• FIA news

Coded team orders will not be tolerated - Todt

Jean Todt: "We will not tolerate lies or coded messages like 'Save fuel'." © Sutton Images

Enlarge

Team orders will be "regulated" rather than allowed in Formula One, FIA president Jean Todt has revealed.

"Personally, I'm not against team orders, but I am against lying," Todt was quoted as saying in interviews this week. The issue has been back on the agenda ever since this year's German Grand Prix, when Ferrari issued the message "Fernando is faster than you" to Felipe Massa before he slowed and let team-mate Fernando Alonso past to win the race.

Todt said covert team orders "deceive the audience and the media" and subsequently require teams and drivers to lie afterwards.

"Team orders have been banned since 2002, but I ask myself how many have been issued in a 'soft' way," he added in an interview with La Stampa. "The difference with that and what Ferrari did is that it was anything but soft. It was a provocation against the regulations."

But when asked if the FIA will react to the latest affair by simply abolishing the rule, he answered: "It will be regulated. F1 is a team sport and each team will have responsibility for their behaviour. We will not tolerate lies or coded messages like 'Save fuel'."

In his previous role as Ferrari team principal, Todt was at the centre of the row over team orders that led to the ban in 2002. At the Austrian Grand Prix the same year, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello was specifically told to let team-mate Michael Schumacher through.

"I shouldn't have had to say anything," Todt said this week. "We had agreed beforehand that if he [Barrichello] is in front after the pitstop, he was to let Schumacher pass without making a fuss. It was agreed, and drivers are paid to accept certain decisions. But he made me call him 50 times and he moved at the last corner - the audience booed, Schumacher gave him first place on the podium and Ferrari was fined $500,000 for violating protocol."

Asked if he regrets the affair, he admitted: "Yes, because with hindsight it could have been avoided. Schumacher would have won the championship anyway. But I would have regretted even more if we had lost the title by a couple of points."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.