Horner backs team orders ban

That is the view of Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner, who thinks that although F1 teams and the FIA should be willing to talk about the merits of keeping the team order ban, he ultimately believes it is better off staying in the regulations.

"I think the rule was brought in for a reason - to avoid the situation that happened in 2002 [Austria]," said Horner ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. "F1 is a team sport, but the rules are as they are. The issue in Hockenheim was very much an issue between the FIA and Ferrari.

"I think moving forward, it is perhaps an area that needs to be looked at. But I think for me, F1 it has been quite healthy in the last couple of years where drivers have raced each other and I think that that should be encouraged rather than negated."

Although Horner acknowledges that team orders have been a part of motor racing for years, he thinks it vital that people remember that they have been outlawed from F1 since the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix controversy.

"Team orders have existed since John Surtees drove a Ferrari, Niki Lauda - Michael Schumacher's time through different generations. The difference now is that there is a regulation that says they are prohibited and that is the issue under discussion regarding Hockenheim - where we go from there needs some debate between the teams and the governing body.

"Rightly or wrongly, we've allowed our guys to race and that is something they have done throughout this year.

"In Turkey we paid the ultimate price for that, where one retired and the other achieved a lesser result than he should have done. If the rules were different then perhaps we would have addressed that race differently, but the philosophy of Red Bull Racing is to allow both drivers to race, as Mr. [Dietrich] Mateschitz has openly said."