Does the team orders rule mean teammates must race from start to finish?

[Yoong Montoya]

For instance, in Nurburgring 02, Rubens was in 1st and Michael 2nd after the pit stops were done, and they both backed off and cruised home in that order. Would this be allowed though? And what would happen if 1 teammate was on 1 stop and the other on 2, ala Brazil 02? Could the guy on 1 stop let his 2 stopping teammate past?

These are just a few questions of course. The list is endless.

But I'm pretty sure this rule is just to stop teams switching the two cars on the last lap, ala Austria 02.

[Sato san]

im sure the only thing that this rule will stop is what incidents like what happened at Austria and Indy .

[JonesF1]

Is holding station to preserve the cars considered team orders? Theres a lot of grey areas and proof is hard to come by in some situations. I dont think FIA will show much backbone unless something like Austria happens again. But nobodys going to be that stupid after all the screw ups and bad publicity thats spotlighted team orders these past few years.

[CleanTone]

It will be a little less obviously(in the first 12 races barricello will barely see TGF, from then on vice-versa) so only the distance will be bigger, not the caracters

[mac]

They'll just give Rubens a slower pitstop. Really, there is nothing you can do.

[ASCII Man]

Ross to pitcrew: "Relax guy's, don't rush it..."

Ross to Rubens: "Rubens, there's a bit of dirt on your windscreen, you'll have to come in for a 'Wash-N-Go'!"

[Damon]

expect to see a number of botched pit stops early on in the season if Rubens finds himself in the lead.

[Valve Bounce]

There are even more subtle ways to slow a car up than slow pit stop. Like an incorrect tyre pressure on one tyre. There is no way that anyone can prove that the tyre did not slightly deflate during the last stint.
I suspect this rule will go the way of traction control.

[Liz]

People who are determined to cheat cannot possibly be stopped. The only good this rule does is officially take note of the fact that what they are doing is in fact cheating . As far as I have heard, there is no punishment specified for this "crime". So I expect that TGF will continue to "win" dishonestly and pretend that he's doing it fairly. The only difference will be that now it will be done under the watchful eyes of the entire grid who will spend the next two weeks discussing how Ferrari pulled it off this week.

[racer69]

All this will do is change the excuses, there is no way to stamp it out.

[alchemy]

The FIA are just thumbing their nose at the punters with this unenforceable garbage. Ex barrister Max Mosley of all people knows this so called 'ruling' could never be upheld in any court. So therefore its nothing more than a political sound byte.

I’m not sure if we (the punters) are all that bothered about the ‘team orders’ thing anyway. It was really only the Ferrari duo making monkeys out of us and the sport that became the issue wasn’t it?

[Adam43]

I don't think the introduction of this rule means that Ferrari were cheating (or even the FIA think that they are cheating).

I don't agree with what Ferrari do with their team orders, but they didn't cheat.

It is an undesirable act, but not cheating.

The rule is introduced to try and reduce something that turns people off from F1. One of the reasons it is wishy-washy is that it is hard to legislate against something that isn't cheating.

[Armco Bender]

Whats the hang up with team orders anyway?,they've been around ever since motor racing started.If your No2,your No2.thats what you sign up to be.The team owns the cars ,its their call.If you don't like it go drive for some one else.Ferrari want Shuey to win,RBs there to protect his a$$.Thats the way its always been.Lauda/Regazonni,Hunt/Mass,Andretti/Petersen worked for them.

[f1manoz]

In all honesty I'm sure the FIA have good intentions with enforcing this rule, but it is basically unpolice-able (is that a word?!?!?) unless teams flagrantly break it (like doing Austria '02 all over again).

Personally, I think this is just to make sure we don't see the repeat of the jokes in Austria and Indianapolis, which made F1 a complete laughing stock.

[R]

Agreed. The obvious cheatings will be gone as the result of this rule change. The subtle cheatings will continue.

[z2252314]

The subtle cheatings will continue.

As it has through the history of motorsport.

[Wrex]

What I find amusing here is that the biggest complainers about team orders are the ones bagging the new rule?

What do they say, damned if you do, damned if you dont?

[Glen]

Never mind the team orders - Ferrari have got a reliability record that would have been considered impossible a few years ago... and they have achieved this partly by running easy in the final 20% of the race. They will, I'm sure, strenuously defend their right to get the cars home in one piece.

Also, why is everyone so convinced that the desire within Ferrari is to have Schumacher winning from the word go? Their stated policy is that whichever driver has the better chace to win the title will get preference (under the old rules anyway). Since Rubens went for so long without scoring points, and his team-mate is a proven championship winner, they obviously backed Schumacher in 2002. At about this point in this type of discussion loads of people will post claiming to know the content of each driver's contract - what utter BS those claims are. Both drivers (all F1 drivers - actually all professionals) are required to act in the best interests of the team, and following these orders is part of that process. In this sense both these two drivers could have precisely the same wording in their contracts, and probably have.

[Yoong Montoya]

Originally posted by Glen

Also, why is everyone so convinced that the desire within Ferrari is to have Schumacher winning from the word go? Their stated policy is that whichever driver has the better chace to win the title will get preference (under the old rules anyway). Since Rubens went for so long without scoring points, and his team-mate is a proven championship winner, they obviously backed Schumacher in 2002. At about this point in this type of discussion loads of people will post claiming to know the content of each driver's contract - what utter BS those claims are. Both drivers (all F1 drivers - actually all professionals) are required to act in the best interests of the team, and following these orders is part of that process. In this sense both these two drivers could have precisely the same wording in their contracts, and probably have.

The thing is that Ferrari made a big investment in Michael Schumacher. Malboro even switched from McLaren to Ferrari when he arrived. Perhaps Malboro only want Schumacher to win WDCs for Ferrari because he gives them more publicity or more payback for their investment. But there's no proof is there? We'll never know.

[Liz]

The new rule specifically states that team orders are prohibited which means that people employing team orders are CHEATING. .

As in: "Smoking pot while driving is prohibited. People who smoke pot while driving are cheating."

As in: "Stealing your teammate's paycheque is prohibited. People who steal their teammate's paycheque are cheating."

If there is no rule that says "Hitting your teammate over the head with a tire tool is prohibited" does that mean that it's okay to do it?

Unless there is a punishment specified for doing it, though, it's useless.

[Sodemo]

what about "throwing a blob of ice cream onto the visor of your teammate" that one should be allowed, would add a bit of slapstick variety to the show.