Team orders in F1 can turn ugly

My seven-year old son Luis is an avid sports fan. On the way to school he grabs the sports pages and from the confines of his safety seat reads out scores and headlines — our very own newsreader.

This Monday, after the Malaysian Grand Prix, as is his custom he read out the headlines. But this time around he had some of his own questions:

Lalu: Hmmm, Vettel won but he is in trouble and he is apologising for what, Papa?

Me: He was not supposed to have overtaken Webber.

Lalu: But why must he not overtake? On TV he looked faster and when he got past he pulled away.

Me: He was told by his team not to challenge Webber because the team wanted to finish one-two in the race.

Lalu: But they did finish one-two, so what was the problem?

Me: There were team orders which Vettel ignored…

Lalu: (Long pause) I thought it was supposed to be a race.

Team orders in F1 are as old as the sport itself. In the past the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio were designated number one drivers and if his car broke down, a second or third team driver would be called into the pits, hop out of the car and would hand it over to Fangio to complete the race.

Of course swapping of cars won’t happen in the modern era, but team orders have always been, and will be, around. It is the nature of the sport.Banning team orders won’t work because teams will devise signals or messages to communicate orders to their drivers. They have done so many times in the past.

Not banning them leads to controversy and farcical situations such as that which emerged at the Malaysian Grand Prix, where the driver who ignored team orders and raced hard — triple world champion Vettel — was roundly criticised and was forced to grovel an apology to the world.

While the driver who adhered to team orders and took his foot off the gas, albeit very reluctantly — one-time grand prix winner Nico Rosberg — was hailed a hero and team player.

Something is wrong here. When races are decided and won due to orders from the pit wall, there is a huge potential for cheating or ‘match fixing’ which is the curse of many major sports. Who is to say someone in the pit wall did not have a huge chunk of money on Lewis Hamilton finishing third and Nico Rosberg finishing fourth? The odds would have been tremendous, and anyone who did would now be laughing all the way to the bank. Or let’s say someone had a huge chunk of cash on Webber winning the race, and now has to answer to a gambling cartel why Vettel won the race instead. Concrete shoes beckon…

Tragically wrong

Team orders in Formula 1 could be ugly! Whenever the spectre of team orders emerges, I always recall the story of Gilles Villeneuve and a case of team orders going tragically wrong. At the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Ferrari drivers Villeneuve and Didier Pironi were comfortably leading their race.

The pair battled for the lead when the team put out the board to slow down, which Villeneuve claimed was also a signal to stop racing one another. Frenchman Pironi interpreted things differently and overtook Villeneuve to claim victory, leaving the Canadian driver fuming, showing his disgust and disdain on the podium.In an interview the following week, Villeneuve said that he would never speak to Pironi again.

And he never did, because during qualifying for the next grand prix at Zolder in Belgium, Pironi and Villeneuve — still smarting and livid from what he perceived to be a gross injustice — were duelling for the top spot during qualifying.

Late into the session Villeneuve at high speed approached a slower car, which tried to dart out of his way by going to the right and off the racing line to allow the faster car through. But Villeneuve, also went right, and his Ferrari clipped the slower car, which launched it into the air and flung him out of the disintegrating mass of red and silver metal. He landed about 50 metres from the wreckage still strapped to his race seat but helmet missing, and died a few hours later.

Those close to Villeneuve said he never came to terms with the team orders incident, and the anger never subsided. Few remember him smiling after that, outrage and fury burning fervently right until the moment he died. Team orders in Formula 1 have been very ugly.

The writer is Corporate Communications Manager at Dubai Autodrome llc.