GPl Archives 3 April 2013 Issue #65 | Page 54

At the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello was ordered to allow Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher to pass to obtain the win. This received huge amounts of negative attention from the media, as the order was issued shortly before both drivers crossed the finish line. Both drivers were unhappy about the situation. Schumacher refused to take the top step of the podium, and the team was punished for breach of podium procedure. At the United States Grand Prix the very same year, Schumacher returned the favour by giving Barrichello the win by the record smallest margin of 0.011 seconds on the finishing line. After the 2002 season, FIA announced that 1team Orders that could influence the outcome of a race’ were banned. At the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, where Mark Webber was asked to slow down when his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel was closing in. Webber disregarded the order, and the pair collided, each refusing to accept blame for the accident. Similarly, at the 2010 German Grand Prix, Felipe Massa’s race engineer was heard to say to his driver “Fernando (Alonso) is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand that message?”. Moments later, Massa eased back and allowed Alonso past.