McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, believes the outcome of the WMSC meeting on Wednesday has added more confusion to the team orders rule, rather than clarifying it.
The FIA took the decision not to further punish Ferrari for their use of team orders during the German GP. The Italian outfit got away with a relatively small £65,000 ($100,000) fine.
However, Whitmarsh believes the decision to not punish the team further suggests Ferrari weren’t guilty, but the decision to uphold the fine, suggests the opposite – therefore the FIA has confused the matter and set a precedent whereby teams can simply pay a small fine in order to implement team orders.
“We don’t have clarity – if anything it’s more muddy,” he told the BBC. “They [Ferrari] are either guilty and should be given a penalty, or they’re not guilty and should be given back the fine they received.
“Superficially it doesn’t seem as logical a ruling as one would have expected but it has no impact on anything I’m going to do this weekend.”
The FIA will review the rule over the coming weeks, a decision which has the backing of several teams and drivers who believe the rule should be scrapped completely or enforced in a much stricter and defined way.
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