This time it was Ferrari's turn to show driver favouritism - effectively ordering Felipe Massa to make way for Fernando Alonso to win today's German Grand Prix. Felipe was told by his obviously disgruntled Race Engineer Ron Smedley that "Fernando is quicker than you." This was team-code for "Make way for your team-mate who is higher in the Championship points tabel than you." They couldn't say it directly because that would infringe the Formula 1 rule about letting team orders bugger about with actual entertaining racing.
I actually do not agree with this particular rule but I do see why it is in place since as a viewer, I was robbed of an exciting battle between the two of them. But, at the end of the day, Ferrari want to win the Driver's Championship and the Constructor's Championship too and the best way of doing this is to favour their (currently) more successful driver. However, since the rule does exist and they did clearly break it, they should be punished by losing some chamionship points - and I wonder if it had been any team other than Ferrari, whether they would have escaped with just the fine that was imposed.
I enjoyed the brief interview with Christian Horner after the race - he was clearly delighted to be being asked about a favouritism row that didn't involve his own two drivers. But don't get too smug just yet, Chrissy, it's Hungary next weekend so it could be your turn again then.
No comments:
Post a Comment