Christian Horner believes Ferrari’s use of team-orders in the German GP are some of the clearest he’s heard since Austria 2002.
The Italian outfit looks set for a media and fan backlash as they blatantly fixed the result when Felipe Massa’s race engineer, Rob Smedley, told the Brazilian that he was slower than Alonso.
“Alonso is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message?” Smedley said over the radio in a dull tone.
He then apologised to his driver after the switch had taken place: “OK mate, good lad. Stay with him now. Sorry.”
Horner reckons that apology from Smedley makes it all the more clearer that it was in fact a team order that led to the switch on lap 49, a switch which was clearly planned as Massa slowed into the hairpin easily allowing his team-mate through.
“I have to say, that was probably the clearest team order I’ve ever seen, especially when you’ve got the team apologising to a driver,” Horner told the BBC.
“It will be interesting to see what the stewards make of it, because it was as clear as 2002, which was why the regulation was brought in,” he added. “The regulations are pretty clear that team orders aren’t allowed and it looked like a team order.”
