More Odour from Formula One

...and we're not talking about the exhaust fumes.

This stinks much worse.

Race fans already know about this; the rest of you probably don't care, and can move on to my next blog!

But Ferrari has shamed Formula One yet again with a flagrant and transparent violation of the rules which disallow 'team orders' from affecting the outcome of a race.

And once again, Ferrari's Felipe Massa takes the brunt - not in the head, as he did a year ago to the day at the Hungarian Grand Prix when a piece of fellow Brazilian driver Rubens Barrichello's car fell off and put Massa into a coma, but in a more, um, delicate and nether region of his anatomy today at the German 'Grosser Preis' in Hockenheim.

Massa had made a brilliant start from third on the grid; as pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel tried to overcome a sluggish launch by squeezing the other Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso into the pit wall, Massa cheerfully blew past both of them on the outside.

Alonso came out of the meleé in second - the first Ferrari one-two since the season began in Bahrain.

Normally, this would be a Good Thing for Formula One - Ferrari is the only team to have been in Formula One from the very beginning, it is the most successful team not just in motorsports but perhaps in all of professional sports, and it is the most popular F1 team as well.

Not universally loved perhaps, but universally respected.

Then they have to go pull something like this.

Massa and Alonso held station throughout the race and the one-and-only pit stop. Alonso seemed the quicker of the two, as Massa appeared to struggle with the second (harder) set of tires.

But catching an F1 car and passing it are two different things. If, for example, it had been Vettel that Alonso was chasing, he would never have got past.

However, Alonso was farther up the championship standings than Massa, and the race TV commentators were sure something was up.

Sure enough, 20 laps from the end, Massa's team engineer Rob Smedley radioed his driver to say, "So, Alonso is faster than you. Please confirm that you understand this message."

Massa clearly did, because he pulled over and let his teammate by.

Smedley again: "Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry."

Hey; he has nothing to apologize for - it sure wasn't his idea. The entire team should be sorry.

Commentators Martin Brundle and David Coulthard, both ex-F1 pilots, agreed that Smedley should not have been the one forced to tell Massa the bad news. His job, and his priority, is to help Massa win, not to tell him to give up the lead for anyone. There's a confidence bond there that Ferrari should not have tampered with.

If the team decided they were going to institute team orders in violation of the rules, the team manager should have had the guts to tell Massa himself.

The reaction of the top three finishers when they got out of their cars was calmer than you might expect. The emotional Massa managed to keep a fairly tight lid on things, but his congratulatory hug of Alonso was decidedly cool. Vettel, at his home race (he is German) had blown pole position to finish third, but he looked a heck of a lot happier on the third step of the podium than the two Ferrari drivers did on the top two.

Even Alonso, who seems to believe it is his God-given right to win every race, seemed a bit embarrassed.

The post-race interviews were interesting too, with Massa refusing to say in words what his face said so eloquently - he had been screwed.

It's made all the worse by the fact that the 'no team orders' rule was implemented after an even more scurrilous Ferrari race fix at Austria in 2002, when Rubens Barrichello practically brought his car to a complete stop, seat back and tray table in the locked and upright position, to allow Michael Schumacher to win and boost his championship points total.

Both Schumi and Barrichello, now at the end of their respective careers and with different teams, were backmarkers in today's race. I'd love to know what was going through their minds while all this was going on.

You'd think with all the experience Ferrari has at this subterfuge, they'd have at least made a better show of it this time, made it look a bit more subtle.

The race stewards have fined Ferrari $100,000 for this infraction. Oh boo hoo; it'll be short lattes all around in Maranello tomorrow instead of tall ones.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) says the case will be referred to the motorsport council for 'further consideration'.

Alonso should be placed last, Massa given the win, but both cars should be stripped of all championship points from this event.

Don't hold your breath.

Comments

[RalphArmstrong]

Fernando passing Felipe - Like taking candy from a baby! Or was it a baby wailing until someone hands him the candy because he hasn't grown up enough to get it himself!

The FIA had better understand that the fans are #1 in this or any other sport.

[C2100]

Grand Prix teams have been doing this for longer than I've been alive. I'm 67 next month.

Tour de France cyclists sometimes wait for their fellow competitors.

Ferrari were clearly dominant on this day so the result really doesn't matter.

It is a good topic to write about however and I believe your opening sentences cover the situation nicely.

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