Eddie Jordan wants the order rule taken off form F1
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the win by Fernando Alonso at the German Grand Prix; Ferrari ordered Felipe Massa to make way for Alonso and got fined a hefty amount. It is not just the amount but the bad publicity it gave to Ferrari and will harm the team in the long run.
Eddie Jordan, a former team owner in F1, has said the rule that forbids the teams to give orders to the drivers that affect the race should be taken off.
The rule was put into place in 2002, and it was the same team Ferrari that instigated the rule change. They had Rubens Barichello and Michel Schumacher driving for the team. In that instance Barichello was instructed to make way for Michael Schumacher and similarly the team and Schumacher did come under severe criticism and eventually the rule was put in place.
Jordan said the rule does not make any sense, he said that the teams need to appeal for this rule to be taken off.
However, his opinions are not really shared by all teams on the circuit; Red Bull chief Christian Horner was one of many to heavily criticise the tactics of Ferrari. Schumacher meanwhile was in support of his former team, and said that every team should have the power to influence its own drivers and that is legitimate as far as he is concerned.
The financial ban imposed by the stewards may not be the end of story for Ferrari. The fine of 100,000 US dollars was the maximum amount that they could have been fined, but the stewards have also referred Ferrari to the sport’s governing body FIA. Further investigations may result in more punishment for the team, that can range anywhere from deducting points to banning the team from a race.
Ferrari though remained firm in their stance at the German Grand Prix. The team said that it was a driver decision, but still did not choose to appeal the fine.
Jordan, the founder of Jordan Grand Prix, said that while he was in charge of his team there he gave a lot of similar orders. He added that things like these are part of the game and should not be banned. Jordan went on to say that whatever a team does between the two drivers is the team’s decision as it is the team benefit that is in the big picture.
Jordan went on to say that the decision to take this rule away from F1 has to be taken to the world council.
However Jordan did criticise Ferrari for their approach and said Ferrari was wrong. He said they way they tried to influence the race was not appropriate and that they could have done the same thing a lot more swiftly.
Felipe Massa was leading the race and just 18 laps were left; that is when Rob Smedley, the race engineer for Ferrari, got on the team radio and told Massa that Alonso is faster than him.
The Engineer repeated himself by saying do you understand; soon Massa slowed down and let Alonso through on turn 6.
Jordan said that he understands that Ferrari think of Alonso as their main title contender, but the way they handled the situation was appalling. He added that he expected a lot better from a seasoned team like Ferrari.
The incident has once again spurred up the debate of favouritism in teams. At Silverstone Mark Webber won the race but just before qualifying the front wing was taken off from his car and replaced to Hamilton’s. Later the team boss Horner said that was because Hamilton was ahead on points, but ironically Webber took the lead afterwards.
The incident at German Grand Prix is surely not to go down so easily, and there will be repercussions to follow before the next Grand Prix in Hungary.
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