Alonso wins controversial German Grand Prix

Team orders returned to the top of the agenda in Formula One on 25 July as Spain’s Fernando Alonso took the chequered flag in the German Grand Prix thanks to his team mate Felipe Massa letting him through in the closing stages, despite leading the race from the start. It is a tough moment for Massa which will do nothing to help his motivation in this gruelling sport.
Although the message was coded it was unmistakeably a team order which is banned in F1.It was Alonso’s second win of the season. The first came in Bahrain when Alonso passed his team mate at the start, fair and square. Unlike in his McLaren days, Alonso has the clout within the team to subjugate his team mate.

The one - two finish for Ferrari was the first since the opening race in Bahrain on 14 March. But it heats up the championship, with the two Red Bull drivers now tied on points and now 21 points behind Lewis Hamilton, with Alonso back in the race for title.

At the start of the German Prix, Sebastian Vettel was so concerned about Alonso coming down the inside that he forgot about Felipe Massa down the outside. The Brazilian flew into the lead and Alonso tucked in behind in second place. Vettel was forced to accept third place, while Webber was passed by Hamilton for fourth place. Further back Michael Schumacher made a great start from 11th to 8th and the two Toro Rosso cars hit each other Buemi losing his rear wing.
Ferrari was delighted with a one- two at this stage, but the wrong car was in the lead as Massa is well behind Alonso in the drivers’ championship. The super soft tyres held up pretty well and Vettel was the first of the front runners to pit on lap 14, as the lap times were coming down impressively. Alonso and Webber pitted a lap later, with Webber rejoining in traffic and losing ground.

Massa pitted on lap 16 and rejoined ahead of Alonso, but as we have seen all season he was not as happy on the hard tyre as on the soft and he locked up consistently, but Alonso did not attack for a while. There was great battle between Schumacher and Kubica after the Pole’s pit stop, but he held his nerve and fought off the great champion.

Alonso soon closed up and was in a position to attack on lap 23, but Massa resisted. Alonso came on the radio to say “This is ridiculous.”
Button pitted late, lap 24 and he got out ahead of Mark Webber. Nico Rosberg also used the tactic of stopping a lap later and he jumped his team mate Michael Schumacher for 8th.

Massa started pulling away from Alonso and Vettel, the gap was out to 3.5 seconds by lap 28. Alonso clawed it back slowly, and by lap 35 it was down to 2 seconds, down to 1 second on lap 40. Meanwhile McLaren told Lewis Hamilton to go on a fuel saving mode in fourth place and Mark Webber was instructed to nurse the car to the finish and not challenging Button for 5th place.
On lap 50 a very reluctant sounding Rob Smedley came on the radio to tell Massa, “Fernando is faster than you,” which is code for “Let Alonso through.” He later came on and said “Sorry” to Massa, showing how hard it had been to deliver that message.

Massa obeyed and the Spaniard duly swept past to take the win. But after the race it was announced that the FIA World Motor Sport Council is to be called in to decide whether Ferrari should face further sanctions for the team orders controversy at the German Grand Prix, after the team was fined $100,000 for flouting the team orders rule. It should be remembered that the rule was brought in because of a Ferrari team order in 2002.

Team Orders

The notorious incident was at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix where Rubens Barrichello was ordered to allow Ferrari team mate Michael Schumacher to pass at in order to obtain the win. This received much negative attention from spectators and media, as the order was issued shortly before both drivers crossed the finish line, and as Barrichello had virtually dominated the entire qualifying sessions and the race itself. At the United States Grand Prix that year, there was further controversy as the Ferrari drivers allegedly manipulated the race result by switching positions in the final few metres of the race, giving Barrichello the win by the record smallest margin of 0.011 seconds.

Though Schumacher had largely dominated the US Grand Prix, some suggested that he was returning the favour to Barrichello for forfeiting the Austrian win.Subsequently after the 2002 season, “Team Orders that could influence the outcome of a race” were banned in F1 regulations, although they are sometimes still implemented discreetly. For example, this has sometimes been achieved as easily as a team getting on the radio to the slower driver and pointing out that his team mate is quicker. The slower
driver then lets the quicker driver through without the need for an overt “directive” from the team.

However a few years later at the 2005 United States Grand Prix, Schumacher was being challenged for the lead by Barrichello but the two were ordered to preserve their cars to the end of the race and settle into a steady pace. This effectively meant that Barrichello wasn’t able to challenge Schumacher and assured Schumacher’s and Ferrari’s only victory of the season. But whether this was favouritism towards Schumacher or just a cautious approach to an easy victory is debatable.