Analysis: Team Orders Go Back a Long Way in F1

Ferrari's use of controversial 'team orders' in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix is rooted in bitter lessons learned in the past.

Technical director Ross Brawn said after the race that the World Champions, who went 21 years without winning the drivers' crown until Michael Schumacher's title of 2000, never underestimated rivals.

"We lost the championship at the last race in 1997, '98, '99," he told reporters, "and I remember at Jerez and Suzuka after two of those occasions, asking ourselves if there was anything we could have done differently during the season to influence it."

'Team orders' have been part of Formula One since the old days, when drivers wore thin cotton overalls and goggles and handed over their cars to allow more senior teammates to continue and win.

But Sunday's example was particularly blatant and came after only a third of the season.

"The bottom line is that going into the race Michael had 44 points and Rubens had six," said Brawn. "Michael broke his leg in 1999 and there's no knowing what is going to happen. We are not conceited enough to think that we have such an advantage that we can forget about our competitors."

Past Examples

Ferrari invoked team orders several times in the 1999 season, once with Schumacher returning from his broken leg to help Eddie Irvine challenge for the title.

Before that, Finland's Mika Salo, who has yet to win a race, handed Irvine a victory while standing in for the convalescent Schumacher.

Australia in 1998 was the race that sparked the biggest 'team orders' furore before Sunday.

That time it was the McLarens, with David Coulthard handing over to allow Mika Hakkinen to win the season opener according to a pre-race agreement between the drivers.

Hakkinen had led the race initially but suffered when the team called in him in to the pits in error. The governing FIA clarified the rules on 'team orders' after that.

At the end of the 1997 season, there was a controversy involving allegations of collusion between McLaren and Williams.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, in a Williams, was fighting Schumacher for the title in the final race of the season while McLaren were out of contention.

Once Schumacher went out of the race, Villeneuve - for whom third place was enough to be champion - allowed the McLarens to finish first and second.

In 1991, Ayrton Senna made a particularly blatant gesture in Japan in favour of his Austrian teammate Gerhard Berger while at McLaren.

Senna, who slowed on the last lap, was repaying Berger for his hard work in helping the Brazilian win the title but he made it abundantly clear who was in control of the race.

Twenty years ago, there was a notorious incident involving Ferrari when Frenchman Didier Pironi reneged on a verbal agreement with Gilles Villeneuve and overtook the Canadian to win at Imola.

Argentine Carlos Reutemann also famously ignored team orders when at Williams in 1981, refusing to allow Australian Alan Jones past in Brazil.