“Finally, we have said goodbye to this pointless hypocrisy,” said Domenicali to the waiting microphones of several TV companies that greeted him at the end of the “Meetings with Gazzetta dello Sport,” which he has been part of last weekend, at the Bologna Motorshow.
“For us, Formula 1 is a team sport and we have always maintained that viewpoint and it should be treated as such. The regulations already include points that prevent certain situations being managed in an extreme manner. The decision taken yesterday is very important,” he added.
Ferrari and team orders ban go hand in hand (at least if we are to refer to the last decade of F1 racing). It was a Ferrari team ban back in the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix that pushed FIA president at the time, Max Mosley, to ban team tactics from the series. Eight years later, during this season's German Grand Prix, it happened again, also with Ferrari in the center of the discussions.
Fernando Alonso won the race by suspiciously overtaking Felipe Massa some laps before the finish line, causing the race stewards to issue a $100,000 fine for Ferrari. The Scuderia was also summoned to appear before the World Motor Sport Council to explain its actions, but was not handed any further penalties in the process.
According to the new FIA rulebook, team orders will be permitted from now on, but actions that are detrimental to the image of the sport will be punished. However, the FIA did not bring any more clarification on what exactly those actions might be.
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