Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost says he’s somewhat against the use of team orders, but says banning them is a pointless exercise as they’ve always existed within the sport, even when they weren’t allowed under the sporting regulations.
“Generally I am not a great fan of team orders, because we want to see battles and overtaking manoeuvres,” he told SpeedWeek.
“Therefore, we keep it to an absolute minimum at Toro Rosso.”
The debate over whether team orders should be used so blatantly at such an early point in the season has reignited after Sebastian Vettel ignored his team’s demand to stay behind Mark Webber in Malaysia.
The Italian doesn’t believe re-banning their use would change anything.
“Team orders have always been there in some form [even when they were banned], so it’s pointless to ban them again,” he added.
Meanwhile, he confirmed Toro Rosso would bring a new exhaust layout, rear-wing and chassis modifications to the Chinese Grand Prix in a bid to get on top of their performance woes after Daniel Ricciardo admitted to be underwhelmed by the STR8.
