Unless each entrant is limited to a single car, team orders will always be part of motorsport. Banning them in Formula One was an act of hypocrisy…
Max Mosley's lined face is bearing a bigger frown than usual… After Ferrari avoided further penalties over the alleged issuing of team-orders at this year's German Grand Prix, the ban imposed on such actions under Article 39.1 of the Sporting Code is to be reviewed for next season.
The controversial rule was introduced by Mosley after Rubens Barrichello was ordered to hand victory to Michael Schumacher in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix and the former FIA President, who still commands strong support in the World Motorsport Council, had called for both Ferrari drivers and the team to be stripped of the points gained at Hockenheim this year. The Council simply upheld a $100 000 dollar fine imposed by the stewards at the German race, leaving Ferrari in a position to continue to fight for both of this year's world titles.
It's about time the no team-orders rule was scrapped as it has simply brought an extra measure of hypocrisy into Formula One. Remember, Ferrari didn't actually instruct Felipe Massa to move over and hand victory to Fernando Alonso. He was simply informed that "Fernando is faster than you are". The regretful tone of the communication by race engineer Rob Smedley and Massa's body language after the finish are what prompted the guilty verdict. But in my book that makes Ferrari less hypocritical than McLaren was at the same race in 2008, when Ron Dennis used almost exactly the same words to get Heikki Kovalainen to move over for Lewis Hamilton, a strategem that arguably won the Englishman the 2008 title!
And, as far as I'm concerned, the instruction by the Red Bull team to Mark Webber to "save fuel" when co-equipier Sebastian Vettel was closing in on him was a veiled team-order anyway. The fact that this effort to subtly manipulate the result ended in a collision actually strengthens the case for opening things up.
Fact is, up to the dictum introduced by Mad Max, team orders were always among the strategic measures available to teams competing in Formula One and earlier grand prix series. It's also true that team orders have always been part of motorsport per se. Carracciola, Nuvolari, Fangio, Surtees and even Niki Lauda, who was reported as being scandalised by the events in Germany, all benefited from team orders during their illustrious careers.
So, unless each entrant is limited to fielding only a single car, team orders will always be there. The choice is simply between driving them "underground" and bringing them into the open.