There’s a lot of talk about the team orders controversy that
occurred in the Malaysian Grand Prix after Sebastian Vettel ignored an
instruction to hold position behind Mark Webber. Let's get one thing straight first, if anything this incident just enhanced the drama and story of what looks likely to be a thrilling F1 season.
In the F1 press and in the national press there seems to be
a lot of talk that team orders are a bad thing, but yet are also slating Vettel
for ignoring those team orders which seems slightly hypocritical.
What we saw yesterday was an exciting race and yes Vettel’s
behaviour was distasteful, but it’s also got a lot of people talking about the
incident, and in fact might make a fair few more people tune in at the next
race on the off chance that Webber might shove Vettel off the road.
Of course we’ve had a lot of chatter in the world of twitter
accusing Formula 1 of not being a sport because of the use of team orders. Well
to them I say that’s a load of rubbish. Obviously I would prefer a fair race to
the finish, but despite the public perception this sport isn’t just about the
drivers, there’s up to 500 people or more back at the factory working all hours
to prepare the cars and want to win just as much.
The constructors championship is very important to these
people and to the team in general as they get a great deal of prize money and other
assorted benefits depending on where they finish. If Vettel when trying to
squeeze through that gap had taken out Webber yesterday and himself, then
instead of a 26 point lead in the constructors, they’d have been third and
perhaps it might have cost them the title by the end of the year, effecting
many peoples bonuses etc.
And it’s not as if they hadn’t been racing, it was only the
last 12 laps when they were asked to call it off to preserve the tyres as Red
Bull had reason to be worried they wouldn’t make it to the finish. Yes it would
have been much better if they hadn’t needed to do that, and generally they don’t
but overall the teams interests come first.
Anyhow when people hark back to the bygone days of Formula 1
they seem to forget that in the 50s some drivers handed over their cars to
their number 1 driver. It’s been going on since the beginning, it is part of
the sport. Not the best part of the sport, but part of it nevertheless and used by countless teams including Ferrari and McLaren.
Perhaps worse though is that Sebastian Vettel ignored those
orders. It’s unlikely Red Bull will sanction him, after all he’s probably their
best shot at the drivers title, but he is facing further discussions with the
team.
They’ll be those who support his disregard for team orders
and applaud his will to win, then again it was against a driver who’d been
reassured twice that Vettel would not attack him, so hardly a fair fight. In
truth Vettel made a petulant selfish choice which has brought his team into
disrepute and made him look like a bit of a spoilt brat.
However, if he wins the title by 7 points at the end of the
season who will criticise him then? World Champions are often the most selfish
of creatures driven by their desire to win at all costs. It’s not morally right
sometimes, but in some ways what exactly do you expect?
Whatever though, team orders are part of Formula 1, we saw an
exciting end and a controversial decision, this is also part of Formula 1, and
it’s got a lot of people talking about it. Bernie will be pleased.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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