Controversial Finish to German Grand Prix, all eyes on FIA Chief Jean Todt
Yesterday's German Grand Prix, half way through the Formula 1 season, was marred by controversy. The finish seemed to be engineered by Ferrari to let Fernando Alonso win after he had been second for almost the entirety of the race. Felipe Massa was asked in coded words to let his teammate and fellow Ferrari driver pass him and win the race. A similar situation was seen in 2002 when Ferrari did the same thing with its two drivers, Schumacher and Barrichello which led to the banning of team orders. But it seems they never went away. Are team orders really that bad, do they take something away from F1 and should they have been banned in the first place?
Even though the German Grand Prix was a very exciting race, the ending ruined it for a lot of people. Fans do not like to see manufactured results and what they would rather see is a fight to the finish even if it is between teammates. With 18 laps to go to the end of the race, Felipe Massa was instructed in code words to let Fernando Alonso pass him and win the race. The race engineer for Ferrari, Rob Smedley, told Massa that Alonso was faster than him and asked him to confirm that he understood. When Massa let Alonso pass, Smedley was heard to say something along the lines of good lad, and that he was sorry. This was the most blatant giving of team orders that has been witnessed since the controversy of 2002 again involving Ferrari. A lot of questions followed the race, was it legal for Ferrari to do what it did, should Massa have given up his spot or should the fans have been treated to a fight to the finish? We will never know the answer to these questions but we do know that even the race stewards thought the conversation between engineer and driver were team orders.
Race stewards fined Ferrari $100,000 after the race because they felt that clear team orders had been issued by the team to Massa. The results of the race were not affected so it seems Ferrari’s ploy worked and even though they got fined, they got what they wanted at the end of the day. But it may turn sour for them yet because the matter has been referred to the governing body of Formula 1, the FIA. Will it matter though, because yesterday’s race was ruined and fans did not get to see the fight for first place they had expected. Ferrari has vehemently denied that they gave team orders and are now saying that it was Massa’s decision to let Alonso pass. This seemed to be all covering up by the team after the fact had taken place because one look at Massa’s face during the press conference said it all, he felt like he had been robbed of a win and he clearly felt like the number 2 driver in his team.
There are some who think that there is nothing wrong with a team giving orders to its drivers because both drivers work for a team and it should be up to the team to decide who they want to promote and who they think has a better chance of winning the overall leadership on points. People think that Massa was clearly the second tier driver to Alonso and they think he should have come second. While this is a bit unfair, maybe Massa is the second tier driver but he will always stay the second tier driver unless he is able to win some races and has the backing of his team. While team orders seem all set to continue, maybe the FIA should take some stricter action like they did in 2002.
In the Austrian GP of 2002, Ferrari gave clear team orders to Rubens Barrichello to give the lead to Schumacher which he did at the very last turn. This prompted outrage from the fans and Schumacher was booed at the podium and the team was fined $1million as a result of it. This controversy also led to the banning of team orders by the FIA but they continue to happen to this day. It is unlikely that anything will change though because the current FIA boss is Jean Todt, the same man who in 2002 was the boss of Ferrari and who gave the orders to Barrichello to give the win to Schumacher. So if the same man who gave team orders in 2002 is the current president of the FIA he is not going to be very objective is he?
Well it seems that team orders are all set to continue well into the future of F1. How much they ruin the sport is debatable but it does ruin the experience for the fans who want to see drivers giving it their all and fighting for their wins and not being handed wins on a silver platter. Yesterday’s race may have soured the sport in some people’s eyes but we can all hope that the controversy is behind us and the rest of the season is a fantastic one.
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