Ecclestone, Schumacher Defend Ferrari's Tactics

Bernie Ecclestone believes any team boss should run his business inside the Formula One championship as he pleases. Period. In the wake of the latest controversy in F1 – every race seems to be accompanied by one lately – surrounding the team orders issued by Ferrari in the late stages of the German GP, the F1 supremo doesn't seem too worried about the whole saga.

Although avoiding to give a fully-detailed view on the Germany happenings – in the case of a World Motor Sport Council meeting analyzing the events, he'd have a veto right – Ecclestone insisted that each team should play the game as they think is best. Additionally, he hinted that article 39.1 of the FIA's sporting regulations, the one that Ferrari seems to have breached, should be scrapped in the near future.

“I believe what people do when they are inside the team, and how they run their team is up to them. That's my opinion. As far as I'm concerned a team is a team, and they should run it whichever way they want to run it. Nobody should interfere as to how they run their team,” said Ecclestone after the German GP.

Ecclestone admitted though that the teams can't do everything they want in F1, as their actions should not be detrimental to the sport or dangerous to the other squads.

“But of course if they do something that's dangerous then obviously they're going to be in trouble, otherwise get on with it,” added Ecclestone. When asked about a potential proposal to scrap the aforementioned article from the FIA rulebook, the Englishman revealed: “I must confess I would agree with anyone who thinks that.”

Once again, Ecclestone's and Michael Schumacher's opinions go hand in hand, as the 41-year old German also supported Ferrari's tactics in the German GP. Known as a man who practically reinvented team orders at Maranello – along with current FIA president Jean Todt – Schumacher insisted it's the team who comes first, and only after the driver.

“I have to say I understand 100% and I would do exactly the same if I were in their situation. Because at the end of the day, what are we here for? It's fighting for a Championship and there's only one who can win it. By the end of the year if you lose the championship for exactly that point you will ask yourself, not only yourself, but all the fans and the journalists and so on, why didn't you do so?” said Schumacher in an interview with the BBC.

“If you go back to other years, other teams and other situations, in the last race (of a season) for example, there were clear team orders, and everybody accepts those. But whether it's the last race, second last race or even earlier, what's the point? I can see in the years when we did it, because we were leading so much, people thought it was unnecessary, and I can agree on that in a way, but in principal I cannot.”