Fernado Alonso's Second Win with a Star

By star, I mean the asterisk (*).  On Sunday, he won the 2010 Formula 1 German Grand Prix following orders given to his team mate, Felipe Massa, by Ferrari team management, to allow Alonso to pass.  Well, Ferrari wasn't as bold as that.  The message was: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?" The message was delivered by Massa's race engineer Rob Smedley but was ordered by team boss Stefano Domenicali.  Earlier in the race, Alonso, who has been developing quite a reputation as a whiner, called over the radio to his engineer "This is ridiculous" as he followed Massa closely but was unable to pass.  Shortly thereafter, Massa pulled an additional three second lead over Alonso, but wasn't able to maintain it.

A minute or so after Massa got the message, he slowed coming out of the hairpin and Alonso passed to take the win. 

Ferrari claimed that it did not tell Massa to let Alonso pass but simply advised him that Alonso was faster that he was.  Of course, Massa's Ferrari has rearview mirrors and he can see Alonso behind him.  He can ask his engineer, Smedley, for the gap and certainly Rob Smedley was providing that information over the radio.

So we have cause and effect: Ferrari calls Massa over the radio and says "Alonso is faster" and also demands that he acknowledge the message. The effect is that Massa slows and allows Alonso to pass.  Smedley gets on the radio again and says "Good lad" as if he's rewarding his dog for pooping outside!

Ferrari have a lot of history with team orders.  When Michael Schumacher was their acknowledged number 1 driver, they issued team orders to his teammate on a regular basis.  In Austria, in 2001, they ordered a swap between the 2nd and 3rd position, with David Coulthard's McLaren leading the race.  In 2002, with Michael Schumacher having a decisive lead in the World Championship points race, they ordered to Rubens Barrichello to let Michael past.  On the last corner of the last lap, Barrichello braked dramatically and let his teammate past.

The FIA, which governs the sport, passed a rule banning team orders as a result of that blatant change in the race result.

The other * for Fernando's win column is, of course, another team order.  This one was arranged in secret, with the radio message simply telling Alonso's teammate Nelson Piquet Jr when to stage a crash that would bring out the Safety Car.  Since they knew when and where the crash would be, the Renault team ensured that Alonso had the optimum fuel and tire strategy to win.  Which he did.  To be fair, Alonso claims he didn't know about the conspiracy to fix the race results with a staged crash and I believe him.  On the other hand, had he known, I also believe that he would have approved.  After all, with Alonso, it's "...me, only me."

Ferrari has been fined $100,000 as a result of the team orders and has been referred to the World Motor Sports Council for violation of two rules.  One is specifically about team orders.  The other, potentially much more serious, is Article 151c, Bringing the sport into disrepute.