Smells like Team Spirit

Just when Formula One thought the 2010 season couldn't get anymore farcical or controversial, following team disagreements between Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, Brits Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button at McClaren Mercedes, and Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing, the spectre of team orders reared it's ugly head again, and raised a whole new debate about the controversial and hard-to-govern rules concerning the outlawing of team orders. Ferrari have been fined $100,000 after coded messages saw Alonso overtake Massa to to win the German grand prix at Hoffenheim yesterday, to move to within 34 points of Hamilton at the top of the driver's championship. Above all, this is unlikely to foster a united team atmosphere in the divisive Ferrari paddock, but, in the grander scheme of things, it has divided opinion in the sport. A series of incidents around the turn of the century resulted in the Formula One governing body the FIA introducing this new law, the most famous being when Ferrari blatantly ordered Rubens Barrichello to allow teammate Michael Schumacher to overtake him and help the German win the championship, in Austria in 2002. There were two incidents in the late 1990s, when McClaren forced David Coulthard to move aside for Mika Hakkinen to pass him and win two world championships, while Jordan told Ralf Schumacher not to race Damon Hill for the race lead in Belgium in 1998.
The tipping point was the Schumacher senior-Barrichello episode, which forced the FIA to try and combat this lack of sporting competition. If Schumacher was the better driver on the day, he should not have needed Barrichello to move aside, and the same could be said of Alonso and Massa in Germany yesterday. The worst part of it all is that Ferrari thought they were above these regulations by trying to cloak their decision to make it look like it was a decision on behalf of Massa. The Brazilian was leading with 18 laps remaining, when his team engineer Rob Smedley said over the radio, 'Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understand?' Moments later, Alonso overtook his teammate and the rest of the race turned into a procession.
Former Jordan team boss Eddie Jordan was one of those who was disgusted by Ferrari's actions. Never one to be outspoken, the venerable Jordan said, 'every team has to have team orders now and they are just cloaked over with a guise. Ferrari thought they were above the regulations and yesterday they found out they weren't. It was a nonsense and the way they handled things was appalling.' Since the regulations came into place, there have been a number of attempts for teams to cover up attempts to give their drivers team orders. In Monaco in 2007, McClaren ordered Hamilton not to challenge Alonso for the race win; in Brazil of the same year, Ferrari (yes, them again) manipulated Massa's pit-stop to put Kimi Raikkonen into the lead and allowed the Finn to win the championship; the following year, Heikki Kovalainen let Hamilton through to win in Germany following an error in team tactics while Renault ordered Nelson Piquet junior to crash so a safety car period would ensue, which allowed Alonso to win the race in Singapore.
All of this should sit a little uneasy for someone who. Sport should be decided on the field (or track) of play, not on the sidelines or in the paddocks. That is why drug cheats and match-fixers are so abhorred in the world of professional sport. It gives a distorted look to the championship standings - if Alonso was faster than Massa, then surely he would have overtaken him anyway in the remaining 18 laps, and didn't need the assistance of his bosses. The same can be said for any driver who has driven a splendid race, only to be told they have to let their teammate win due to their respective standings in those prospective teams.
This is an issue which is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Although Ferrari have been fined, such a figure for such a rich team is small change, and the result of the race still stands, so the Italian team have achieved their objective. In that light, it is not surprising they have decided not to appeal the decision (although they still protest their innocence.) Although Massa claims it was his personal decision, I doubt any professional sportsman would willingly step aside to allow his teammate to win the particular contest, even if they were best of friends away from the field of play (which Massa and Alonso clearly aren't). McClaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh plans to hold private talks with Ferrari to discuss the incident, but he has already stated Hamilton and Alonso are free to race against each other irrespective of the particular situations.
With such high stakes, teams will go to any lengths to achieve their aims if they think they can get away with it. The regulations need to be tighter. This has to be a pressing issue for the FIA, if similar incidents are going to be prevented from happening. As Whitmarsh said, with tongue very much in cheek, 'this was not a new approach from Ferrari, was it?' No it wasn't but hopefully it will soon be an old approach so the focus is on events on the track, not off it.