McLarens are behind, fourth and fifth.
The team-order – Alonso tries to take the position on the track on a couple of occasions. The conformation of the new Hockenheim, however, is not a friend of overtaking. Thus the former Renault begins to open up via radio. “I am much faster than Felipe“, the message. Rob Smedley, the Brazilian’s track engineer, invites Massa to increase his pace, but Alonso does not detach himself from the rear of his box mate. At this point Smedley always addresses to Massa five words destined to make people discuss for years: “Fernando is faster than you“. Shortly after, Massa slows down and lets Alonso pass. A full-fledged team order – despite the clumsy denials of the Ferrari top management – like dozens of them before and after. The problem is that in those years the team orders, by regulation, were illegal. In fact, after the Austria 2002 crime, it was decided to prevent teams from ‘altering’ the outcome of a match by exchanging positions. Obviously, however, this is a question that is ‘in fact’ impossible to regulate.
The after – The race ends like this: Ferrari double, with Alonso ahead of Massa, and Vettel third. Behind them Hamilton and Button. The Spaniard recovers 13 points on the top of the standings and moves to -34 from Hamilton. The FIA opens an investigation and the press – the British one on everyone – ferociously attacks Alonso and Ferrari. Also emerges the hypothesis of a five-second penalty for Alonso and the cancellation of the points for the constructors’ classification at Ferrari. The decision of the Federation and the commissioners, however, is not to change the order of arrival of the race. Il Cavallino is found guilty, yes, but the penalty is only economic: a fine of 100 thousand dollars. Paradoxically, indeed, the rule that bans team orders is definitively removed because “Difficult to enforce“.
- Are there any other controversial team orders that you remember and want to report to us? Do it in the comments section!
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