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This article first appeared in GP Racing magazine.
Combat between team-mates is one of the fascinations of Formula 1. The balance of cooperation and single-mindedness shifts constantly and there's no simple equation for delivering the best results. Sometimes a team surges ahead thanks to intense rivalry between two top campaigners, on other occasions the same outfit may benefit from a more holistic approach.
Ferrari has won five times in Austria, the venue of the first two races of this delayed season; team cooperation helped Jacky Ickx take the first win at what is now the Red Bull Ring in 1970 thanks to his rookie team-mate Clay Regazzoni waving him through and providing a resilient doorstop to the opposition. In 2002 Rubens Barrichello waited until the end of the last lap before handing victory to Ferrari's superstar Michael Schumacher, a team orders fiasco that had ramifications down the line.
The Italian squad often soars when there's a clear number one driver backed up by a solid points scorer. At the start of 2019 the strategy felt similar; the management adopted a relatively inexperienced but talented driver in Charles Leclerc and made it clear that Sebastian Vettel would get preference at key moments.
