Why Mercedes was right to use team orders

Afterwards, Hamilton was clearly genuine in his “conflicted” emotions. No one likes team orders and it’s always painful for everyone involved. So was it really necessary in this instance?

You could argue no, that Hamilton’s world championship points lead over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel is so significant Mercedes had no requirement to interfere. But the reality is the job is not yet done and in the modern era, there is so much at stake. Two retirements and two Vettel wins – stranger things have happened – and the game is back on. Wolff made the only call his paymasters would expect of him.

But is it really such a big deal? Motor racing has always been more complex than most sports because at its heart exists a conflict between the desires of an individual, driven by selfish competitive instincts, and the needs of a team. And every now and then the old headache flares up.

The look on Bottas’s ashen face said everything about why this was so “difficult”. We’ve seen that expression before in racing drivers. It’s the look of a man who knows he’s no longer an equal in his team, that life might never be the same again. As it was for others before him, this might be a sad turning point in the career of Valtteri Bottas.

But that’s life in motor racing when you team-mate is quicker than you.

On Sunday night, during a media grilling, Wolff rightly pointed out that context is important. Team orders in motor racing will always be with us. But as history shows, there is a time and a place for everything.

1. German GP 2010: unsubtle code

“Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?” Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley needn’t have worried. The whole world knew what he meant when he made his thinly coded call to Felipe Massa at Hockenheim in July 2010.

The context here was as early as this mid-season point, Alonso was the Ferrari driver best placed to contest a title in a tight fight involving both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber of Red Bull and the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. He desperately needed those points.

The problem was in 2010 team orders were banned, under strict orders of the FIA. Hence the clumsy code: Massa wasn’t actually told to move over, but the insinuation of what was expected of him was clear.

Alonso kept his subsequent race victory and the FIA slapped Ferrari with $100,000 fine. But most significantly, the incident led directly to the team orders ban being overturned: an admission that not only was it tough to police, more importantly it was ingrained in the DNA of the sport.

2. Austrian GP 2002: blinkered view

An unforgettable day, and for men like Toto Wolff the prime example of how not to handle a tricky team orders conundrum.

There were a few things that really stuck in the craw.

Firstly, it was only the sixth race of the season. Yes, Michael Schumacher had shown his superiority once again over Rubens Barrichello (and everyone else, for that matter) by winning four of the first five races. His third consecutive title was already – barring injury – almost a foregone conclusion.

Yet on this day, Barrichello had Michael soundly beaten. Like Bottas, he’d earned the right to win. But the difference was the team needs for the drivers’ title were nowhere near as critical, not at this early stage.

Just to rub salt, Jean Todt made the call right at the death. Barrichello slowed to a crawl out of the final turn and let Schumacher pass right on the line – and the world felt mugged. What was the point of what we had just watched?

Afterwards, Todt dug his heels in. His refusal to acknowledge how badly he’d managed the call, his blinkered view that only what was best for Ferrari mattered, and his failure to recognise that this was actually detrimental to his famous team’s reputation anyway, forever characterised his indoctrinated approach to team management.

This one was cynical, ugly and an insult to the sport.

3. Australian GP 1998: bigger picture missed

Another bungled team orders call – this time at the very first race of the season!

In the case of McLaren duo David Coulthard and Mika Häkkinen, there is some justifiable context… perhaps. In their (over)eagerness to play fair, the drivers had agreed between them that, having locked out the front row in qualifying, whoever led into the first corner should win the race, if possible.

Häkkinen duly led – until mishearing a radio call to pit and handing the lead to Coulthard. Ron Dennis cried conspiracy, claiming that McLaren’s radio transmissions had been hacked… but the more prosaic truth was more likely that Mika just cocked up.

The call was made to swap places, and honourable Coulthard – mindful of his first-corner agreement – obliged. That he did so on the main straight in front of a packed grandstand set off a fire of fury, the embers of which still smouldered in Austria four years later.

A prime example of Dennis-era McLaren tying itself in knots – and completely missing the bigger picture of how it looked to the outside world – in its desire to uphold the virtues of equality.

4. Italian GP 1956: deferential treatment

The ultimate sacrifice – and an example, to a modern audience at least, that makes even Austria 2002 appear mild in its collusion.

At Monza, Juan Manuel Fangio was out and his fourth world championship seemingly lost. Then Ferrari team-mate Peter Collins pitted, put his own title aspirations to one side, graciously stepped from his cockpit and allowed a grateful Maestro to drive away in his car. No wonder Fangio never forgot it.

It was far from unknown back then, and entirely legal, for drivers to defer to team leaders in such fashion. But even so, in the circumstances it was still remarkable. But these were different times, when motor racing really was just a sport – and one for gentlemen. Such was his respect for Fangio, Collins never questioned it.

Team orders always leave a bad taste. But in the context of what has come before, Wolff’s ‘crime’ really shouldn’t be overplayed.

Photography courtesy of Motorsport Images.