There's an irony here. Its not the transgression that's being punished as much as the passionate way in which it was committed. If Smedley and Massa had been good soldiers and put on a more convincing show there'd be no problem.
To be fair to Webber he just drove down the racetrack in a straight line - it was Vettel that just drove into the side of him. Most boneheaded thing I've seen for a while to be honest! Vettel's move off the start today was overly aggressive & it isn't the first time....
5 secs, puts the running order back in place. And the grid spot penalties punish the team where it hurts, in a place they can feel it, in results. A 100k fine to Ferrari is the same as having to buy the police officer a cup of coffee as your punishment for speeding...
Ughh, I can't wait for next weekend's race at the Hungaroring and get this stupidity over with. The media is just trying to exploit this as any other event in F1; last race was Webber's wing, the one before was the safety car, the other one was Webber and Vettel taking each other out, next week will be something else and this will be forgotten. Team orders have always existed in F1 as it is a team sport and whoever says no to this is lying to no one but themselves or trying to take advantage from this event. Ferrari is my team first and the drivers come second to me as long as one of them wins be it Massa or Alonso.
Reality is complex. Get this - One _always_ has a choice. The only operation without an undo is death. One must do what is true for oneself. Of course there would have been repercussions for disobeying a team order, much as there are repercussions for obeying them. And of course balancing a compromise between the present and the future isn't trivial. Massa made a decision to partake in the manipulation of the results. So, he suffers the consequences - one of them being that repugnant mood after the race and now, whatever the fallout is.
The FIA and Charlie whiting do it ALL THE TIME! docking 5 grid spots for a gear box change? They can't do that, the driver did nothing wrong!
You are correct. But two wrongs don't make a "right". That is ALSO a stupid rule that should be tossed out.
Ferrari needs to fire Massa at the end of the season...he is clearly not a team player anymore, but a driver with THOUGHTS OF GRANDEUR! Lets face it, if he decided to play along with the team, as he did, then he should put on his smiling face and play along...This guy not only decided to play along, then came out with a long face, and nearly admitted to following team orders during the interview...If he had any Ba***, then he would have raced and taken it to Alonso!
If Alonso had any balls then he would have raced and taken it to Massa. One Ferrari driver earned 1st place, the other was effectively given the position instead. >8^) ER
This is too much, I remember so many people on here saying how Webber should have moved over for Vettel and how the accident in Turkey was his fault who are now climbing up on their high horses saying how the drivers should have been allowed to race. We saw how to NOT do it by Red Bull and HOW to do it by SF today when placed in an identical situation. The faster driver won the race, potential catastrophe was avoided, and Ferrari collected a 1-2. Enough said.
We were shown HOW to do it by McLaren at Turkey as well....Hambone and Button managed to race and not crash into each other....
While that was most likely team orders as well, McLaren had far more plausible deniability there.... I will refrain: the rule is stupid, team orders do, and will always exist, the rule needs to be tossed out. But it is a rule on the books and while it's on the books it needs to be punished. The FIA is FAR too selective about their application of punishment. If it was as obvious that it was team orders with mclaren at turkey as it was today with Ferrari I would say the same thing regarding them....
They did get punished...got fined $100k. Seems typical of the slap on the wrist penalties we have gotten all year. FERRARI WON WITH A 1-2! Everyone needs to quit moaning and enjoy it in my opinion. Lots of people on here honestly love to hate the team (esp. Alonso).
100k to an F1 team is like giving 20 hours of community service to a white collar millionaire criminal...
The FIA knows exactly why Ferrari did what they did. In fact, this tiny penalty shows they are pretty much sympathic to getting rid of this stupid rule.
Yeah, I'm shocked with Ferrari. How on earth did they allow Phil to finish in front Lonnie in Oz? Fred could have had an additional 3 points with only 17 races left. I'm still seething over the Ferrari's lapse at Monaco, if Massa was a true team player, he would have allowed Fred to pass (well, along with McHam, but big deal). As a fan of the sport and Ferrari, why this was allowed is beyond me. To be honest, I believe Phil should consider changing his name to Fernando Alonso, all points would therefore go to Ferrari's faster driver. I don't know why this isn't team order No. 1.
