My Thoughts on the Ferrari/Germany Debacle

This week has seen more talk from the Ferrari camp labelling the other teams “hypocrites” with regards to the German GP debacle. Oddly, this time the comments are from team boss Stefano Domenicali rather than the more eccentric chairman Luca di Montezemolo and this gives them a certain credibility that was lacking originally. The fact is though, that I believe Ferrari are right. I think that they were right to swap their cars and they are right to call the other teams’ hypocrites and here are some case studies as to why:

1. Brazil 2007 – Felipe Massa was given a ‘long’ pitstop which allowed team mate Kimi Raikkonen to win the race and therefore the championship.

2. Germany 2008 – Heikki Kovalainen moved over for Lewis Hamilton so that the eventual champion could claim an extra 4 points (as he easily closed up and overtook leader Nelson Piquet Jr.). As Hamilton won the title by a single point, these points proved invaluable.

3. China 2006 – Fisichella allowed Alonso past for second place so that the Spaniard could minimise the points lost to race winner Michael Schumacher.

In each of the above cases a move was expected which is why no one had any problems with them (despite all of them occurring since the ban of team orders in 2002). However, I put the case that in each of the above the moves interfered with the result of not only the respective race but also the Championship in each of those years thereby directly contravening rule 39.1 which states that “team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited”. So why was no one reprimanded?

I believe that this is because each of the above was done to help the (only) member of the team that could win the title – this is why we (the viewers) were expecting the moves and didn’t mind them too much. In Germany this year, Massa was still (mathematically) in the hunt.

However, this isn’t the only situation this year where teams have attempted to manipulate the results – the prime example is Turkey.

At Istanbul the Red Bulls collided because the team told Webber to turn his engine revs down to try and allow Vettel to win. Technically, if Vettel had won it would have been down to team orders and also had that order not been made then the team mates probably wouldn’t have collided (thusly whichever way you look at it Red Bull interfered with the probable race result). At the same race, Hamilton was told to take it easy and Button closed up (and passed) – whilst I think this wasn’t down to team preference, Lewis was definitely told that Jenson wouldn’t attack so either McLaren only gave Lewis an order or they gave both drivers an order which arguably means they interfered.

The same goes for Silverstone. Consider the fact that Red Bull controversially swapped the front wings on Webber and Vettel’s cars. If Vettel had won that race could it have been put down to team orders?

So, whilst Ferrari may have been heavy handed in the way they dealt with Massa, I certainly believe that Alonso is the only chance the Scuderia have of winning a title this year and the extra 5 points he gained could be invaluable. Furthermore, given the aforementioned incidents with Red Bull and McLaren, they are right to accuse the others of hypocrisy too.