"Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"
"Sorry"
So Ferrari dominated the German GP... Alonso leading Massa... Massa not allowed to overtake his teammate...
"All wins are special" Fernando Alonso.
"I simply reaffirm what I have always maintained, which is that our drivers are very well aware, and it is something they have to stick to, that if one races for Ferrari, then the interests of the team come before those of the individual... Therefore enough of this hypocrisy, even if I can well believe that some people might well have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another, but that is definitely not the case for me or indeed for our fans." Luca di Montezemolo.
"By the end of the year if you think you've lost the championship for exactly that point you will ask yourself, not only yourself, all the fans and the journalists and so on, why didn't you do so?" Michael Schumacher.
"I understand how F1 fans might be disappointed by what they have seen on Sunday" Ross Brawn.
"It's a great shame. Ferrari are a great team," he said. "It's a shame for Formula 1 that they didn't allow Felipe and Fernando to race each other. There are not so many points between them and it was so obvious how they moved the cars around." Christian Horner.
"We do desperately want to win but it is about how you win. If you win and you know you have cheated then I don't see how at any stage in your career or post career when you reflect upon it how you can have a feeling of ecstasy." Martin Whitmarsh.
Forgetting my personal opinions for a moment, team orders in F1 are banned. It is not a "shame" as Christian Horner said. You would not ask yourself "why didn't you do so" Mr Schumacher, as it is ILLEGAL.
What Ferrari did was against the rules, so the monetary fine should be the start of the penalties. A driver and team who break the rules can not be allowed to keep the points and positions gained by breaking the rules.
For Montezemolo to publicly state that the interests of Ferrari come before those of the drivers, and by their own actions what is best for Ferrari is apparently to break the rules, is nothing short of a disgrace. Ever heard of bringing the sport into disrepute??
The funniest quote is also from Montezemolo... "some people might well have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another" or race one another... in a motor race... wheel to wheel... best drivers in best cars battling blah blah blah... When he says "eliminate" he means from the points battle not on the track from a race, but still does he not trust his drivers...
Thankfully McLaren in the form of Martin Whitmarsh has the right attitude. From this quote it appears they are in the business of motor racing, and not in the business of corporate event staging.
"The rule that bans team orders is not realistic anymore." Ross Brawn
Its only unrealistic if the rule makers let Ferrari get away with it. If both Alonso and Massa, along with Ferrari were thrown out of the German GP all together, it would send a message to the field the press and the fans that the rule is totally realistic, and in fact enforced!!
The tragic thing about the Ferrari shambles is that the 2010 F1 season has probably seen more good wheel to wheel racing than most of the F1 races held in my life time, put together. The last thing F1 needed was a stupid team order debate getting in the way of a good seasons racing.
As a contrast, was Chip Ganassi ever going to ask Montoya to move over so McMurray could win the Brickyard 400? As it happened Montoya put himself out of contention, and his team mate won the race, but in America it would not happen. It would not even cross their minds.Racing is racing, and it should stay that way...
(By the way, I could not bring myself to post photos of the Ferraris as would have been appropriate for the topic discussed above, so you will have to put up with Brickyard 400 shots instead)
