F1 Expert Accuses Ferrari of Playing Team Orders

Remember the fiasco that was Austria 2002 when Rubens Barrichello, after leading the race right until the very end, was ordered by Ferrari to let his slower teammate the amazing Michael Schumacher pass him at the finish line? That was the beginning of the end of team orders, a situation where the team literally tells a driver to do something that will scupper his own chances of earning greater points, most commonly to yield to a slower teammate who may be a title chaser, like Schu was. Subsequently team orders are on a strict ban in F1 and teams are under constant microscopes to ensure their compliance.

When Irishman Gary Anderson raised the words team orders and Ferrari in the same sentence this week, he dug into a wound that even today refuses to heal. Anderson is a semi-retired GP car designer who has worked with teams like Jordan and Jaguar. He says Ferrari played the team order card during Sunday’s race where he says, Felipe Massa was told to let his teammate lead after pit stops.

"The way in which Raikkonen went past Massa at the first stop makes me suspect that Ferrari had it planned from the outset," he told Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell. “Don't forget, we are talking about a man who was brought in to replace the seven time world champion Michael Schumacher,” referring to a Kimi preference at Ferrari, thus elevating the fleeting Finn to numero uno status.

"For me, the key scene was the first corner, when Raikkonen was intelligent enough to not get involved in a collision with Felipe.
"Kimi always saw the bigger picture," Anderson commented.