Schumacher Hoping for No Team Orders

Ferrari star Michael Schumacher said today that he is hoping team boss Jean Todt will allow him and his Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello to race for victory at this weekend's United States Grand Prix.

Schumacher and Barrichello have been forced to drive to orders all season to ensure the perfect Championship results for their Italian team and are now both willing to challenge each other on track.

At the controversial Austrian Grand Prix, where Barrichello was forced to move over and hand victory to Schumacher, the German said he could not wait for the Championship to be over so he could get back to real racing.

And with victory for either Ferrari at Indianapolis being enough to secure a one-two Championship finish for the pair, Schumacher believes it is time to let them play.

"It was obvious that we wanted to drive in a way that Rubens secured his second position and he supported me in winning the Championship as much as he could so it was natural that I would support him in his achievement," said Schumacher.

"I believe if I win this race it would automatically mean for him that he would be second, which would mean that, and Jean can say more on this, we can race free."

But Todt, sitting directly in front of his star driver, refused to be drawn on the matter and suggested that the team would still use team orders to arrange the result at Indianapolis.

"Once we see what is happening in qualifying we will decide what is the best interest for Ferrari," he said. "At the beginning of the season we had aims for Ferrari to be manufacturers' World Champions and it seemed Michael had better chances to be drivers' champion, so the team supported him.

"Once it was achieved the second goal was to allow Rubens to get the second position and now Rubens is leading by 17 points and if Michael wins this race then Rubens will be second, but there are many other cases that can happen."