The FIA have just made it clear again that they fully stand by this year’s new rule where team order is strictly prohibited.
It was last year where Rubens Barrichallo was ordered by Ferrari to let Michael Schumacher through at the very last stretch of the race, so Michael could win that race and therefore banking more points for the Championship. I didn’t like it back then, I don’t like it now, and I don’t think anyone liked that stunt including Michael himself; however, I like it even less for the FIA’s banning of team order.
As in most team sports, if there were a ball in the game, it would get passed to whoever to score for whatever reason, as long as it gets scored. Like it or not, that’s the spirit of team sports. Formula 1 is most definitely a team sport even though it looks like it is for the individual drivers. The FIA ban of team order has taken that team spirit out of the teams.
I think it is best left to the teams to decide.
Update (HKT 11:10am) :
As the championship points stood before the start of the race, there was more at stake for Michael with Montoya than with Kimi.
At the start of the race, Ferrari’s Rubens was second at the grid positions behind McLaren Kimi and directly in front of William’s Montoya who is 3 positions in front of Ferrari’s Michael. In theory, Rubens could have either been flying with a much lighter tank of gas, catch up on Kimi and then slow down to give Michael a chance to catch up; or he could slow down right at the very beginning and let Montoya and the rest behind him bunched up together, allowing Michael, who was effectively on the other line from Rubens, to go pass them.
The latter scenario happened. However, as there is no “black box” recorder as such on board any of the F1 cars monitoring the drivers’ moves as well as the cars’ problems, who could proved either way if that particular move was in fact a team order move or otherwise?
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