Ferrari and the German Grand Prix Fiasco: Aftermath of the Felipe Massa – Fernando Alonso Team Order
Observing two first-rate racers and a team boss, along with others, concocting tales around Formula One regulation 39.1, which rules against team orders, and the German Grand prix scenario, was for many extremely frustrating and agonising.
There is no doubt Ferrari were eager on Fernando Alonso triumphing at this Grand Prix; it’s the Italian giant’s only opportunity to glean something meaningful from the 2010 campaign.
The team just got back onto its feet after three disappointing races, and Alonso was leading Massa by 21 points having been racing palpably better than the recuperating South American for much of this season so far. It is therefore understandable that Ferrari would have wanted Alonso to win in Germany. Similar would have been the philosophy of any other title contending squad on the circuit.
The question on many lips, however, is why on earth a team of Ferrari’s stature managed its affairs so disastrously in Germany. Pundits remain almost universally united on the view that Ferrari’s all thumbs conduct ensures they merit all that is dumped at them.
Of course, Ferrari could not have foreseen that Massa would outperform Alonso; otherwise they would have commandeered and directed the whole act much more expertly. The spectators and press are not so easily fooled.
The radio communications which the public heard were quite damnatory. Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley began, like always, by inspiring his Brazilian charge to go faster and faster. And then he relayed the fatal directive which the world at large comprehended to mean Alonso should be allowed the lead.
The move finally transpired on Lap 49, and Massa’s manner of going about it betrayed quite obviously what was actually happening. The Brazilian driver should have either defied those team orders or made his move with greater assuredness.
In the aftermath of the Germany saga, veteran Formula One driver Martin Brundle asserted that in his time as a racer, he had seen a great deal of the team orders scenario, and that his categorical recommendation to all well-recognised drivers was to merely disregard the appeal, take the victory, and tackle the repercussions afterwards. Otherwise, the driver’s self-regard and semblance in the public eye will be destroyed.
Regulation 39.1 was wrought in 2002 in the aftermath of team orders issued by Ferrari in Austria, which ultimately contrived to hand Michael Schumacher the lead from teammate Rubens Barrichello. Back then, team orders were recognized as a legacy of the sports history and a well-practiced manoeuvre of two-driver F1 squads.
There are multiple ways a racer may be reckoned to be aided or discriminated against within a squad owing to assessment runs, components supply, expertise of workers on each vehicle, fuel volumes, pit stops and an abundance of other factors involved in racing a Grand Prix machine the world over.
Over the decades, there have been plentiful instances of one driver supporting his teammate and Grand Prix and championship titles have been bagged or forfeited.
In 2007, Massa embarked on a “long” pit stop at the Brazilian Grand Prix to assist Kimi Raikkonen in clinching the 2007 championship title. Eddie Irvine supported Schumacher at Ferrari in 1999 when his German teammate could have been put out of the title contention after suffering a broken leg.
The $100,000 fine handed to Ferrari by the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) means that the squad is now officially culpable of contravening the rules. For sure, the World Motor Sport Council, to whom the case has now been forwarded to, can further raise the price to Ferrari of its ineptly handled German campaign. FIA head Jean Todt was the long serving principal of the Ferrari squad and his son Nicolas Todt is currently managing Felipe Massa, the man at the centre of the “team order-gate” controversy. The Hungarian Grand Prix is now just around the corner, and by the time the World Council convenes, Hockenheim will be a tale of the past.
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