Formula One - Ferrari lash out at Lauda's comments
Formula one team Ferrari have come out with a strong response over the criticism by Niki Lauda following the Team Orders controversy.
Lauda who is a former Ferrari driver said that his former team acted against the spirit of the game and should be dealt with seriously by the World Motor sport Council in the hearing next month.
The incident in question took place in the German Grand Prix, when Ferrari’s Brazilian driver Felipe Massa was leading the race. With just few laps to go there was a coded message on the team radio by the team Engineer. The message said “Felipe, Fernando is much faster than you, do you understand”, Massa replied by slowing down and letting his team mate Fernando Alonso through. The team radio was on again and a 2nd message was conveyed to Massa “good lad, sorry Felipe”. Although nothing clear cut was said but it does not take a genius to understand what was going on there. Ferrari clearly thought that Alonso has the best chance of winning the world title and hence wanted him to win the race by getting maximum points in the race.
The incident raised a lot of controversy and fingers were pointed towards Ferrari from all corners. Race Stewards also did not welcome the incident and imposed a maximum fine on the team of 100, 000 US dollars. The Stewards said that the Team Orders rules were breached and referred the case to the World Motor Sport Council.
Ferrari would now appear in the hearing in front of WMSC on 8th September. That is just 4 days ahead of the Grand Prix in Italy, a home race for Ferrari.
The 3-time world champion with Ferrari Lauda has been by far the biggest critic of Ferrari since the incident. The Italian team on their official website have replied to Lauda’s comments and said that he is being hypocritical.
The statement on the web page read that after the Hockenhein Grand Prix all the pundits and experts decided to add their 2 cents to the race. It went on to say that one critic in particular from Australia who has been part of the team, and indulged himself in such activities in the past has been at the forefront of it all. Ferrari team said that when Niki was part of the team, the same strategies used to suit and favour him so he never raised any concerns over it. And now that he is out, he has taken the opportunity to criticise his former team.
The statement went on to say that, as far as the suggestion from Niki is concerned that WMSC should punish Ferrari heavily, it should be left to the respected council to decide what should be done, rather than making personal suggestions.
Team Ferrari has obviously been bombarded with such words from all across the board, but coming from a former driver has prompted the team to respond in more aggressive manner.
However, this is not the first time Ferrari has been accused of such team orders. Almost a decade ago, it was Michael Schumacher who was the beneficiary of such orders. Rubins Barichello was told by the pit crew to slow down and give way to Michael. He ended up winning the race and the world title that year, but faced criticism all over. It was after that particular incident that FIA decided to review the team orders rule book and new clauses were added. Now all rests on the hearing on 8th of September, where Ferrari could be facing a deduction of points, or even a race ban.
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