Ferrari fined $100,000 over team orders

Following their controversial one-two result at the German Grand Prix, Ferrari have been fined US$100,000 by the FIA after race stewards deemed they had breached sporting regulations. The case has also been referred to the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC).

26 July 2010, 12:00am

1 min read

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, who had been leading the Hockenheim race, moved aside to allow team mate Fernando Alonso past on Lap 49. A few moments before, Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley had told the Brazilian "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"

Although Ferrari insisted this did not constitute a team order, the stewards decided they contravened Article 39.1 of the sporting regulations, which states that "team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited", and Article 151 (c) of the International Sporting Code, which outlaws "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally". The decision will also be forwarded to the WMSC for its consideration, meaning Ferrari could in theory face further sanction.

Maintaining Ferrari’s innocence, team principal Stefano Domenicali stated: “As for the stewards’ decision, given after the race, in the interests of the sport, we have decided not to go through a procedure of appealing against it, confident that the World Council will know how to evaluate the overall facts correctly.”

For his part, Massa suggested he and not the team had made the decision to surrender the lead to Alonso: “In my opinion this was not a case of team orders: my engineer kept me constantly informed on what was going on behind me, especially when I was struggling a bit on the hard tyres: so I decided to do the best thing for the team, and a one-two finish is the best possible result, isn’t it?”

Source: formula1.com