Formula One: Ferrari given a date for Team Order hearing, following the controversy at the German Grand Prix
Ferrari have been given a date for their hearing in front of World Motor Sport Council disciplinary committee, following the team orders controversy at the German Grand Prix. The team will appear in the hearing 4 days before the next race, which is the Italian Grand Prix next month.
Team Ferrari were also fined 100,000 Dollars following the incident. The incident in question took place at the Hockenheim track in Germany, when Ferrari’s Brazilian driver Felipe Massa was leading the race, and was given a coded message from the pit crew to let Alonso through.
Felipe Massa was well on his was to win the race, when the team engineer got on the radio and insinuated, in so many words that, Alonso is faster than you.. Do you understand? Massa few moments later slowed down and let Alonso through. The Spaniard ended up winning the race but there was immense criticism after the race against Ferrari from all corners.
FIA the governing body for Formula One has said that the hearing will take place on 8th of September in Paris. Ferrari can face some serious punishments if found guilty, the team can be docked points or even face a race ban. The worst outcome of the punishments can be exclusion from this year’s championship.
A rule in the Formula One book that is article 39.1 clearly states that, “any order from a team during a race is prohibited, that interfere directly with the race results.”
There is another rule in article 151.c which states, “Any foul play by the team that hampers the interest of the competition or is against the ethics of Motorsport can be punished.”
The fine of 100,000 Dollars that Ferrari were handed in Germany is the maximum amount that the race Stewards are allowed to fine. Later the Stewards referred the case to the sport’s governing body.
When Massa made way for Alonso and his team mate went ahead of him, the team Engineer Smedley once again got on the Radio and said, "Good lad. Just stick with it now, sorry."
It clearly meant that there was a thought process behind the decision, which was to enable Alonso to win the race.
After the race, the whole team stood by the decision and said that there was nothing illegal about the team orders given on the radio. Team principal Stefano Domenicali said that it is within the rules to order the team driver to facilitate his team mate. He added that the Stewards were out of line and the sport’s governing body will understand the incident much better.
This is not the first time that Ferrari has been involved in a team orders controversy. 8 years ago in 2002, in the Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens Barichello and Michael Schumacher were racing for Ferrari. The team principal at the time Jean Todt, ordered Barichello on team radio to give way to Schumacher and just as Alonso did, Michael managed to win the race but faced huge criticism after the race.
Todt is now the President of FIA, and that may have helped Ferrari’s case but he will not be chairing the hearing and instead his deputy president Nick Craw will take his position.
After the race when Massa was asked about the incident he said, that there was nothing wrong with it, and Alonso passed him on merit. When asked if he was robbed of a chance to win the race, the Brazilian said that all he wants is the team to prosper and is happy with what happened. Alonso, meanwhile looked awkward and embarrassed, and there was certainly more than what met the eye. The hearing is sure to be a very important one and would determine the charges that Ferrari would face, following the well documented controversy.
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