Citroen and Ford Agree against Team Tactics in Turkey

Gentleman's agreements are not something unusual in the sport of car racing, as it has been seldom the case for teams and drivers to have private agreements on racing fairly even though the rulebook would allow them to do otherwise. Such is the case of the World Rally Championship, whose front-running outfits Citroen and Ford agreed on not using team tactics during this weekend's Rally Turkey.

Following a messy Rally Jordan, in which each of the two teams used their lower-placed drivers to clear the road for the event's favorites (Sebastian Loeb and Jari-Matti Latvala) on Day 3, the Rally Turkey stewards have warned Citroen and Ford against team tactics.

“The attention of all competitors is drawn to the provisions of Art. 151(c) of the ISC (International Sporting Code), Breach of Rules: 'any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally'. Please be advised that the stewards at their sole discretion will investigate any activity during the competition that they consider falls into this category. The stewards have supreme and sole authority to decide what penalty to enforce,” said a statement from the Rally Turkey organizers.

However, it seems that such a statement was not necessary, as both teams acknowledged the effect team orders can have on the image of the sport and decided not to use it anymore.

“It seems it's very complicated to change the rule, but with Malcolm (Wilson, Ford team director) we decide not to check in advance. We made a gentleman's agreement with Malcolm that we will never check in advance as we did in Jordan,” said Citroen's boss Olivier Quesnel in an interview with Autosport.