Formula 1 has been hit once again with the controversy of Team Orders. Team Orders can be defined as team dictating the outcome of it’s two players. Mainly this situation arises when team favors one drive over another. This has been a controversial topic in motor sport for long time and change of regulation has a lot to do with how it can be perceived. In earlier days of F1, a specific leader of team was chosen and even if he can problem with his car, he could use his teammates during the race. But those times are gone and now sporting rules do not allow to dictate the results.

The bigger question then arises is – Formula 1 is a team sport or not? Lets see how the teams are designed. Both drivers have separate car, with moderate modifications done for each driver as per his driving style, physical conditions and other factors. Both drivers have separate team of engineers working on respective cars, that makes it more like individual sport. On other side, funds for a team are handled from one team, almost all of the technology is developed for both drivers and data is completely shared between both, this makes it a team sport.

If we consider F1 as team sport, then team has right to dictate the result. It would be similar to Cycling where complete team tries to win the race for the leader. Here unlike other team sport such as football and cricket, the team leader is considered a winner and not the team. World knows about Lance Armstrong as winner, but very few know about which team helped him win the title.

But the difference is a team leader is selected in the beginning and everyone knows what they are getting into and what are their duties. Unlike in Formula1 where no one driver is selected as leader and that is why I believe F1 should be considered an individual sport. No one should be robbed of the victory one deserves. But this is not the end of story, every team order situation should be considered individually.

For example the Austrian GP 2002 when Schumacher was asked to take lead off Barichello was not a fair move. Point being, Barichello was fast in practice, qualifying and race as well. That time to ask him to give his position away was unfair. But during yesterday’s race where Alonso was allegedly given chance to overtake Massa is totally different. Massa could never match the pace of Alonso is the race and that could have resulted in few situations. One being where Vettel would have come close to Alonso and started pressuring him, that could have resulted in something lesser then Ferrari 1-2 which is not favorable. Second situations is where Alonso and Massa could have collided trying to fend each other and could have resulted in zero points. The same situation arose few weeks back where it resulted in collision between Vettel and Webber. To Ferrari’s defense, they would never want to have a repeat situation of such and asked Massa to back off for the greater good of team (no pun or double meaning intended).

This situation barely justifies the move and it might yield in punishment or not, all depends on WMSC, which is handling this matter.  This time WMSC should not only resolve this matter, but also come up with strict guidelines to protect individual’s rights. They should specifically have scenarios where similar conflicts in team can be resolved.

As a F1 fan, we do not want any more scandals in this sports. Already for last few years we had too much politics, race fixing, espionage etc and this season seems to be shaping up well keeping everything behind.