8 Times Team Orders Rocked The F1 World

This is undoubtedly the most famous case of team orders in F1’s history, after Rubens Barrichello was asked to move over and gift victory to his Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher on the run to the finish line in Austria.

It wasn’t even done in a subtle manner and was met with a hugely negative response from fans, as you would expect. The whole situation seemed pretty pointless too because Schumacher was dominating the championship and could have easily afforded to lose those extra few points. It caused team orders to be banned at the end of the season.

Despite this team orders ban, the rules continued to be broken and due to these struggles, it was lifted in 2011, helped by this well-known example at the 2010 German Grand Prix. Again involving Ferrari, Felipe Massa was told to let his team-mate (and title contender) Fernando Alonso through via the message: “Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?”

That radio message has now become one of the most iconic phrases in recent F1 history (just behind Kimi Raikkonen’s “leave me alone, I know what I’m doing”). After being let through Alonso went on to win the race, a crucial result in such a close championship fight and season as a whole. But Ferrari were fined $100,000 for the team order rules breach.

3. Nelson Piquet Jr. – Singapore 2008

When it comes to team orders, this example takes things to new levels. We didn’t even know about the instructions from Renault to Nelson Piquet Jr. telling him to crash on purpose during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix until the following year, when Piquet spilled the beans.

Renault had struggled to match its previous success and had just one podium to its name heading to Singapore. Piquet crashed just after team-mate Alonso had pitted, which - thanks to a safety car period - elevated the Spaniard into the lead and on to victory. The revelations sparked one of the series’ biggest ever controversies, dubbed ‘Crashgate’.

McLaren entered the 1998 season with high hopes and the car proved to be competitive from the very start. But at the first round in Australia, the nasty topic of team orders reared its head when David Coulthard was instructed to let team-mate Mika Hakkinen (who had started from pole and led the race until an unscheduled pitstop dropped him back) into the lead with just a few laps to go.

5. “Multi 21, Seb” – Malaysia 2013

This race actually featured two separate sets of team orders being used, one that was ignored (Red Bull Racing) and one that was followed (Mercedes). We all know the “Multi 21” phrase Mark Webber said to Sebastian Vettel before the podium.

With Webber out front and Vettel in second, Red Bull had told their drivers to just get the cars home but Vettel ignored that call, overtook Webber and won. Meanwhile Nico Rosberg was quicker than third placed Lewis Hamilton and asked to attack, but both were told to stay in their positions and finish – which is exactly what happened.

6. Prost vs Arnoux – France 1982

The 1982 French Grand Prix was a Renault 1-2 on home soil but it was a rather sour result for the team. A pre-race team order stated that if Rene Arnoux was ahead of Alain Prost, he’d have to aid Prost’s title challenge and let him ahead. This didn’t happen and Arnoux went on to take quite a clear victory, losing Prost three points.

Carlos Reutemann and Alan Jones’ relationship at Williams took a turn for the worse at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1981. Reutemann was told several times via his pit board (the pre-radio version for “Fernando is faster than you”) to let Jones, who was number one at Williams, through to take the victory but he refused and went on to finish first. Jones was so angry he didn’t even show up at the podium.

8. Hill vs Schumacher – Spa 1998

The first corner incident at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix and collision between Schumacher and Coulthard opened the door for Jordan to take over the lead of the race, with Damon Hill ahead of Ralf Schumacher.

But Ralf was quicker than Hill and catching fast. Initially Hill was told to let him through but he refused, saying they’d race for the position. Jordan eventually had to issue team orders and get the cars home in the order they were in, with Hill winning from Ralf Schumacher.