Ferrari fined $100,000 but result stands

Aricle taken from the BBC

Ferrari have been fined $100,000 for breaching sporting regulations after appearing to implement team orders during the German Prix.

The Italian team has also been referred to the sport’s governing body, the FIA, after Felipe Massa slowed down to allow team-mate Fernando Alonso past to win.

However the result of the race, won by Alonso from Massa, is unaffected.

Ferrari continued to insist the incident was “a driver decision” and no instructions were given to Massa.

Team communications director Luca Colajanni said: “We didn’t give any instruction at all. I don’t think anything wrong has been done, or regulation breached.”

Colajanni added: “Fernando was slightly quicker at that stage, and we informed the drivers.”

Immediately following the race, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali had suggested he did not think the instruction apparently issued by Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley would be an issue with the FIA.

Smedley’s exact words to Massa were: “OK, so, Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?”

Massa, who finished second behind race winner Alonso, did not reply, but a few seconds later slowed his car on the exit of Turn Six, allowing Alonso to easily overtake.

Smedley then came back on the radio and clearly used the word: “Sorry”. Then, at the end of the race Smedley told Massa he had been: “Very, very, very magnanimous” in his actions.

However, Smedley subsequently suggested to BBC Sport he had not been apologising for ordering Massa to let Alonso past.

He said: “I was pushing [Massa], because I was telling him that he’s faster and he had to get on with it, and I was giving him the gaps, and you’re always talking in tenths of a second, and the apology is just because I’m sorry it’s happened, I’m sorry he’s got past, and there you go, but we’re still in the pound seats, we’re still in P2, so keep pushing and hopefully keep Sebastian [Vettel] behind you.”

At the post-race news conference, Massa himself carefully avoided giving a specific explanation of the incident.

Asked whether it had been a driving error on his part that had enabled Alonso to pass, the Brazilian said: “He passed me. The only thing I feel is we’re working for the team, and doing a very good job for the team, and that’s the most important thing.”

However he did say he felt he had deserved to win the race.

“I think so. The start was just fantastic and also the pace on the soft tyres was really great and then I was struggling a little bit on the hard tyres, but anyway a very good race for us.”

But later, talking to BBC Sport, Massa said it had been his decision to let Alonso through.

“For sure, we always need to think that we are working for the team, and we didn’t have team orders in the race. I take my decision because I was struggling on the hard tyres.”

Asked if Alonso had been faster, Massa replied: “I think everybody saw, no?”

Alonso, who when following Massa earlier in the race had told his team over the radio: “Guys, this is ridiculous,” also insisted there had been no team orders.

He said: “I was surprised when I saw Felipe had a problem, I thought it was a gear problem at the exit of turn six.

“At the end we are professional drivers, we work for Ferrari, they pay us, and we gave them 43 points today.”

When asked if he felt embarrassed, he said: “Same. What is important is the team result.”

Michael Schumacher, who famously benefitted from Ferrari team orders when he overtook team-mate Rubens Barrichello metres before the finish line in Austria in 2002, said: “Hearing that Alonso won the race I was wondering what kind of strategy was that?

“I have been criticised in the past for exactly that and I have to say that I would do exactly the same if I was in their situation. At the end of the day, what are we here for? It’s fighting for a championship and there is only one that can win it.

By the end of the year, if you think you would have lost the championship for exactly that point you will ask yourself, all the fans, the television, the journalists, why didn’t you do so?

“If you go back to other years, other teams and other situations, in the last race there were clear team orders and everybody accepts those. Whether it’s the last race, second last race or even earlier, what’s the point?

“I can see that in the years when we did it, because we were leading so much, that people thought it was unnecessary and I can agree on that one in a way.

“But in principle I cannot. I agree with what’s going on. You have to do it in a way that is nice and maybe not too obvious – make it a nice fight. But there’s only one target, and that’s winning the championship.”