| The controversy brews on about the Ferrari decision | | | | order reversed. What has been the time-tested way |
| to have Felipe Massa let Fernando Alonso pass him in | | | | of doing this in F1? Right, you have the number two |
| the German Grand Prix. Talk about much ado about | | | | driver pit and let the number one burn off a few fast |
| nothing. | | | | laps while the number two driver "gets his tires up to |
| Let's reset the situation. Sebastian Vettel had made | | | | temperature". It happens every race and you have to |
| another meal of it at the start, which allowed both | | | | be blind not to see it. |
| Ferraris by. Massa led with Alonso behind. After pit | | | | Is Ferrari guilty of anything? Yes. They handled the |
| stops, Alonso started to catch up to Massa who was | | | | situation very poorly. They made the situation so |
| having clear problems on the harder Bridgestone | | | | obvious that they humiliated Felipe Massa who |
| compound. Could Alonso have passed Massa? | | | | responded as you might expect. Unfortunately, the |
| Maybe. Maybe not. Nobody knows because Ferrari | | | | team really didn't have much option. The best choice |
| made a decision to tell Massa that Fernando was | | | | would have been to purse the pit stop strategy, but |
| faster than him. This was obviously code to let Alonso | | | | that was impossible given Vettel being so close behind. |
| pass and that is exactly what Massa did. | | | | Given this, what should the team have done? It is |
| The reaction to all this has been outrage and much | | | | unclear. |
| gnashing of teeth. It is laughable. Really. Let me ask | | | | Was Ferrari correct in telling Felipe to move over? |
| you a question. Do you think there are team orders in | | | | Absolutely. Just look at the numbers. Massa started |
| Formula 1 even though they are illegal? Of course | | | | the race a staggering 78 points behind Hamilton. He |
| there are. Do you think Renault tells Petrov to get the | | | | has no chance of winning the championship. Alonso, on |
| hell out of Kubica's way? Of course they do. Don't you | | | | the other hand, was 47 points behind. He doesn't have |
| find it a bit strange that Mark Webber was told to start | | | | a great position, but it was a hell of a lot better than |
| saving fuel near the end of the Turkish Grand Prix | | | | Massa. Now with the win, Alonso is within 34 points. |
| when Vettel wasn't? How do you think Vettel | | | | Logically, it just makes sense to push Alonso forward. |
| suddenly caught up to Webber? Team orders happen | | | | What will all this end up meaning? It will be much ado |
| all the time and only the most biased viewer or | | | | about nothing. The stewards fined the team $100k, a |
| commenter would suggest anything differently. | | | | drop in the bucket. The FIA will look at it and probably |
| Let's talk about the most obvious version of team | | | | do something similar. What will the lesson be? Do it in a |
| orders. Let's say your number two driver is leading the | | | | smarter way next time. |
| number one. You have to figure out how to get the | | | | |