Why F1 must celebrate team orders
Mercedes has tried to be coy about what were actually admirable tactics with Valtteri Bottas at Monza. The spectre of Austria 2002 is still causing unnecessary embarrassment about a key element of motorsport
To paralyse a Formula 1 team with fear, put those in charge into a position where they must impose team orders. The result will be ham-fisted attempts to look like no team orders exist, followed by all sorts of verbal contortions and semantic arguments as they try to convince the rest of the world that something that very obviously happened did not.
Why? Because team orders at their mildest are unavoidable and at their most extreme are blindingly obvious. It's part of motorsport, and F1's regulations actively encourage it. To name but one rule, each team has a single pit box so that inevitably means there are times where you must favour one driver over the other with stop timing.
Share Or Save This Story
How the Senna myth has been transformed
Archive: When the French GP almost produced F1's greatest shock
Autosport 70: How Scheckter instigated Silverstone's most famous F1 incident
Autosport 70: The lost F1 team that launched Newey
Why Haas's shocking 2019 should have F1 worried
How Kubica found the answer to his own incredible F1 challenge
The real step that ended McLaren's F1 nightmare
2019's Albon, Norris and Russell are 2001's Montoya, Raikkonen and Alonso
Why was the 2024 Bathurst 1000 so boring, and how can it be fixed?
How F1’s most famous engine unlocked the potential of Brabham's forgotten gem
How a faulty steering wheel created a tense IMSA title showdown
Consistency Neuville’s first focus as maiden WRC title looms at CER
How F1’s most famous engine unlocked the potential of Brabham's forgotten gem
The detail focus that will make Audi’s Red Bull hire a hit team boss
The Russell traits that will ease his adaption to becoming Mercedes team leader
How McLaren went from back to front in 18 months
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
